Seminar 3. The Ghost as a Trope of Trauma: Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw” vs John Harding's "Florence and Giles"
1. Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw”: critical reception
- Apparationists vs skeptics
- Psychoanalytical interpretations
- Structural and Post-Structural approaches
2. Victorian Gothic imagery in John Harwood’s “Florence and Giles”
- What key changes does Harwood introduce into original plot? What are the reasons for them? What functions do allusions to Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw” preserve in the derivative text?
- What is the metaphorical meaning of the Governess’s ghost Florence keeps seeing? What traumas may it represent?
- Can Florence be treated as a reliable narrator? How does she manage to win the reader’s trust? How many narrative layers are there in the story?
3. Postmodern reevaluation of Victorian metanarrative in John Harwood’s “Florence and Giles”
- Which Victorian values are being reevaluated in the derivative text, in what way (destruction, deconstruction or reconstruction) and why?