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EN3H2-30 American Horror Story: U.S. Gothic Cultures, 1619-Tomorrow

Department
English and Comparative Literary Studies
Level
Undergraduate Level 3
Module leader
Mark Storey
Credit value
30
Module duration
20 weeks
Assessment
100% coursework
Study location
University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

Introductory description

The module aims to give students a detailed textual and theoretical grounding in the horror/gothic genre in the United States.

Module web page

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.

Term 1

  1. Introduction
  2. Candyman (dir. Bernard Rose, 1992); The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2011, dr. Chad Friedrichs)
  3. HP Lovecraft, "The Horror at Red Hook"; Victor Lavalle, The Ballad of Black Tom ( 2016) "Teddy Perkins" (episode 6, season 2) from Atlanta.
  4. The Shining (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1980); EA Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher"
  5. Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)
  6. Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
  7. Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (1984); The Hunger (1983)
  8. James Dickey, Deliverance (1970); Deliverance (dir. John Boorman, 1972)
  9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (dir. Tobe Hooper, 1974)
    Term 2
  10. I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943); Leopard Man (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
  11. George Romero, Night of the Living Dead (1968)
  12. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic (2020)
  13. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom (1936)
  14. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom (1936)
  15. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
  16. Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ (1835); The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
  17. Group video discussion (even for second years who did not have this assignment).

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
Seminars 18 sessions of 1 hour 30 minutes (9%)
Private study 273 hours (91%)
Total 300 hours

Private study description

Preparation and group projects.

Costs

No further costs have been identified for this module.

You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group A3
Weighting Study time Eligible for self-certification
Assessment component
Group Video Project 20% Yes (extension)

Production of video essay in small groups (3-6).

Reassessment component
Video Project OR 2,000 word essay Yes (extension)

Students who need resit can either submit a solo project of a video or an essay of 2,000 words.

Assessment component
Essay 2 40% Yes (extension)

Written essay on independently-derived topic

Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
Essay 1 40% Yes (extension)

Written essay on independently-derived topic

Reassessment component is the same
Feedback on assessment

Written comments; opportunity for further oral feedback in office hours

Courses

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