Honors Colloquium: Horror
Fiction
T
Dr. Michael Charlton, EFLJ,
Office Hours: M
T
W
F
mcharlton@missouriwestern.edu
Course Description:
Obviously, this is a class about horror fiction from the Gothic to the present day and we’re all here because we like to be scared, freaked out, and/or laughing (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not). We will be focusing almost exclusively on the short story, which many critics (including Poe and Lovecraft) have felt is the ideal genre for horror, but we will also touch on one novel and a few films.
Within that very broad topic, I have two smaller ideas I want to examine as a class. First, I want to look at the important role that female writers have played in the history of the genre. With very few exceptions, historians and critics have tended to marginalize or erase the significance of women to the evolution of horror. We are going to correct that by reading several female writers who have fallen into obscurity despite their influence on the genre and the quality of their fiction (and we would be reading more if the anthology I wanted hadn’t gone out of print – Hartwell has shockingly few contemporary female writers, though his other anthologies include a few more).
The second topic is closely related to the first. Recently, commentators have suggested that horror was attractive to many writers precisely because it allowed them to safely criticize such socially taboo topics as marriage, family, religion, gender, and race. For example, in an era where open attacks on the “cult of motherhood” were unthinkable, the Victorian ghost story allowed female writers to question the values and norms of their society. I want to suggest that this reading is accurate and that, among other things, horror fiction has always pushed the boundaries not just of good taste but of social beliefs and mores.
Content Advisory:
Due to the nature of this class, some of these stories
and/or films are graphically violent or sexually explicit. If you feel that this material may offend
you, please be aware that it will be required reading and viewing.
Required Materials:
David G. Hartwell, editor, The Dark Descent (Tor, 1987)
Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
Several shorter reading assignments will be posted as PDFs on WebCT
Major
Assignments/Grading:
There are three major assignments in this class: a class presentation, a short paper, and a final project.
The class presentation (20% of the final grade) will focus on a specific assigned reading. Each week, an individual student will take his or her turn starting the discussion on that week’s reading. There are multiple ways you could do this, from providing historical or biographical details about the writer (if well known) to coming up with a list of discussion questions for that reading to providing some kind of creative interpretation of that work (a short essay, a poem, a painting, etc.). The aim here is to get people talking about what we have all read (which means no plot summaries are needed or encouraged). Presentations are given on a first-come, first-served basis. If you really want to do a particular story or week, get to me early.
The short paper (30% of the final grade) will be a four to five page essay due around midterms. In this essay, you will deal with the central question we have asked in the class: what does the horror story have to say as a means for social critique and protest? You will pick a specific author or story and write an essay telling me about this author’s view of marriage, family, religion, race, class, violence, or other socially relevant topics. Two external sources (most likely critics and historians of the genre) will be required.
The final project (30% of the final grade) will be due at
the final exam (which will be during the last class period). Because of the brevity of the semester there
are all sorts of female horror writers and directors, from the incredibly
well-known to the relatively obscure, who we will not be able to cover. Your job is to go out and find one of these
authors and present her work to the class.
If you want to focus on a bestseller who we haven’t touched on (Anne
Rice, Stephanie Meyer), this is your chance.
If you want to discover someone just as interesting but more obscure,
this is also your chance (for example, one story I really, really wanted to
cover was Elizabeth Engstrom’s “When Darkness Loves
Us” and there is an entire
As I think the nature of these assignments makes clear, I love class discussion and I want to hear what you have to say about what we’re reading. That’s why class participation, quizzes, and homework make up the final 20% of the grade. Class participation does not mean attendance; class participation means that you have prepared for the class (read, taken notes, etc.) and that you contribute meaningful questions and opinions to the classroom on a regular basis. Quizzes and homework are pretty much up to you. If everyone is reading, I see no need for quizzes. If people stop reading, pop quizzes may be given. The same applies to homework. Other than reading and short response assignments (for example, find a source on the Internet), most homework assignments are given only if class participation and preparation is noticeably lacking.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class. No late work will be accepted.
The class will use a normal grading scale: A (90-100%); B (80-89%); C (70-79%); D (60-69%); F (0-59%).
My standard responses to the three most common grading questions:
·
I do not curve.
Ever. Sorry.
·
Extra credit is a foreign concept to me.
·
I rarely round up. I think it creates issues of cut-offs and
fairness.
Attendance: You are allowed one excused absence for
this course. At the second unexcused
absence, you will automatically fail.
Please note that this course meets one day a week. Missing any class session will prevent the
student from learning and asking questions about large amounts of
material. Students representing the university
at officially sanctioned activities must inform me before their absence. All absences due to illness must be
documented. Documentation must be
presented immediately after the student returns to class.
Be to class on time.
Being late or leaving early will result in absences.
Academic Honesty: Academic honesty is required in all
academic endeavors. Violations of
academic honesty include any instance of plagiarism, cheating, seeking credit
for another’s work, falsifying documents or academic records, or any other
fraudulent activity. Violations of
academic honesty may result in a failing grade on the assignment, failure in
the course, or expulsion from the University.
When a student’s grade has been affected, violations of academic honesty
will be reported to the Provost or designated representative on the Academic
Honesty Violation Report forms.
