Monsters: Nineteenth-Century Horror and its Cultural Afterlife
The nineteenth century was a particularly fertile time and place for the production of
monsters, and these monsters have refused to go away. This one-term course will
provide an introduction to monstrosity as an essential part of nineteenth, twentieth, and
twenty-first century Anglophone culture. We will analyze versions of the monstrous
which emerged in the nineteenth century in a broad historical and cultural context that
will allow us to shape an understanding of how these versions of monstrosity have been
remade and reproduced in subsequent literary work. Students will also be offered a
critical introduction to the way that important developments in recent literary theory
(such as historical, postcolonial and feminist debates) have influenced a modern
understanding of monstrosity and will be encouraged to mobilise a number of key critical
terms within their textual analysis.The range of material covered will allow us to examine
a number of issues, including:
· language of the monstrous
· various categorizations of monsters/monstrosities
· political uses and abuses of the category
· production and reproduction of monsters, as well as monsters of reproduction
· geography of the monstrous
· monstrous appetites
· sexual differences and monstrosity
Course Schedule
Week One: Monster Theory
Week Two: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Week Three: James Hogg, Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
Week Four: Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Week Five: Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897).
Week Six: Stephen King, ’Salem’s Lot (1975).
Week Seven: Study Week
Week Eight: Stephen King, Pet Sematary
Week Nine: Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs
Week Ten: Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club.
Week Eleven: Stephanie Meyer, Twilight.
Week Twelve: Revision.
Dr Jarlath Killeen (killeej@tcd.ie)