I did my Gothic Literature Space presentation on the Bran Castle, located in Romania. My role for this presentation was to bring and introduce the historical background of Romania and the Bran Castle itself. I enjoyed this role because I got to learn a bit more about the host country and the castle than I didn’t know before. For example, that the castle was was given as a “fief” by Sigismund of Luxembourg to his ally, Prince Mircea, the Elder of Wallachia (Bran Castle). A fief is a type of property given in return for loyalty. The reason why Sigismund did this was because, in case of an attack by the Turks, he would have somewhere to escape to (the castle) for a place of safety and security. Without playing my particular role in this presentation I wouldn’t have known that. As for my group members, everyone contributed to the project and presentation how they were supposed to. We made a group chat and continuously communicated through there without trouble. Sometimes I felt like either my own slides or the slides of others didn’t have enough content but after analyzing the content, you realize it is. It’s about quality over quantity. I have a difficult time realizing that over my own work at times. The most challenging part of this project is knowing exactly what the professor wants. Collectively, it was agreed that if felt like we were asked for a bit too much. For example the speaker notes. I was never told to utilize the speaker notes for any other course or project until this own. I understand the role of it and how it help future students but there was more of focus on getting content in the speaker notes than the slides themselves. The most rewarding part was to see the other projects that my peers created. I found their slides and topics interesting and it was interesting to see how they connected everything back to gothic literature. Overall I enjoyed this project a lot.

Angel Oquendo

Professor Kwong

ENG 3407

11.14.2019

Today we finished up our presentations for Gothic Literature and Visuals in class and my group made up of Ayshe, Angel, Fareema, Janiya were chosen to report on a real life Gothic space. We did some research and decided on doing our research on Bran Castle located in Romania. We split up the tasks/slides and I chose to research the architecture design of the castle and how it relates to the Gothic and how the decor and “props” from inside the castle and how they relate to the Gothic. I spoke about the types of towers the castle has and how the size and location of the castle gives off sublime feelings and an overall creepiness to anyone seeing this castle in real life. Also doing the inside / “props” of the castle, I spoke about  the decor being beautiful and it being centuries old and at first glance things seem normal and beautiful but upon further inspection it tells a different and darker story. The paintings in the castle of Vlad the Impaler, a warrior known for being incredibly cruel and sadistic to anyone and everyone, paintings of the hung and tortured, and creepy yet fitting animal skin rugs in various rooms of the castle. Almost forgot to mention the torture chambers in the castle, full with wooden torture devices. Doing this presentation and the research leading to it, it taught me that projects do not really need much in-person discussions and can be easily done through group chats and collaborative slide programs.