In this course, we will look at Dark Fantasies – material at the speculative juncture of horror, science fiction and fantasy. We’ll start with HP Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness and other stories, engage authors who remediate Lovecraftian themes, including Victor LaValle’s Devil in Silver, and move on to Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor's 2014 fantasy/sci-fi/horror novel Lagoon, in which she envisions a first contact situation in the city of Lagos. We will also look at sites where speculative production meets social justice work, including the collection Octavia’s Brood, and some graphic/poetry work, in particular Matthea Harvey's Of Lamb.

We will also look at the production side of the dark fantasy/horror/slipstream market, profiling magazines and journals in the field - how do stories reach a market, and what is the market for dark fantasy? These queries will allow us to understand literary production as a cultural formation.

Analyses of movies and TV shows, like Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, will ensure that we engage with the interface of literature and filmic production.

Half of our work together will focus on creative writing techniques: we will write short stories and engage pre/post apocalyptic poetry.

Required Texts:

Victor LaValle: Devil in Silver, 2012

Nnedi Okorafor: Lagoon Saga Press, 2015

Other texts will be made available on Canvas under Files

Course Requirements:

Portfolio. Take-home mid-term. One small group presentation on a writer of your choice, taking us through one or two pages of this writer’s work, allowing us to see their style and approach. Quizzes on our readings.