First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-23)
Topic
Religion and Horror
Instructors
Lily Clara Stewart
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 4-410: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Why are so many horror movies about religion? How does religion help people through experiences of horror? How does religion create and normalize horror in everyday lives? How does horror help us construct and understand the differences between "other people" and "other people's religions" and our own selves and religious worlds?
This class explores these and other questions about the relationship between religion and horror. We will consider how horror as a genre can be a meaningful way for people to think through their experiences of religious trauma, and how religion has likewise been a meaningful way to heal from the horrors of war, loss, and violence. In the first half of the course, will consider how the languages of horror, monstrosity, and the unknown have been used to construct the bodies and ideologies of "other people" from ancient world cultures to modern ones. We will analyze how processes of fear and hate, like racism and xenophobia, draw from (and reproduce) strange and frightening constructions of religious "others." We will watch movies like the 2019 hit Midommar, read monster theory, and explore the histories of giants, zombies, and vampires. The second half of the class will turn towards the self, and explore how filmmakers, authors, and theorists have used horror to think about their own religions and religious experiences. We will consider why images of violence and bloodshed are often experienced as holy within devotional practices, how love comes to be associated with sacrifice and suffering, and how bodies are marked concurrently as cites of horror, disgust, and transcendence. We will watch the 1973 classic The Exorcist, read medieval visions of hell, explore tales of hungry ghosts, spirits, and revenants, analyze encounters with demons, jinn, and dybbuks, and ask whether frightening fictionalized worlds can help people reflect on and heal from experiences of religious abuse.
As a first-year writing seminar, students will be asked to introduce their own areas of interest into course discussions and assignments as they develop analytical writing projects that grapple with questions of religion and horror. Students will develop skills in analytical writing, creative thinking, academic question asking, and classroom collaboration.
Teaching Method
Class Attributes
WCAS Writing Seminar
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.