Short courses

Summary

Come modern times, come modern terrors. In the age of mass consumption, urbanisation, global warfare, social liberation and multimedia, what role does superstition and horror still play, particularly in writing? Which ancient fears were re-imagined for a 20th century audience? What kinds of new ‘evil’ were released? Readers were certainly in thrall to writers as diverse as MR James, Shirley Jackson, Toni Morrison, Anne Rice, Stephen King and Angela Carter, with cult followings and adaptations on stage and screen. But what drove and shaped horror as a genre across this momentous century? Why does that writing still terrify us today? 

Join this course to explore Gothic horror writing in the 20th century and investigate the wider cultural, social and political anxieties lurking behind its surface. In particular, join this course to explore a thrilling range of short stories and novels from key figures such as: 

• May Sinclair, selections from Uncanny Stories (1923) 
• Selections from M. R.  James, Collected Ghost Stories (1931), E.F. Benson, ‘Mr. Tilly’s Séance’ (1922) 
• Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Tales of Terror and Mystery’ (1922) 
• Vampire fiction from Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Sherry Gottlieb 
• Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959) 
• Gothic fairy tales from Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979) 
• Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987) 

Over a series of talks and collective close-readings, our expert tutor will explain: 

• The distinctive literary features of a wide variety of key 20th Century horror short stories, novels and novel extracts 
• How to close read these works to examine the literary techniques shaping their effects on us 
• the broader historical context of these works including the cultural, social and political anxieties driving their representation of the supernatural, fantastic and sinister in the modern age 

You will also have the chance to discuss and reflect on what you learn with other students and the tutor in seminars 

Choose this course if you want to learn: 

• more these important writers of horror in the 20th century and their unique approaches to the supernatural  
• how to closely analyse these works and share what you find with others 
• more about the broader historical context of the stories and how they restaged specific social anxieties of their time.