This class will chiefly explore the texts and films of English and American authors and filmmakers that use Italy and Italian settings in a Gothic context. We will explore this genre as an outgrowth of English and American authors' romanticized impressions of Italy, it's people and landscape, and how it came to represent Persey Bysse Shelley's "Tempestuous loveliness of terror."

This material should provide us with ample fodder to discuss the geopolitical, psycho-sexual, racist, feminist/misogynist and homophobic (haemophobic?) implications of Anglo-American culture's habit of breeding its monsters in far-off lands.
We will also take a look at some Italian Gothic horror films to explore the backlash, if indeed there is any, to the Anglo-Gothic genre.