Uncanny

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Topics and Readings

Defining Our Terms

August 25 “Introductions and Beginnings”

Welcome to the Uncanny

None

Nolan, Inception (2010)

August 30 “Frightened/Frightening Children”

What is so Scary about Eyes and Mirrors?

E. T. A. Hoffman, “The Sandman” (1817)

Tarkovsky, The Mirror (1975)
Verbinski, The Ring (2002)
Berry, The Sandman (1992)
Hoffmann (ppt)

September 1 “Dystopia and the Bizarre”

Down the Rabbit Hole!

 Freud, “The Uncanny” (1919), pages 219-233
Gaiman, from The Sandman: Fables and Reflections (1993)

Cocteau, Orpheus (1950)

The Wachowskis, The Matrix(1999)
Uncanny Vienna (ppt)

September 6

LABOR DAY HOLIDAY

September 8 “Defining the Uncanny”

Does Theory Help or Harm?

Sigmund Freud, pages 233-252

Hitchcock, The Birds (1963)
Shimizu, The Grudge (2004)
Freud (ppt)

Parisian Anxieties

September 13 “Baudelaire and Terrible Beauty”

Has It All Been Said Before?

Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil (1857)

Lynch, Blue Velvet (1986)
Harron, American Psycho(2000)
Baudelaire (ppt)

September 15 “Angry Escapes”

The Doors, Patti Smith, and beyond

Rimbaud, from A Season in Hell (1873)

Holland, Total Eclipse(1995)
Boyle, Trainspotting(1997)

September 20 “To Sleep, Perchance to Dream…”

Doré’s Bad Dreams, or How to Design your Nightmare

Huysmans, Against Nature (1884), pages 1-22, 35-43

Ward, What Dreams May Come (1998)
Fincher, Fight Club (1999)
Huysmans (ppt)

September 20

FIRST ASSIGNMENT DUE (2-page essay)

September 22 “Control(Freak)ing Your World”

Moreau’s and Rédon’s Hallucinations

Huysmans, pages 44-61

Singh, The Cell (2000) Clip 1, Clip 2

September 27 “Eros and Thanatos”

“The Women of Klimt and Schiele”

Huysmans, pages 82-91, 103-14

Cave, Minogue, and Davies, “Where The Wild Roses Grow” (1995)
Ruiz, Klimt (2006)  Curtis, The Woman in Gold (2015)
Klimt (ppt)

September 29 “Waking Up”

Absinthe Art

Huysmans, pages 164-181

Hughes Brothers, From Hell (2002)
Absinthe (ppt)

London’s Secrets

October 4 “Daydreaming and Decadence”

Decadent London?

Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Chapters 1-3

Gilbert, Wilde (1997)

Birk, Penny Dreadful, Season 2 Finale (2015)
Wilde (ppt)

October 6 “The Art of Necrophilia”

How Many More Ophelias?

Wilde, Chapters 4-7

Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge(2001)
Wilde’s Dorian (ppt)

October 11 “The Beautiful Allure of Evil”

Schoenberg’s “Glances” and Mapplethorpe’s photographs

Wilde, Chapters 8-11

Lynch, Lost Highway(1996)
Mapplethorpe and Schoenberg (ppt)

October 11:

SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE (research report)

October 13 “The Price of Beauty and Eternal Youth”

Nostalgia for Your Own Past

Wilde, Chapters 12-20

Nine Inch Nails “Perfect Drug” (1997)
Parker, Dorian Gray(2009)
Double Life (ppt)

October 13:

PART 1 OF “DREAM ANALYSES” DUE

October 18 “New Urban Terrors”

Dystopic London?

Stoker, Dracula (1897), Chapters 1-6

Hughes Brothers, From Hell (2002)
Dracula’s London (ppt)

October 20 “Old Country Terrors”

The Kindness of Strangers and Encountering the Alien

Stoker, Chapters 7-12

Murnau, Nosferatu (1922)

Slade, 30 Days of Night (2007)

Old Country Terrors (ppt)

October 25 “Angels and Devils”

What Makes a “Woman” Modern? and Scary?

Stoker, Chapters 13-17

Coppola, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Hardwicke, Twilight (2008)

Dracula New Woman (ppt)

October 27 “What Exactly Is the Attraction of Vampires”

New Hatreds and New Vampires

Stoker, Chapters 18-23

Jordan, Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Sharman, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

November 1 “Does Terror Age Gracefully?”

New Hatreds and New Vampires

Stoker, Chapters 24-27

Browning, Dracula (1931)
Merhige, Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

November 1:

THIRD ASSIGNMENT DUE (prospectus)

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 3 “Animal Apparitions”

Images by Steinlen, Bilibin, Vrubel and Repin

Poe, “The Black Cat” (1843)

Gordon, The Black Cat (2006)

McTiege, The Raven (2012)

Aronofsky, Black Swan (2010)

Poe (ppt)

November 8 “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears”

Outcasts, Veterans, and Bandits

Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog, pages 1-45

Bortko, Heart of a Dog (1988)
Adabashyan, Azazel (2002)
Sidorov, Brigada (2002)
Repin, Vrubel, and Bilibin (ppt)

November 10 “Scientific Dystopia and the Uncanny Valley”

Cyborgs and Clones

Bulgakov, pages 46-85

Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Tool/Jones, “Stinkfist” (1996)
Scorcese, Hugo (2011)

November 15 “More and Less than Human”

More and Less than Human

Bulgakov, pages 86-123

Bekmambetov, Night Watch (2004)
Aphex Twin/Cunningham, “Come to Daddy” (1997)

November 17 “What Exactly Is Surrealism?”

Magritte, Dalì, and friends

Breton and Éluard, from The Immaculate Conception (1930)

Dalì and Buñuel, Andalusian Dog (1928)
Anderson, opening credits, Dexter (2002)
Surrealism (ppt)

November 22 “Surrealist Film”

Surrealism’s Aftermaths

Dahl, “The Landlady” (1959)

Hitchcock, Spellbound(1945)

Del Torro, Pan’s Labyrinth(2006)

November 22

FOURTH ASSIGNMENT DUE (Video Project)

November 24-28

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

November 29 “The Modern Double”

The Uncanny Valley

none

Peele, Us (2017)

December 1: “Exquisite Corpses and Course Evaluations”

 

Anderson, Let The Right One In (2008)

December 1:

 PART 2 OF “BOOK OF DREAM ANALYSES” DUE

December 3: No Section Meeting

No Assignments Accepted after 5PM

December 6:

 No Lecture – Individual Conferences About Coursework

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