Haunted Space in American Culture 4219-SD028
Ghosts, specters and hauntings have not only become popular conceptual metaphors for trauma, displacement, violence and encounters with otherness, but they are also now considered useful analytic categories in and of themselves. Derrida’s hauntology, the theory of transgenerational haunting and new materialism all attest to this “spectral turn.” Engaging the Gothic concept of the past invading the present, we will analyze how historical violence, cultural erasure, enforced social in/visibility erupt in the present and continue to haunt American culture. The primary materials will range from classic Gothic stories (e.g. E.A.Poe, Edith Wharton) and contemporary narratives of haunting (David Lynch's productions), movies dealing with the trauma of 9/11 (Cloverfield and 25th Hour), to actual memorial sites and the mourning rituals that accompany them as well as new media texts that engage with the uncanny virtual space (e.g. alternative reality games and hypertext fiction).
Type of course
Learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE
Upon completing this course a student:
a. understands the role of haunted spaces in American culture in relation to national trauma, violence and cultural erasure.
b. recognizes examples of spectral imagery and their complex functions in various cultural texts.
c. is aware of the social and cultural ramifications of using the metaphors of ghosts, hauntings and spectrality.
SKILLS
Upon completing this course a student:
a. is able to critically apply theories and concepts concerning the Gothic, the uncanny, hauntology and spectrality.
b. is able to draw conclusions and formulate critical arguments concerning spectral imagery in American culture.
c. has the skill to work in a group in order to evaluate assigned materials and present his/her opinion in a clear and coherent manner.
COMPETENCES
Upon completing this course a student:
a. is able to formulate his/her opinion on the uses and abuses of trauma narrative as well as various aspects of social in/visibility in recent American history.
b. is aware of the importance of the intersectional approach in critical analyses of gender, sexuality, class and race.
c. is able to plan and undertake research steps in order to present a group project concerning haunted space in American culture.
Assessment criteria
Special emphasis is placed on students' active participation, which means that students are expected to participate in the discussions and groupwork during the classes. Students should read the assigned texts, watch the assigned movies and engage with other primary source materials.
Active class participation: 30%
Group project: 30%
Four responses to primary texts: 20%
Final test: 20%
Students need 60% to pass the course.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Primary materials:
a selection of short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, H.P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson,Thomas Ligotti, Greg Bear, Kathe Koja and Caitlin R. Kiernan
Pym (2011), a novel, Mat Johnson
Cloverfield (2007), a movie, dir. J.J. Abrahms
25th Hour (2002), a movie, dir. Spike Lee
Twin Peaks (1990-1991), a TV series, dir. David Lynch
Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero, an alternative reality game
a selection of 9/11 photographs
Secondary materials:
Bailey, Dale. American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1999.
Brogan, Kathleen, Cultural Haunting: Ghosts and Ethnicity in Recent American Literature.
Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? London: Verso, 2009.
Davis, Colin, Haunted Subjects: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, and the Return of the Dead. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2007
Freud, Sigmund.”The Uncanny.” In The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, edited by Vincent B. Leitsch et al, 929-952. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.
Hogle, Jerrold E. 2002. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Masschelein, Anneleen. The Unconcept: The Freudian Uncanny in Late-Twentieth-Century Theory. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011.
Peeren, Esther and Maria del Pilar Blanco, eds. The Spectralities Reader: Ghosts and Haunting in Contemporary Cultural Theory. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
Royle, Nicholas. The Uncanny. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
Schwab, Gabriele. Haunting Legacies: Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
Vidler, Anthony. The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1992.
Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew, ed. 2004. Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Please note that some texts may be changed.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: