Ghosts and monsters fill the pages of popular books and appear on our TV and movie screens. This course surveys the history of such creations and asks what we can learn from them. We will begin by exploring the origins of the Gothic genre. We’ll also familiarize ourselves with theories about the appeal or function of writing that confronts the horrific, the terrifying, or the overwhelming.

Readings include key works by authors like Walpole, Hoffmann, and Shelley. We’ll look at modern America with Stephen King’s Carrie. As we go, we’ll ask: How do literary works reflect cultural anxieties? How have writers explained fear and evil? Why do some genres have low status? Popular films (Rosemary’s Baby, Scream) serve as examples to help us practice interpretive skills.

Both sections taught by Paul Neimann. 

Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

Off

Explores literature in the Gothic mode and aesthetic and critical theories related to modern "horror" genres or their precursors. Introduces literary-critical concepts (such as notions of abjection, repression and anxiety) that developed alongside this branch of literature. Students read canonical works in British and American traditions while reflecting on notions of popular or marginalized literature.

Additional Information:Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

Off

Horror is “hot” right now. Prestige television programming such as The Walking Dead and True Detective, the popularity of writers such as Jeff VanderMeer and Thomas Ligotti, and academic interest in weird and new weird fiction attest to this fact. This course examines this current popularity by way of an historical investigation of the roots of the horror genre in the Gothic, its development in the ghost stories and weird fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and its current appropriation and subversion by contemporary writers of color. Horror, we discover, questions the world in which we live, the faculties through which we understand, and whether such concepts as the “human” or “knowledge” make any sense in the contemporary world, one characterized by an increasing incredulity to modern institutions such as the nation and the school as well as by increased anxiety about anthropogenic climate change. Although horror provides no easy, or even palatable, answers to the questions we face, it nonetheless offers a means by which to contemplate them.

Evaluation will be based on essays, quizzes, class participation, and group work.

Off

Explores literature in the Gothic mode and aesthetic and critical theories related to modern "horror" genres or their precursors. Introduces literary-critical concepts (such as notions of abjection, repression and anxiety) that developed alongside this branch of literature. Students read canonical works in British and American traditions while reflecting on notions of popular or marginalized literature.

Off

Ghosts and monsters fill the pages of popular books and appear on our TV and movie screens. This course surveys the literary history of such creations and asks what we can learn from them. We will begin by exploring the origins of the Gothic genre. We’ll also familiarize ourselves with theories about the appeal or function of literature that confronts the horrific, the terrifying, or the overwhelming. Students will develop a vocabulary to discuss anxiety, repression, and loss (a vocabulary we will draw from psychoanalytic criticism).

Readings include key works by authors like Walpole, Hoffman, and Shelley. We’ll look at the present day with Stephen King’s The Shining. As we go, we’ll ask: How do literary texts reflect cultural anxieties or prejudice? Do literary genres imply certain ethical viewpoints? Why do some genres have less status than others? Popular films will serve as examples to help us practice interpretive skills.

Off