Theorizing Horror

4.0 credits

The horror film has consistently put on spectacular, fantastic display a range of historically andculturally specific fears and anxieties. The genre has been especially generative for theoristsseeking to understand the somatic and affective capacities of the cinematic medium, and scholarshave explored the complex and contradictory politics of the genre’s visceral effects. This seminardoes not present a cultural history of the horror film or trace the evolution of the genre. Rather,we will examine theories of horror as they have developed in relation to other approaches infilm/media studies and critical theory, including psychoanalysis, Marxism, queer theory,disability studies, and affect theory. The seminar is organized into two alternating conceptualgroupings: gender, sexuality, and the body; horror as political allegory.