Where my course ENG290 Contemporary Horror focuses mostly on current and popular horror fiction, social media-based horror stories, creepypasta, comics, and film, this course will take a turn towards the literary, and a journey into the past. We will study the classics of the horror genre as well as horror stories that are considered literary classics (overlapping lists to a certain extent: novels such as Beloved, Frankenstein, Dracula, and others; and films such as The Exorcist and Alien), and as we do, we will consider why horror stories so often lurk in the corners of the canon, occupying marginalized places in it. We will read secondary scholarship addressing the horror stories we study as well as theories of horror. Those who consider horror to be a low-brow genre will be surprised to learn that these secondary readings are incredibly sophisticated, suggesting there is far more to horror than simply being scared.

This course satisfies the following NEW English major/minor requirements: Foundations & Methods 300/400-level, Regions: Americas, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland

Course Requirements:

This is a discussion-based course. There will be regular low-stakes short writing assignments and 2 or 3 longer analytical papers (1500-2000 words). No exams.

Intended Audience:

This is an upper-level English course; experience taking a lower-level English or writing course would be helpful, but isn’t required. Students need not have any knowledge of horror to enroll; whether you do or don’t, there is plenty to think about in this course.