Please see the 2009-10 Student Handbook for specific
activities identified as violations of this policy and the student due process
procedure. This handbook is also available online at
http://www.missouriwestern.edu/handbook/index.pdf
Special Needs: Any student who has a special need or
disability that might affect performance in this course should contact the
appropriate MWSU coordinator for assistance. Also, let me know immediately so
that arrangements can be made to make sure your needs are met as quickly and
completely as possible.
Final Notes: Please visit me in my office. If you cannot come by during my posted office
hours, please make an appointment.
I encourage lively discussion but please show appropriate
respect for the learning environment, including your peers. If your behavior is insulting or disruptive,
you may be asked to leave and counted absent for the day.
Please turn off all cell phones upon entering the
classroom. I think I’m a fairly
reasonable person but I really, really hate ringing cell phones. It interrupts discussions, lectures, and
activities and can make it difficult to get back on track. For the same reason, don’t check or send
messages during class (trust me, you’re not as stealthy as you think you
are).
Assignment Schedule
(All Assignments are Tentative and Subject to Change):
PDFs of public domain stories can be found online at WebCT and at horrormasters.com
One note I would make about the readings: though generally speaking they’re grouped according to a historical period or movement, I have made exceptions in order to contrast certain stories (for example, Poe and Gilman) or pulled stories out of their historical context in order to illustrate a later movement (for example, Alcott’s story and its obvious reliance on the Gothic). Once we get much past World War 2, everything pretty much gets thrown together.
8/25 – Introductions/A History of Horror
9/1 Have read: Marie de France, “The Lay of the Were-wolf” (PDF online)
Ann Radcliffe, “
Mary Shelley, “The Invisible Girl” (PDF online)
Louisa May Alcott, “Lost in a Pyramid” (PDF online)
Lucy Clifford, “The New Mother” (DD)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” (DD)
9/8 Have read: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (DD)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (DD)
Charles Dickens, “The Signal-Man” (DD)
E. Nesbit, “John Charrington’s Wedding” (DD)
J. Sheridan Le Fanu, “Mr. Justice Harbottle” (DD)
Robert Hichens, “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” (DD)
9/15 Have read: Harriet Prescott Spofford, “The Moonstone Mass” (PDF online)
Mary Wilkins Freeman, “Luella Miller” (PDF online)
Gertrude Atherton, “The Dead and the Countess” (PDF online)
Gertrude Atherton, “The Striding Place” (PDF online)
Mary Austin, “The Readjustment” (PDF online)
Ethel Marriott-Watson, “The Witch of the Marsh” (PDF online)
Madeline Yale-Wynne, “The Little Room” (PDF online)
9/22 Have read: Bram Stoker, “The Squaw” (PDF online)
Robert Louis Stevenson, “Markheim” (PDF online)
Arthur Machen, “The Great God Pan” (PDF online)
Oliver Onions, “The Beckoning Fair One” (DD)
M.R.
James, “The Ash-Tree” (DD)
9/29 Have read: Robert W. Chambers, “The Repairer of Reputations” (DD)
Algernon Blackwood, “The Willows” (DD)
Ambrose Bierce, “The Damned Thing” (DD)
Edith Wharton, “Afterward” (DD)
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” (DD)
H.P. Lovecraft, “The Rats in the Walls” (DD)
10/6 Have read: John Collier, “Evening Primose” (DD)
Shirley Jackson, “The Summer People” (DD)
Shirley Jackson, “The Beautiful Stranger” (DD)
William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” (DD)
Flannery O’Connor, “Good Country People” (DD)
D.H. Lawrence, “The Rocking-Horse Winner” (DD)
10/13 Have read: Fritz Leiber, “Belsen Express” (DD)
Fritz Leiber, “Smoke Ghost” (DD)
Ray Bradbury, “The Crowd” (DD)
Richard Matheson, “Born of Man and Woman” (DD)
Robert Bloch, “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” (DD)
Manly Wade Wellman, “Vandy, Vandy” (DD)
10/20 Short Paper Due
Have read: Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House, Chapters 1-4
10/27 Have read: Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House, Chapters 5-9
[I may schedule a nighttime screening of Robert Wise’s really interesting adaptation The Haunting (1963) if anyone would be interested)
11/3 Have read: Robert Aickman, “The Swords” (DD)
Robert Aickman, “The Hospice” (DD)
Theodore Sturgeon, “Bright Segment” (DD)
Dennis Etchison, “You Can Go Now” (DD)
Philip K. Dick, “A Little Something for Us Tempunauts” (DD)
Gene Wolfe, “Seven American Nights” (DD)
11/10 Have read: Stephen King, “The Monkey” (DD)
Harlan Ellison, “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” (DD)
Karl Edward Wagner, “Sticks” (DD)
Joyce Carol Oates, “Night-Side” (DD)
Thomas M. Disch, “The Roaches” (DD)
Tanith Lee, “Three Days” (DD)
11/17 Have read: Clive Barker, “Dread” (DD)
Ramsey Campbell, “Mackintosh Willy” (DD)
Michael Shea, “The Autopsy” (DD)
Joanna Russ, “My Dear Emily” (DD)
Michael
Bishop, “Within the Walls of
Charles L. Grant, “If Damon Comes” (DD)
11/24 Near Dark (1987 - directed by Kathryn Bigelow; screenplay by Bigelow and Eric Red) in-class screening
12/1 Final Exam – Final Projects Due