Description
Despite the fact that no one really wants to get lost in a dark forest, plagued by ghosts, chased by an axe-wielding maniac or entranced by a blood-thirsty vampire, horror has always been a source of pleasure. From Beowulf _to _The Mist, scary stories have been ubiquitous in English-language culture. In the course of the eighteenth-century an entire culture industry developed around the idea that mystery, shock and horror entertains and thus sells. The Gothic novel was the first openly commercial form of horror culture, and since the late eighteenth-century consumers’ insatiable appetite to be scared stiff has allowed this industry to become one of the most wide-spread and best-selling, if also one of the most critically derided and attacked, forms of popular culture. In this course students will read foundational horror novels and view two key original (not based on a previously published story) horror films in order to discuss how the genre of horror developed from a sensational and morally suspect form of popular culture into a type of literature that can be sold even at supermarket check-out counters. Attention will be paid to the defining characteristics of subgenres such as the ghost story, cosmic horror and the zombie film, but the focus will lie on tracing common structural, stylistic and thematic threads through over 200 years of horror culture.
Teaching method
Two-hour seminar per week
Admission requirements
BA diploma.
Course objectives
By the end of the course students will have gained 1) an overview of the history of Anglo-American horror culture; 2) an understanding of key sub-genres and knowledge of the socio-political contexts in which these various subgenres appeared; 3) skills to think in theoretical terms about the key structural and stylistic aspects of horror.
Required reading
*Various e-texts available through the blackboard site *Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest (Oxford World’s Classics) *Stephen King, Carrie (Hodder) *Ira Levin, Rosemary’s Baby (Signet) *James Herbert, The Fog (Pan books) *Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart (Harper Voyager)
DVDs:
George Romero (dir), _Night of the Living Dead _ (the original 1968 b/w version of approx. 96 minutes); not the 1990 remake in colour or the extended 30th anniversary edition with newly added scenes.
John Carpenter (dir), Halloween (the original 1978 version of approx 92 minutes); not the extended TV version of 104 minutes, or the 2008 remake directed by Rob Zombie.
H3. Test method
A mid-term essay (2500 words; 30%); deadline: the Friday of week 7.
An end-of-term essay (5000 words; 70%); deadline: the Friday of week 14.
*Extra Credit essay topics (5 ECTS) will be made available in week 1 of the semester.
Time table
Click here for the timetable
Information
English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102c. Phone: 071 527 2144, or by mail: english@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Registration
Students can register through U-twist before 15 July, After 15 July students can only register through the Departmental Office.
Blackboard
A Blackboard site will be available, to students one week before the start of the teaching semester.
Remarks
The reading material for week 1 is available on the Blackboard site.