106-431 The Horror Genre: Fiction, Film and Theory

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Subject Description:

This subject investigates various genres of horror in fiction and film, from the 1890s to the present day. Horror will be seen as a cultural field inhabiting particular locations, and processed in particular ways. Students will analyse form and affect, visual/aural content, narrative structures and event, context and modes of reception, each with reference to recent theories of horror and controversies over horror texts. Students will study a number of famous - and infamous - horror texts, representing the following interests: the 'classical' ghost story; visceral and splatter horror; teen horror; postcolonial horror; psychological or traumatic horror; gender-focussed horror; romantic horror; vampire horror.

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Prescribed Texts:

• K Gelder ed, The Oxford Book of Australian Ghost Stories, Oxford.
• S King, Carrie, Futura.
• D Simmons, Song of Kali, Headline.
• R L Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Oxford.
• B Stoker, Dracula, Oxford.
• Films: A Hitchcock, Psycho
• T Hooper, The Texas Chain-saw Massacre
• P Jackson, Brain Dead
• T Moffatt, Bedevil
• J Tournier, I Walked with a Zombie
• J Whale, The Bride of Frankenstein
• R Wise, The Haunting