English: Classic Monsters

Advanced study in literary genres, forms, and themes. Representative topics: Noir in Fiction and Film; Great American Race Novel; Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Credit not awarded for both ENGL 3100 and ENGL 5100. Prerequisites: ENGL 1500, ENGL 2000; English major, Secondary Education with a concentration in English, or English minor; minimum Junior standing.

Prereqs enforced by the system: ENGL 1500 and 2000; Minimum Junior standing; PACE students with permission and override Co-located with ENGL 5100; Total combined enrollment = 25

Why do we keep remaking certain monsters? Why does Frankenstein’s monster still inhabit our imaginations more than 200 years after Mary Shelley first imagined him? Why does Dracula continue to multiply in film and television? British writers of the nineteenth century created some of the most memorable and enduring monsters—Frankenstein's monster, Mr. Hyde, Dracula. In this course we will think about the ways that monsters suggest conceptions of identity and difference, self and other. We will think about how different forms of monstrosity reflect a culture’s anxieties, fears, values, and desires. We will consider how notions about monstrosity are related to attitudes toward technology, scientific discovery, race, national identity, gender, and sexuality. We will read monster theory and write our own monster theories.