Forms of Horror

The eighteenth century is known as the Age of Enlightenment and Reason, but this course will focus on the darker side of this time period and its influence on modern horror. From moldering castles, murderous monks, virtuous maidens, and depraved desires to demonic children, serial killers, and the walking dead, this course will trace continuities and shifts of horror in its various forms. What is the distinction between terror and horror? How do these texts indicate discontent with cultural boundaries? And how does horror, with its focus on the human psyche, reflect larger concerns about social dynamics? We will begin with the Gothic and theories of terror and the sublime by Anna Laeticia Barbauld and Edmund Burke. With this grounding, we will spend some time with Mary Shelley’s (arguably) Gothic novel Frankenstein and some film adaptations of it.

After reading some poetry and short stories of horror, we will move on to American nightmares depicted in film. The course will end on postmodern depictions of dread in film and/or J-Horror.

Some of the films we will examine will contain graphic and disturbing subject matter.