Topics and Readings

Defining Our Terms

August 29 “Introductions and Beginnings”

In Class:

None

Reading:

None

Viewing:

Nolan - Inception (2010)

Edit link:

Defining Our Terms

September 3 Labor Day Holiday

Edit link:

Defining Our Terms

September 5 “Frightened/Frightening Children”

In Class:

What Is So Scary about Eyes and Mirrors?

Reading:

E. T. A. Hoffman, "The Sandman" (1817)

Viewing:

Tarkovsky, The Mirror (1975)Verbinski, The Ring (2002), Berry, The Sandman (1992)

and Hoffmann (ppt)

Edit link:

Defining Our Terms

September 10 “Dystopia and the Bizarre”

In Class:

Down the Rabbit Hole!

Reading:

Freud, "The Uncanny" (1919), pages 219-233, Gaiman, from The Sandman: Fables and Reflections (1993, on-line)

Viewing:

Cocteau, Orpheus (1950),Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix (1999) and Uncanny Vienna (ppt)

Edit link:

Defining Our Terms

September 12 “Defining the Uncanny”

In Class:

Does Theory Help or Harm?

Reading:

Sigmund Freud, pages 233-252

Viewing:

Hitchcock, The Birds (1963), Shimizu, The Grudge (2004) and Freud (ppt)

Edit link:

Parisian Anxieties

September 17 “Baudelaire and Terrible Beauty”

In Class:

Has It All Been Said Before?

Reading:

Baudelaire, from The Flowers of Evil (1861)

Viewing:

Lynch, Blue Velvet (1986), Harron, American Psycho (2000) and Baudelaire (ppt)

Edit link:

Parisian Anxieties

September 19 “Angry Escapes”

In Class:

The Doors, Patti Smith, and beyond

Reading:

Rimbaud, from A Season in Hell (1873, on-line)

Viewing:

Holland, Total Eclipse (1995), Boyle, Trainspotting (1997)

Edit link:

Parisian Anxieties

September 24 “To Sleep Perchance to Dream”

In Class:

Doré’s and Moreau’s Bad Dreams

Reading:

Huysmans, Against Nature (1884), pages 1-22, 35-43

Viewing:

Ward, What Dreams May Come (1998) Fincher, Fight Club (1999) and Huysmans (ppt)

Edit link:

Parisian Anxieties

September 26 “Control(Freaking)ing Your World”

In Class:

Rédon’s Hallucinations

Reading:

Huysmans, pages 44-61

Viewing:

Singh, The Cell (2000) Clip 1, Clip 2

Edit link:

Parisian Anxieties

FIRST ASSIGNMENT DUE (short essay)

Edit link:

Parisian Anxieties

October 1 “Eros and Thanatos”

In Class:

“The Women of Klimt and Schiele”

Reading:

Huysmans, pages 82-91, 103-14

Viewing:

Nick Cave, "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (1996) , Ruiz, Klimt (2006) and Klimt (ppt)

Edit link:

Parisian Anxieties

October 3 “Waking Up”

In Class:

Absinthe Art

Reading:

Huysmans, pages 164-181

Viewing:

Hughes Brothers, From Hell (2002) and absinthe (ppt)

Edit link:

London's Secrets

October 8 “Daydreaming and Decadence”

In Class:

Decadent London?

Reading:

Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), pages 1-49

Viewing:

Gilbert, Wilde (1997), Parker, Dorian Gray (2009) and Wilde (ppt)

Edit link:

London's Secrets

October 10 “The Art of Necrophilia”

In Class:

How Many More Ophelias?

Reading:

Wilde, pages 50-104

Viewing:

Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge (2001), Paris, Je T'Aime (2006) and Wilde, Dorian (ppt)

Edit link:

London's Secrets

SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE (research report)

Edit link:

London's Secrets

October 15 “The Beautiful Allure of Evil”

In Class:

Schoenberg’s "Glances" and Mapplethorpe’s photographs

Reading:

Wilde, 105-65

Viewing:

Lynch, Lost Highway (1996) and Mapplethorpe Schoenberg (ppt)

Edit link:

London's Secrets

October 17 “The Price of Beauty and Eternal Youth”

In Class:

Nostalgia for Your Own Past

Reading:

Wilde, 166-208

Viewing:

Nine Inch Nails "Perfect Drug" (1997) and Double Life (ppt)

Edit link:

Occidental/Oriental Nightmares

October 22 “New Urban Terrors”

In Class:

Dystopic London?

