Do the Dead Own You?
Thomas Jefferson said the earth belongs to the living. Edmund Burke said society is a partnership with the dead. Neither side won, and the argument was too large for pamphlets, so it went into fiction.
What came out was the Gothic: the ruined abbey, the cursed bloodline, the house that will not let its owners go. Six weeks tracing it from a Roman letter about a house nobody would rent to Mary Shelley, Poe, Hawthorne, and a Netflix series that finally proposes an answer.
Six Wednesdays
October 7–November 11
5:30–7:00 p.m. PT
Live on Zoom, with recordings included
Lecture + Discussion
30 minutes of instruction followed by 60 minutes of guided conversation
THE COURSE EXPERIENCE
A Whole Tradition in Six Weeks
You do the essential reading. I bring the larger tradition into the room—connecting more than two thousand years of stories, ideas, criticism, and modern television.
WHAT YOU’LL READ AND WATCH
≈ 200
pages across six weeks
10
episodes of one Netflix show
A Focused, Manageable Syllabus
Pliny, Letters 7.27 ≈ 2 pages
Burke excerpt
+ three works by Poe ≈ 30 pages
Walpole,
The Castle of Otranto ≈ 115 pages
Coleridge, “Christabel”
and “The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner” ≈ 35–45 pages
Hawthorne excerpt
and Jefferson’s letter ≈ 25 pages
Flanagan, The Haunting of Hill House
10 episodes
Only one novella is assigned. Everything else is a story, poem, letter, excerpt, or television episode. Around 200 pages total reading
WHAT YOUR INSTRUCTOR SYNTHESIZES
20+
additional primary works
2000+
years of literary history
The larger Gothic tradition brought to you
Ancient and medieval
Homer’s Odyssey, Aeschylus’s Eumenides, and Grettis saga
The Gothic emerges
Radcliffe, Lewis, Austen, Shelley, Godwin, Burke, and Paine
The Haunted Self
Wuthering Heights, The Turn of the Screw, Jekyll and Hyde, Rebecca, Middlemarch, and Shirley Jackson’s Hill House
Gothicism now
Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher
The ideas beneath it
Radcliffe, Blackstone, Coleridge, Christopher Baldick, W. J. T. Mitchell, and more
These are not additional assignments. They are the sources used to illuminate, connect, and explain what you read.
Your commitment: roughly 200 pages and one 10-episode series.
What you receive: a guided understanding of the Gothic tradition as a whole.
Your Instructor
Kirk Barbera is a literary educator, media producer, and the founder of Troubadour Studio. He has led readers through Homer, Greek tragedy, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, and Melville, and now brings that same depth of engagement to the genre of Gothicism.
-
Founder of the Literary Canon Club, established 2020
-
Author of a modern verse translation of Homer’s Iliad
-
Board Member and Actor, Austin Shakespeare
-
Founder of Troubadour Studio, including the Troubadour YouTube education channel and Troubadour Reacts!
-
16 years teaching, lecturing, and leading in-person and online discussions on literature, drama, poetry, mythology, film, and the Western canon
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
"I got so much more out of this reading than I did the last time I read the book."
— Mary
"I've read two 500-page books in the past few months."
— DK
Marco Romero
Real Estate Investor
It has been a thrilling journey to read through the Western Canon. As part of the Literary Canon Club, I have the encouragement to read classics that I have always known about and highly interested in — even some I didn't know about. It is especially insightful to discuss our reading experience as a group and share what we've learned.
Ann Ciccolella
Artistic Director, Austin Shakespeare
In a world where literature is not easily accessible, the LCC makes it easy to open a treasure chest of valuable artistry. The group is welcoming and Kirk is knowledgeable and inviting. If you have not sampled the Literary Canon Club, have a taste!
Molly Johnson
Is this a "great books" club — or a GREAT books club?
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to have read any Gothic literature?
No. Several people in the room won't have. You need curiosity and a willingness to say what you actually think.
How much reading is it, really?
About 35 pages a week. One short novel, and the rest is stories, poems, letters, and excerpts.
What if I miss a session?
Every session is recorded and yours to keep.
Do I need Netflix?
No, The Haunting of Hill house is a Netflix original, but you can purchase the entire 10 episode show on Amazon streaming.
Is this an academic course?
No. Thirty minutes of instruction, then an hour of conversation. You're expected to talk, not take notes.
No plans available
Once there are plans available for purchase, you'll see them here.
No plans available
Once there are plans available for purchase, you'll see them here.
