The eighteenth century is known as the Age of Enlightenment and Reason, but we will be looking at the darker side of this movement in our course. The focus will be on the eighteenth century’s fascination with terror and horror (and we will make distinctions between these terms), its cultivation of extreme sensibility, and its anxieties concerning gender and sexuality. The literary manifestation we will use to explore these themes is the Gothic novel. As critic David Punter notes the “fundamental term” of the Gothic is taboo and we will examine how Gothic writers both insist upon the necessity of and transgress prohibitions. Writers will include Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew “Monk” Lewis, and others.