Monsters and Mayhem

3 units

Monsters and Mayhem explores the shifting representation of the monstrous in transatlantic literature from the Gothic to the modern era. Focusing on monsters and mayhem as disruptions of the norm, we will examine how literature exposes cultural anxieties about gender, sexuality, race, disability, science, morality, and empire. We will trace how monstrous figures—whether stitched together in laboratories, lurking in London fog, or haunting boundaries of morality and empire-- mirror societal fears of scientific overreach, moral decay, and colonial “civilized,” revealing the contradictions and insecurities of modernity. By the end of the course, students will understand how monsters not only terrified but also illuminated the shifting cultural landscapes of the nineteenth century to the present .