Use the Tab and Up, Down arrow keys to select menu items.
This course examines shifting representations of the supernatural and paranormal in American popular culture post-1960s through an analysis of fiction, folklore, visual culture, and gothic and neo-pagan subcultures.
In this course you will learn:to provide an account of the extent of supernatural writing in popular culture today for both youth and general readers; to understand the factors that have led to the huge popularity of this mode of representation; to examine changing images and manifestations of the supernatural and paranormal in visual culture in contemporary America; specifically the ways in which popular representations of the supernatural shift in relation to different historical periods, cultural and economic events, and are constructed in particularly gendered and racialized ways; to examine various depictions of ‘the abject’, how these are related to particular bodies and events, and how such constructions are modified in response to historical, social and cultural factors; to examine how ‘monstrosity’ as otherness is constructed in gothic and horror genres; to analyse the ascent and influence of neo-pagan and postmodern punk subcultures in America.
15 points of ENGL at 200-level with a B pass, or30 points of ENGL at 200-level, orany 45 points at 200-level from the Arts Schedule.
AMST313, CULT317, AMST413, ENGL413, CULT417
AMST313, CULT317
Anna Smith and Annie Potts
The course will be taught in two distinct sections, each of six weeks’ duration. Dr Potts will begin the first section of the paper with a focus on the history of horror cinema in America. She examines shifting historical constructions of the monstrous, fearsome, grotesque and abject through horror motifs such as zombies, witches, evil dolls and carnivals. She also introduces the subgenres of slasher films, comedy-horrors, and postmodern horrors. Dr Smith will teach with a focus on the supernatural in literature and popular culture, especially as it has been represented in modern urban fantasy and horror writing. After setting a historical context, her primary attention will be directed to the way writers for young adults have appropriated this relatively new genre.
There is no final exam for this course.
Block, Francesca Lia; The Hanged Man ; 1st paperback ed; HarperCollins, 1999.
Gaiman, Neil; The Anansi Boys ;
Grossman, Lev; The magicians : a novel ; Viking, 2009.
Hautman, Pete; Sweet-blood ; 1st ed; Simon Pulse, 2004.
Block, Francesca Lia; The rose and the beast : fairy tales retold ; HarperCollins Publishers, 2000.
Wells, Paul; The Horror Genre: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch ;
The course reader will be available for download on Learn.Important note: for the first class, please make sure that you have read the following stories/extracts in the Reader: ‘Frankenstein,’ by Mary Shelley, ‘The Tell tale Heart,’ by Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Unnamable,’ by H.P. Lovecraft.TV/Films covered: The Man Who Laughs, Freaks, X-Files, Bewitched, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, It’s Alive!, The Brood, Seed of Chucky, Amelia (from Trilogy of Terror), Halloween, Candyman, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, White Zombie, I Walked with a Zombie, Night of the Living Dead.
Library portal
Students are advised to note the kinds of themes and images that will be analyzed during this course.
Domestic fee $1,464.00
International fee $5,950.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Humanities .