Instructor: Professor Mark Fabrizi
Who doesn't like to be scared once in a while? People have been entertaining each other by campfires for thousands of years—in fact, horror is one of the world’s oldest genres of fiction—and the stories are getting better each year. In this mini-course, we will explore the early origins of horror stories from Ancient Rome and Greece, read the werewolf tales of Medieval France, visit the ghost-loving Victorians, reckon with early American Gothic writers like Poe, read the weird fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, and consider the impact of modern British and American writers such as Clive Barker and Stephen King. We’ll look at the development of ghosts, vampires, zombies, and witches across the ages in both literature and film as we consider the central questions: What scares us? And why do we love it so much?
Open to student entering Grades 10,11, or 12 in the fall.
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Monday: |
Introduction and expectations: What is horror? Horror’s earliest days: Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and the ancient world |
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Tuesday: |
The Middle Ages: Origins of the werewolf The European witch craze |
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Tuesday PM: |
The first horror novel and the Gothic tradition Early vampires in literature |
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Wednesday: |
Frankenstein: Who’s the monster here? The Victorian ghost story |
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Thursday: |
Interlude: What about film and theatre? Adaptations and interpretations on screen The theatre: Grand guignol |
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Thursday PM: |
Poe and the American Gothic Well, that’s weird: Blackwood, Lovecraft, Machen, and Weird fiction |
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Friday: |
The modern masters: Shirley Jackson and Stephen King Splatterpunk: Clive Barker and Poppy Z. Brite What is horror? |
