ENGLISH 5HA: Haunted Rooms: Gothic and Horror Short Fiction

Course Description

Gothic and horror novels may stand as the haunted houses of literature. But in this course we turn our spotlight onto the smaller corners and crevices in which the ghostly and the monstrous often dwell: short stories. How does short fiction create atmospheres of terror and tension so quickly? And, what tropes and biases do these texts rely upon as a kind of shorthand to create discomfort? Exploring such questions through Gothic and horror tales from the 18th century to the present, we will attend to matters of literary form and medium, while also chasing after the haunting social, racial, and gender issues these texts raise. Considerations of who is painted as Other in tales of terror will underpin our discussions of such topics as sexism, the abject, and Orientalism, among others. Primary texts will include works by Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.P. Lovecraft, John Polidori, Flannery O'Connor, Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Nnedi Okorafor, and more. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)