Course description:

Haunted Houses

"What is a ghost?  An emotion, a terrible moment condemned to repeat itself over and over?  An instant of pain perhaps?  Something dead which appears at times alive.  A sentiment suspended in time...like a blurry photograph...like an insect trapped in amber." - Guillermo Del Toro’s film The Devil’s Backbone

This class will consider the spaces of haunting, in particular hauntings in the domestic sphere. Hauntings can touch upon a multitude of experiences: loss, memory, migration, longing, fear, desire. The class will examine how the haunted house can help illuminate these feelings and experiences. We move from canonical gothic versions of the haunted house from Jane Eyre and The Turn of the Screw to modern versions including Beloved and The Only Good Indians to see how hauntings transform and meet the imaginative needs of peoples across time. We may also consider hauntings on film, like Get Out to think about how haunting changes with not only space but medium.

Course Registration Info:

• Available for Summer Session 1
• CRN: 53497
• Class meeting times: MTW 12:10 PM- 1:50 PM
• GEs: AH, WE
• Instructor name: Matthew Vernon