Reading:

Stoker, Dracula (1897), pages 9-74

Viewing:

Hughes Brothers, From Hell (2002) and Dracula, London (ppt)

Edit link:

Occidental/Oriental Nightmares

October 24 “Old Country Terrors”

In Class:

The Kindness of Strangers and Encountering the Alien

Reading:

Stoker, pages, 75-147

Viewing:

Murnau, Nosferatu (1922), Slade, 30 Days of Night (2007) and Old Country Terrors (ppt)

Edit link:

Occidental/Oriental Nightmares

PART 1 OF "DREAM INTERPRETATION" DUE

Edit link:

Occidental/Oriental Nightmares

October 29 “Angels and Devils”

In Class:

What Makes a Woman Modern? And Scary?

Reading:

Stoker, pages 147-204

Viewing:

Coppola, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) Clip 1, Clip 2, Madonna, "Bedtime Story" (1998) and Dracula, New Woman (ppt)

Edit link:

Occidental/Oriental Nightmares

PROSPECTUS DUE

Edit link:

Occidental/Oriental Nightmares

October 31 “What Exactly Is the Attraction of Vampires”

In Class:

Sparkle, Or Who Exactly Is In Love With Whom?

Reading:

Stoker, pages 204-273

Viewing:

Jordan, Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Slade, Twilight: Eclipse (2010)

Edit link:

Occidental/Oriental Nightmares

November 5 "Does Terror Age Gracefully?"

In Class:

New Hatreds and New Vampires

Reading:

Stoker, pages 273-327

Viewing:

Browning, Dracula (1931), Merhige, Shadow of the Vampire (2000) and Sharman, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Edit link:

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 7 “Animal Apparitions”

In Class:

Images by Steinlen, Bilibin, Vrubel and Repin

Reading:

Poe, "The Black Cat" (1843)

Viewing:

Gordon, The Black Cat (2006) , Adabashyan, Azazel (2002), Linda, Vorona (1996) and Cats (ppt)

Edit link:

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 12 "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears"

In Class:

Outcasts, Veterans, and Bandits

Reading:

Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog, pages 1-45

Viewing:

Bortko, Heart of a Dog (1988) , Sidorov, Brigada (2002) and Repin, Vrubel, Bilibin (ppt)

Edit link:

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

THIRD ASSIGNMENT DUE (longer essay)

Edit link:

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 14 “Scientific Dystopia”

In Class:

Cyborgs and Clones

Reading:

Bulgakov, pages 46-85

Viewing:

Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) , Tool/Jones, Stinkfist (1996) and Huang “Doll Face” (2006)

Edit link:

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 19 No Lecture: Individual work on long paper revisions

Edit link:

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 23 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

Edit link:

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 26 “More and Less than Human”

In Class:

More and Less than Human

Reading:

Bulgakov, pages 86-123

Viewing:

Bekmambetov, Night Watch (2004) and Aphex Twin/Cunningham, Come to Daddy (1997)

Edit link:

What Dreams May Come

November 28 “What Exactly Is Surrealism?”

In Class:

Magritte, Dalì, and friends

Reading:

Breton and Éluard, The Immaculate Conception (1930, on-line)

Viewing:

Dalì and Buñuel, Andalusian Dog (1928), Anderson, opening credits, Dexter (2002) and Surrealism (ppt)

Edit link:

What Dreams May Come

December 3 “Surrealist Film”

In Class:

"Surrealist Film"

Reading:

None

Viewing:

Hitchcock, Spellbound (1945) and Del Torro, Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Edit link:

What Dreams May Come

PART II OF "DREAM INTERPRETATION" DUE

Edit link:

What Dreams May Come

December 5 “Farewells and Endings”

In Class:

Farewells and Endings

Reading:

None

Viewing:

Alfredson, Let the Right One In (2008)

Edit link:

What Dreams May Come

REWRITES DUE IN SECTION (DECEMBER 7th)

Edit link: