Our ideas of Gothic convention – castles, forests, darkness, wolves – arise from ideas about the ‘Gothic Lands’, the origin countries of the tribal Goths in northern and eastern Europe.
Use this in the classroom by asking students to identify Gothic conventions in texts like Great Expectations or The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and relate them to their knowledge of modern texts, films, and TV shows.
Gareth Davies, Senior English teacher at Coloma Convent Girls' School, shared this idea after a talk at a recent New Teacher Subject Day.
Schools Programme members can download the resources from the event in the PTI Staffroom.
Learn more about the geography of the Gothic on our upcoming online course. Find more Knowledge Nuggets here.