Texts/Films/Media:

Texts:

Writing Analytically, 8th edition; Robbe-Grillet, Jealousy
Course Reader:

Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” & “The Black Cat”

Mérimée, “The Venus of Ille”

Nerval, Aurélia

Maupassant, “The Horla”

Lovecraft, “The Colour Out of Space”

James, The Turn of the Screw

Todorov, “Definition of the Fantastic”

Freud, “The Uncanny”

Film & Television:

The Twilight Zone, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”

Clouzot, Diabolique

Hitchcock, Psycho

Kubrick, The Shining

Resnais/Robbe-Grillet, Last Year at Marienbad

Recommended

Stunk & White, Elements of Style, 4th edition

Course Description:

In this course, we will encounter written and visual texts whose unreliable narration, unsettling narratives, and enigmatic endings elicit such feelings as hesitation, unease, and bewilderment. Moreover, if the characters in these stories find themselves questioning their experience of “reality,” we as readers find ourselves confronted with the task of constructing a coherent narrative—and meaning—of our own. We will work with the short story, the novella, the short novel, television, and film. We will examine the realms of gothic, horror, fantasy, and noir, as well as the supernatural, the surreal, and the weird. We will conclude the course with an introduction to the French new novel (nouveau roman). Finally, we will reflect critically on the function of these literary genres and modes.

This course is an R1A, the first part of two courses intended to introduce students to literary analysis, critical reading, and analytical writing. Writing assignments will include posting to bCourses, formulating discussion questions, as well as brainstorming, peer-editing, drafting, revising, and re-writing formal essays.

Additional Information:

French R1A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement. Classes are conducted in ENGLISH

Section times and locations in the Schedule of Classes