TDPS 422 - Horror Film: Of Monsters and Monstrosities

Credit Hours: 4
Frequency of Offering: Offered in alternate years, usually in the fall semester

This course will examine evolving conceptions of the monster and of monstrosity in select international horror films from the early 1930s to the present, with attention to both classical and postmodern forms of the genre. Concomitantly, it will examine the aesthetics of cinematic horror by situating readings of the films’ iconographic elements and of their rhetorical strategies within broader historical, social, political, and cultural perspectives. In doing so, students will interrogate the films’ constructions of categories of gender, race, class, sexuality, identity, and the family and, by doing so, locate inquiry at the nexus of theory and practice. Instructional methods will include lectures, discussions, film screenings, readings, writing assignments, presentations, and examinations.

Course Satisfies: In this respect, this course may be used to satisfy the senior capstone experience for TFMS majors (i.e. those at the junior and senior level fulfilling the film/media studies track of the major). In addition to satisfying the senior capstone experience in TFMS, this course may be used to satisfy an elective requirement of the English major and of the minor in women, gender, and sexuality studies.
Prerequisite(s): TDPS 220 or TDPS 221 or consent of the instructor. For students fulfilling the requirement of a senior capstone experience, an additional Prerequisite includes: one additional upper-level course in film/media studies in TFMS, international languages and cultures, political science, Asian studies, or philosophy.