From John Milton’s rendering of Satan in his epic poem, Paradise Lost to such characters as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, this course will delve into the cultural fascination with the dark side of the soul. Surveying a range of literature that centers on the aesthetics of evil, we will pose the question ‘why is it that villains tend to appear with more artistic force than the so-called good guys’? While we explore this idea through a variety of representations of evil, we will also question the ethical foundation on which the literature rests. That is, what moral or ethical instruction is to be had by reading these works of literature? Other concepts relevant and fundamental to our discussions will be the possibility of a truly autonomous subject, the notion of absolute freedom, Hell as a place and a psychological state, and the significance of works that feature characters attempting to move beyond religious notions of good and evil. The selection of literature that will address these issues will include, but is not limited to, the following: Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial. (Secondary sources might include excerpts from Plato, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Emmanuel Levinas, Giorgio Agamben, and Slavoj Zizek.)
This class offers a "W" credit. This means that course participants will be expected to produce a total of 10-15 pages of formal, academic writing which has gone through a cycle of instructor feedback and revision. We will cover some formal academic writing technique in this class, but please keep in mind that this is not fundamentally a writing course. Though prior composition credits are not prerequisite, such experience will be to your distinct advantage.

Required Texts:
The Monk, Matthew Lewis (ISBN-10: 1551112272 / ISBN-13: 978-1551112275)
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (ISBN-10: 0393964582 ISBN-13: 978-0393964585)
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky (ISBN-10: 0393956237ISBN-13: 978-0393956238)
The Trial, Franz Kafka (ISBN-10: 0199238294 ISBN-13: 978-0199238293)
*Additional readings will be made available via course packet