{"id":1530,"date":"2023-10-28T16:23:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T20:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journeywithadestination.com\/blog\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2023-11-04T19:24:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T23:24:22","slug":"free-8th-grade-literature-curriculum-journey-into-horror-and-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeywithadestination.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/28\/free-8th-grade-literature-curriculum-journey-into-horror-and-romance\/","title":{"rendered":"Free 8th Grade Literature Curriculum: Journey Into Horror and Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u2190 Previous Grade<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Literature Overview<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Journey Into Horror and Romance is the 8th grade entry of our<\/em> Journey Into Literature series, which is a free curriculum that offers everything you need for a complete year of world-class literature studies. Primarily focusing on the genres of horror and romance,<\/em> Journey Into Horror and Romance is intended for use by advanced 8th graders, while also being suitable for 9th or even 10th grade studies.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expand Your Student’s Literary Horizons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As with other entries in our Journey Into Literature<\/a><\/em> series, Journey Into Horror and Romance<\/em> takes students on a deep dive into a subset of the world’s most influential literature: in this case, the genres of horror and romance. Throughout the more than 2,000 pages that comprise Journey Into Horror and Romance<\/em>, students will read stories of charming courtships, mysterious castles, aggrieved ghosts, deadly vampires, star-crossed lovers, mad scientists, tragic couples, and insanity-inducing cosmic horrors. These stories will guide your child into a sophisticated understanding of the core principles that define the horror and romance genres, as well as their various subgenres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covering Long-Neglected Subgenres<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of the primary goals of the Journey Into Literature<\/a><\/em> series is to help students explore the full breadth of literature – including genres and subgenres that are largely ignored by most educators. While it’s fairly common for literature curricula to cover works of gothic horror, such as Dracula<\/em> or Frankenstein<\/em>, it’s much rarer for them to treat works of cosmic horror, such as An Inhabitant of Carcosa<\/em> or The Call of Cthulhu<\/em>, with a similar level of respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, traditional works of romance have become largely frowned upon by schools. To the extent that educators actually assign romance books for reading, they tend to focus on novels that might best be understood as repudiations of the romance genre, such as Wuthering Heights<\/em>, or on more modern works that celebrate divisive ideals. Jane Austin, despite being one of the most impactful writers in history, is generally looked upon with disdain. We take a very different approach to the representation of romance: the works we’ve included are generally much more sincere (or, at the very least, more emotionally healthy), and we prominently feature Jane Austin’s novel Persuasion<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Horror and Romance: A Perfect Match<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The genres of horror and romance are far more closely intertwined than one might at first assume, and it’s common to find elements of both within the same work. Several of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known stories and poems seamlessly blend the two genres, vampire stories like Dracula<\/em> generate much of their tension from the corruption of romantic love, and works of romantic tragedy like Romeo and Juliet<\/em> lean heavily into elements of mundane horror. One of history’s most important and sadly neglected works of literature, The Mysteries of Udolpho<\/em>, is a romance novel that played a significant role in influencing the development of gothic horror – while also being a primary topic of satire in Jane Austin’s novel Northanger Abbey<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By teaching both horror and romance together, we’re able to call attention to these connections in a way that simply isn’t possible in most curricula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s Not All Doom and Gloom!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We believe it’s always important to balance negative emotions (such as those expressed in most horror works) with positive emotions, and we’ve taken care to include a healthy dose of levity within Journey Into Horror and Romance<\/em>. Most of the romance stories included in this curriculum have happy endings, and they include comedic works like The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em> and Much Ado About Nothing<\/em>. Beyond this, we’ve included The Canterville Ghost<\/em> by Oscar Wilde. We won’t spoil the story, except to say that not every ghost tale is meant to be frightening…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Busywork<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Journey Into Literature<\/a><\/em> curriculum is designed to respect your time and your child’s time. Unlike traditional textbooks, we don’t add unnecessary discussion questions that break the flow of reading, or assign tedious projects that take excessive amounts of time while offering little academic value. Like any good teacher, we offer as much guidance as necessary, and then move out of the way. The vast majority of your child’s time with this curriculum will be spent reading literature – as it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Early Access Release<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is an early access release. It collects all the literary works your child needs for a full year of literature, but does not yet include the extensive annotations, background information, and additional reading suggestions<\/strong> that we normally include in our Journey Into Literature<\/em> series. We are making this version available for free download due to the urgent need for better literature education resources, and will upload the annotated version upon completion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be sure to check back for future updates!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Only Use Works Appropriate for Young Minds<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We’ve gone to considerable lengths to ensure that the works included in this curriculum are appropriate for 8th grade audiences. In particular, we’ve avoided inclusion of any horror works with excessive violence, or romance works with anything explicit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worthwhile to note that some of the stories use words that had very different connotations compared to their modern meanings; this leads to some awkward situations where stories can sound less innocent to contemporary readers than they really are. In the final release, we’ll include footnotes to explain the original meanings. In the meantime, you might need to explain the meanings of these words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Contents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The following works are included in this curriculum:<\/p>\n\n\n\n