EN3H2-30 American Horror Story: U.S. Gothic Cultures, 1619-Tomorrow
Introductory description
The module aims to give students a detailed textual and theoretical grounding in the horror/gothic genre in the United States.
Module aims
The module aims to give students a detailed textual and theoretical grounding in the horror/gothic genre in the United States.
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.
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Introduction
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Candyman (dir. Bernard Rose, 1992); The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2011, dr. Chad Friedrichs)
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HP Lovecraft, "The Horror at Red Hook"; Victor Lavalle, The Ballad of Black Tom ( 2016) "Teddy Perkins" (episode 6, season 2) from Atlanta.
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The Shining (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980); EA Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher"
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Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
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Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
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Charles Busch, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (1984); The Hunger (1983)
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James Dickey, Deliverance (1970); Deliverance (dir. John Boorman, 1972)
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Texas Chainsaw Massacre (dir. Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Term 2, week 1
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I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943); Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
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George Romero, Night of the Living Dead (1968)
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Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic (2020)
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William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom (1936)
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William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom (1936)
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The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
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Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ (1835); The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
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Group video discussion
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
- 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.
Transferable skills
- 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;
- 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.
Study time
Type | Required |
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Lectures | 18 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Seminars | 18 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Online learning (independent) | 264 sessions of 1 hour (88%) |
Total | 300 hours |
Private study description
No private study requirements defined for this module.
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A2
Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
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Assessment component |
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Group Video Project | 20% | Yes (extension) | |
Production of video essay in small groups (3-6). Students who need resit can substitute this with a solo project of a video or an essay of 2,000 words. |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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Essay 2 | 40% | Yes (extension) | |
Written essay on independently-derived topic |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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Essay 1 | 40% | Yes (extension) | |
Written essay on independently-derived topic |
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Reassessment component is the same |
Feedback on assessment
Written comments; opportunity for further oral feedback in office hours
Courses
This module is Core optional for:
- Year 3 of UENA-Q300 Undergraduate English Literature
- Year 3 of UENA-QP36 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing
- Year 4 of UENA-QP37 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing with Intercalated Year
- Year 4 of UENA-Q301 Undergraduate English Literature with Intercalated Year
This module is Optional for:
- Year 3 of UENA-Q300 Undergraduate English Literature
- Year 3 of UENA-QP36 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing
- Year 4 of UENA-QP37 Undergraduate English Literature and Creative Writing with Intercalated Year
- Year 4 of UENA-Q301 Undergraduate English Literature with Intercalated Year
- Year 3 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
- Year 4 of UENA-VQ33 Undergraduate English and History (with Intercalated year)
- Year 4 of UENA-QW35 Undergraduate English and Theatre Studies with Intercalated Year
This module is Core option list C for:
- Year 4 of UCXA-QQ38 Undergraduate Classics and English (with Intercalated Year)
This module is Option list A for:
- Year 3 of UCXA-QQ37 Undergraduate Classics and English
This module is Option list B for:
- Year 3 of UTHA-QW34 Undergraduate English and Theatre Studies
This module is Option list C for:
- Year 3 of UPHA-VQ72 Undergraduate Philosophy and Literature
- Year 4 of UPHA-VQ73 Undergraduate Philosophy and Literature with Intercalated Year