Uncanny

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Topics and Readings

Defining Our Terms

August 26 “Introductions and Beginnings”

Welcome to the Uncanny

None

Nolan, Inception (2010)

August 28 “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 2

LABOR DAY HOLIDAY

September 4 “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 9

Does Theory Help or Harm?

Sigmund Freud, pages 233-252

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

Smith, The Sandman (2022)
Freud (ppt)

Parisian Anxieties

September 11 “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 16 “Angry Escapes”

The Doors, Patti Smith, and beyond

Rimbaud, from A Season in Hell (1873)

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

September 18 “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 (please note change of date!)

FIRST ASSIGNMENT DUE (2-page essay)

September 23 “Control(Freak)ing Your World”

Moreau’s and Rédon’s Hallucinations

Huysmans, pages 44-61

Singh, The Cell (2000) Clip 1, Clip 2

September 25 “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 30 “Waking Up”

Absinthe Art

Huysmans, pages 164-181

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

London’s Secrets

October 2 “Daydreaming and Decadence”

Decadent London?

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

Gilbert, Wilde (1997)

Haynes, Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Wilde (ppt)

October 7 “Doing Research at UT Austin”

Introduction to UT Libraries

none

none

October 9 “The Art of Necrophilia”

How Many More Ophelias?

Wilde, Chapters 4-7

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

October 14 “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 14

SECOND ASSIGNMENT DUE (research report)

October 16 “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 16:

PART 1 OF “DREAM ANALYSES” DUE

October 21 “New Urban Terrors”

Dystopic London?

Stoker, Dracula (1897), Chapters 1-6

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

October 23 “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 28 “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 30 “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 4 “Does Terror Age Gracefully?”

De-“coding” the Vampire

Stoker, Chapters 24-27

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

November 4

THIRD ASSIGNMENT DUE (prospectus)

Moscow’s Demons and Dogs

November 6 “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 11 “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 13 “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 18 “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 20 “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 20

FOURTH ASSIGNMENT DUE (Video Project)

November 25-29

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

December 2 “Surrealist Aftermaths and The Modern Double”

The Uncanny Valley

none

Del Torro, Pan’s Labyrinth(2006), Peele, Us (2017)

December 4 “Exquisite Corpses and Course Evaluations”

Farewells

Anderson, Let The Right One In (2008)

December 4

 PART 2 OF “BOOK OF DREAM ANALYSES” DUE

No Assignments Accepted after 5PM

 

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