Horror and PhilosophyGLS 592 Fall 2017 Patricia Turrisi

Wednesdays 3:30 – 6:15 PM

When I was very young, my father introduced me to horror movies through “Chiller Theater,” a show that aired on Saturday nights in the New York area. Though I was terribly frightened of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Cyclops, Godzilla and all the rest, he helped me get over my fear by showing me how to deconstruct these films. I later came to understand how one of the building blocks of a vibrant intellectual life is the concept of “this stands for that,” that we could and should look at the symbolism and greater context of cultural events such as horror literature to see how they are linked to the greater world and to history.

For example, is nature or nurture responsible for human character?

Because horror presents human beings at the extremes (of life, of

danger, of the ability to understand and cope

with ourselves and the world), it leads us to question and explore

classical and new philosophical issues.

Was Norman Bates born a creepy murderer or did his upbringing make him so?

Freedom

Self-determination Free will

What are the limits of our ability to decide our own actions?

What are the exceptions to freedom of the will?

The Nature of Reality

Social Construction Simulacra

Death and Dying

Is the afterlife what we think (or don’t think) it is?

Interpreting Monsters

What defines a “monster”? (What is natural and what is unnatural?)

The Outer Limits of Human Rights

The war of all against all Modernism refuted

What do we lose when we lose civilization?

The view that the world is rationally organized, rationally mediated and rationally understood may be comforting, but what if this view is false?

Operas of violenceWhy do we crave performances of violence?

Course Requirements

FilmsTexts (horror fiction, critical reviews, philosophical essays)Class DiscussionResponse PapersOral PresentationsFocused Research

Readings and films to be announced soon