About the lecture

In this module, we think about The Little Stranger as a haunted house narrative, focusing in particular on: (i) what Hundreds Hall is actually haunted by – if anything; (ii) the gothic genre and the idea of the decoy narrative, i.e. telling one story as a way of avoiding another; (iii) the conventions of the ghost story, especially the figure of the narrator, and the ways in which Dr Faraday conforms to and subverts these conventions; and (iv) the concept of the uncanny – popularised by Freud in his 1919 essay, ‘Das Unheimliche’ – and the importance of the home in the novel.

About the lecturer

Lucie Armitt is a Professor in Contemporary English Literature at the University of Lincoln. She is a specialist in the fields of contemporary women’s writing, the literary fantastic and the Gothic. She is an Associate Editor of the award-winning OUP journal Contemporary Women’s Writing and founding Treasurer of the Contemporary Women’s Writing Association.