ENGL 52.06 Media & Monstrosity

The vampire, the doppelganger, the automaton, the femme fatale, the serial killer, even the city itself as a pathological public space: these figures inhabit popular fiction at the end of the nineteenth century, expressionist cinema at the start of the twentieth century, and have been staples of mass culture ever since. Focusing on the relationship between fin-de-siècle Gothic fiction and its early cinematic adaptation, this course will explore the images of monstrosity that embody anxieties about changing media landscapes, emerging media forms, and the increasingly mediated character of human relationships between the 1880s and the 1920s. Primary texts and films will include R.L. Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. We will also read theoretical work by Hugo Münsterberg, Laura Mulvey, Otto Rank, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Friedrich Kittler.

Cross Listed Courses

COLT 62.04

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Course Group II