Introductory description

N/A

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

STOREY

1. Introduction: critical readings, including Jameson ‘Historicism in The Shining’, Eugene Thacker,
   In the Dust of This Planet, Stephen King, Danse Macabre, Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark,
   Slenderman material, all TBC
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ (1835) + The Witch (Dir. Robert Eggers, 2015)
3. Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
4. Flannery O’Connor, ‘Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction’ (1960), short stories
   by O’Connor, Barry Hannah + The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Dir. Tobe Hooper, 1974)
5. Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011)
6. READING WEEK
7. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (1892) and Carmen Maria Machado, ‘The
   Husband Stitch’ (2017)
8. Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
9. Charles Burns, Black Hole (1995-2005) + It Follows (Dir. David Robert Mitchell, 2014)
10. Joyce Carol Oates, Zombie (1995)

SHAPIRO

1. Intro
2. EA Poe, Short Stories (1820/30s), Louisa May Alcott, “Behind a Mask” (1866)
3. George Lippard, Quaker City: Or, the Monks of Monk Hall - A Romance of Philadelphia Life, Mystery and Crime (1845)
4. George Lippard, Quaker City: Or, the Monks of Monk Hall - A Romance of Philadelphia Life, Mystery and Crime (1845)
5. HP Lovecraft, “Horror at Red Hook,” “Call of Cthulhu,” “Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (1920s)
6. Reading Week
7. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom (1936)
8. Victor Lavalle, The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) or Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country (2017).
9. Poppy Z. Brite, Exquisite Corpse (1996); Diamanda Galas, You Must Be Certain of the Devil (1988)
10. George Romero, Night of the Living Dead (1968)/Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate coherent and detailed knowledge of selected texts and concepts relating to the U.S. horror/gothic cultures;
• Deploy advanced analytical and critical skills through close reading/viewing of the set texts;
• Demonstrate a conceptual understanding that enables the development and sustaining of a critical argument
• Describe and comment on recent research and/or scholarship in subject
• Display on appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity, and contradictions within US gothic cultural productions
• Make appropriate use of scholarly reviews and primary sources
• Exhibit an advanced command of written English together with a wide-ranging and accurate vocabulary
• Apply confident textual analysis and fluent critical argument to initiate and carry out an extended essay
• Conduct independent research through self-formulated questions
• Produce work that displays the qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment requiring the exercise of personal responsibility and decision-making, along with collective engagement
• Deploy the expression and communication of ideas across media forms

Indicative reading list

Noel Carroll, Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart (1990)
Brigid Cherry, Horror (2009)
Charles Crow, ed., A Companion to American Gothic (2009)
Fredric Jameson, ‘Historicism in The Shining’ (1981)
Joan Copjec, ‘Vampires, Breast Feeding, and Anxiety’
Eugene Thacker, In the Dust of This Planet (2011)
Franco Moretti, ‘The Dialectic of Fear’ (1982)
Francois Debrix, Global Powers of Horror (2017)
Teresa Goddu, Gothic America (1997)
Mark Seltzer, Serial Killers: Death and Life in America’s Wound Culture (1998)
Eric Savoy, American Gothic (1998)
Mark Edmundson, Nightmare on Main Street: Angels, Sadomasochism, and the Culture of Gothic
(1997)
Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror (1982)
Carol Clover, Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1993)
Kendall Phillips, Dark Directions (2012)
Aviva Briefel and Sam J. Miller, ed. Horror After 9/11 (2011)
Thomas Fahy, The Philosophy of Horror (2010)
Fred Botting, Gothic (2014)
---. Limits of Horror (2008)
Angela Ndalianis, The Horror Sensorium (2012)
Richard McGee, The Haunted Muse (2016)
Kyle Bishop, American Zombie Gothic (2010)
Bernice Murphy, Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture (2009)

Subject specific skills

• Acquire knowledge of key theoretical and literary concepts and cultural and critical contexts within which to situate the set texts;
• Formulate analytical and critical skills through close reading/viewing of the set texts;
• Adjust to scholarly standards and protocols of presentation;
• Employ a main method for reading texts within the context of US horror/gothic cultures;
• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of selected texts and concepts relating to the U.S. horror/gothic cultures;
• Indicate a broad understanding of critical, analytic, and creative approaches to produce knowledge;
• Exhibit an effective command of written English together with a wide-ranging and accurate vocabulary;
• Display textual analysis and critical argument;
• Conduct independent research through self-formulated questions.

Transferable skills

• Acquire knowledge of key theoretical and literary concepts and cultural and critical contexts within which to situate the set texts;
• Formulate analytical and critical skills through close reading/viewing of the set texts;
• Adjust to scholarly standards and protocols of presentation;
• Indicate a broad understanding of critical, analytic, and creative approaches to produce knowledge;
• Exhibit an effective command of written English together with a wide-ranging and accurate vocabulary;
• Display textual analysis and critical argument;
• Conduct independent research through self-formulated questions.