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Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson: Exploring a Gothic Campus Mystery
Shirley Jackson is rightly celebrated as a master of Gothic storytelling thanks to her most well-known novels such as The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). In recent years, however, her earlier novel Hangsaman (1951) has received new attention and critical appreciation from fans and scholars alike.
Far ahead of its time when it was published, Jackson’s deeply personal Hangsaman is many things: a psychological study of a young woman’s coming of age; a haunting Gothic mystery; a pointed critique of gender roles, family dynamics, and higher education; a meditation on trauma and mental illness; and an ancestor of today’s dark academia storytelling. Shirley Jackson drew inspiration from a variety of sources to craft this remarkable campus novel, from folk ballads and the Tarot, myth and ritual, to a real college campus and an unsolved New England cold case of a missing sophomore student.
In this module, we will unpack this gem of a Gothic story, following freshman Natalie Waite as she searches for her “essential self” and discussing why Hangsaman feels freshly relevant and important to many readers today.
The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:
Far ahead of its time when it was published, Jackson’s deeply personal Hangsaman is many things: a psychological study of a young woman’s coming of age; a haunting Gothic mystery; a pointed critique of gender roles, family dynamics, and higher education; a meditation on trauma and mental illness; and an ancestor of today’s dark academia storytelling. Shirley Jackson drew inspiration from a variety of sources to craft this remarkable campus novel, from folk ballads and the Tarot, myth and ritual, to a real college campus and an unsolved New England cold case of a missing sophomore student.
In this module, we will unpack this gem of a Gothic story, following freshman Natalie Waite as she searches for her “essential self” and discussing why Hangsaman feels freshly relevant and important to many readers today.
The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:
| Outline | 8-Session Structure |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Lecture 1: Shirley Jackson and the Gothic |
| Discussion 1: Part 1 of Hangsaman | |
| Week 2 | Lecture 2: Dark Academia and the Missing Student |
| Discussion 2: Part 2 of Hangsaman | |
| Week 3 | Lecture 3: Transformation and the "Essential Self" |
| Discussion 3: Part 3 of Hangsaman | |
| Week 4 | Lecture 4: The Influence and Legacy of Hangsaman |
| Discussion 4: Themes and Takeaways |
Precepted by
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis
Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh: Discovering a Turning Point in Crime Fiction
Last Seen Wearing (1952) by Hillary Waugh is hailed by genre scholars as the first acclaimed “police procedural” novel, a pioneering work of crime fiction that shifted the focus from the lone single detective to investigative team members and their process. Paving the way for modern police procedural novels – not to mention television phenomena such as Law and Order, CSI, Criminal Minds, and other series – is distinction enough, but Last Seen Wearing is also of literary interest for other reasons. The novel uses a real-life true crime case as a springboard for its fictional investigation, and, in its exploration of a missing student at an elite women’s college, it also builds on the tradition of the campus mystery, employs ingredients of the New England Gothic, and anticipates the rise of dark academia.
In this module we will consider how Last Seen Wearing serves as both a pioneering novel and a window into its moment in time. What does Last Seen Wearing tell us about the intersection of fiction and true crime? Gender and the Gothic? What has “aged well” in the story and what hasn’t, and what does this tell us about the evolution of mystery-related storytelling? And what can we learn about the blending and blurring of genres from this fictional solution to a real-life cold case?
The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:
In this module we will consider how Last Seen Wearing serves as both a pioneering novel and a window into its moment in time. What does Last Seen Wearing tell us about the intersection of fiction and true crime? Gender and the Gothic? What has “aged well” in the story and what hasn’t, and what does this tell us about the evolution of mystery-related storytelling? And what can we learn about the blending and blurring of genres from this fictional solution to a real-life cold case?
The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:
| Outline | 8-Session Structure |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Lecture 1: Crime Fiction and Its Evolution |
| Discussion 1: Part 1 of Last Seen Wearing | |
| Week 2 | Lecture 2: True Crime, Campus Mystery, and the Imagination |
| Discussion 2: Part 2 of Last Seen Wearing | |
| Week 3 | Lecture 3: The Police and the Process |
| Discussion 3: Part 3 of Last Seen Wearing | |
| Week 4 | Lecture 4: The Meaning and Legacy of Last Seen Wearing |
| Discussion 4: Themes and Takeaways |
Precepted by
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis
The Secret History by Donna Tartt: Unpacking the “Whydunit” Mystery
The Secret History, the 1992 debut novel of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donna Tartt, has its own secret history, including an origin story at an actual college campus and inspiration from a real-life missing person case. The celebrated novel opens with the murder of a Classics student by his eccentric and close-knit group of college friends. The tale then unfolds as an inverted mystery, a “whydunit” rather than a “whodunit,” a narrative that interrogates the nature of obsession, beauty, and education.
Featuring ingredients of the campus novel, the coming-of-age story, and the New England Gothic, The Secret History has long been hailed as a modern classic, and now it’s been rediscovered by a new generation of readers who consider it a foundational text of Dark Academia storytelling. Why does this mystery have such staying power? How does it serve as a turning point in genre history? And how do its haunting themes relate to us and our search for knowledge today? In this module we will explore the fictional Hampden College and peel back the literary layers of The Secret History.
The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:
Featuring ingredients of the campus novel, the coming-of-age story, and the New England Gothic, The Secret History has long been hailed as a modern classic, and now it’s been rediscovered by a new generation of readers who consider it a foundational text of Dark Academia storytelling. Why does this mystery have such staying power? How does it serve as a turning point in genre history? And how do its haunting themes relate to us and our search for knowledge today? In this module we will explore the fictional Hampden College and peel back the literary layers of The Secret History.
The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:
| Outline | 8-Session Structure |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Lecture 1: The Secret History as Memory |
| Discussion 1: Part 1 of The Secret History | |
| Week 2 | Lecture 2:The Secret History as Mystery |
| Discussion 2 Part 2 of The Secret History | |
| Week 3 | Lecture 3: The Secret History as Tragedy |
| Discussion 3: Part 3 of The Secret History | |
| Week 4 | Lecture 4:The Secret History as Influence |
| Discussion 4 Themes and Takeaways |
Precepted by
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis