Course Reflection

Over the span of this course, a lot of time and focus have gone into creating a portfolio which is an accurate reflection of both things learned in the class and skills and interests brought in from elsewhere.  This was my first time creating a portfolio of any sort, so while I understood what the individual components were to be, I had difficulty when it came to understanding or describing the common purpose of the components.  It wasn't until relatively late in the year that this concept clicked for me, and realized that my writings and ruminatings for the course had been on a common thread all along.
What had fascinated me at the beginning of the semester was that a genre with what seemed to be such narrow boundaries could encompass such a wide variety of works.  If the Wordle we had created in class was an accurate depiction of the genre (and I think it was), then there were surprisingly few themes and types of imagery that occurred in Victorian Gothic literature.  I began to try to see how the works we were reading fit into the Gothic genre; it was almost like a puzzle, trying to figure out where they fit.  Much of what I wrote for class and contributed to discussions was focused on figuring out where the boundaries of the genre lay, and what factors influenced this.
I have tried to focus my portfolio on the emergence of the Victorian Gothic genre, including its roots and influences in both Gothic and Realist literature, and the evolution of the genre over the course of the Victorian age.  This focus is reflected in some of the design choices I made for the blog, especially my decision to include a number of subtitled pictures, as a way to provide quick and interesting doses of historical context for readers.  This focus also ties in with my passion for history, and allowed me to better my ability to understand literature in the context of the time in which it was created.  Creating this portfolio has forced me to recognize and organize patterns of thought within my writing, and create a cohesive theme for my portfolio.