(Tues. & Thurs. 75 minute classes, with Wednesday-night screening sessions)

This course is an introduction to contemporary race theory through an examination of horror films. Its goal is not to search for "politically correct" imagery but instead to consider ways in which the genre offers an insight into recurring anxieties of the twentieth century.

We will have a lecture introduction to theoretical concepts on Tuesdays, screenings on Wednesdays, and discussions of films and recapitulation of theoretical concerns on Thursdays.

David Theo Goldberg (ed.), Anatomy of Racism. University of Minnesota Press

Poppy Z. Brite, Lost Souls. Dell Publishing

Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks. Grove Press

Lewis R. Gordon, Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism. Humanity Books/Promethean Books

Lewis R. Gordon, Her Majesty’s Other Children. Rowman & Littlefield

H.P. Lovecraft, "The Lurking Fear" and Other Stories. Ballentine Books

Naomi Zack, Race and Mixed Race. Temple University Press

Robert Gooding Williams (ed.), Reading Rodney King. Routledge.

Requirements: (1) 4 film reviews and (2) a final 10-page paper on the impact of race on the construction of the horrific or a 10-page paper on how racial dynamics in a film that you have not previously reviewed. The 4 film reviews can be submitted at any time after a screening of the films discussed. The reviews should not exceed 5 double-spaced pages. They could be as short as 2 double-spaced pages.

Sessions:

Jan. 27th (Th) Initial Introduction to course and handout of syllabus. Themes: Afro-American studies as a branch of human studies that challenges ways in which we read human beings. Race theory as a branch that with similar challenges. Challenges raised by horror.

Feb. 2nd (T) Groundhog Day. Besides the point. Recapitulation of first meeting. Challenges of a critical race theory; challenge of human study in a racist world—how do we study people when their humanity has been denied? How has horror been read and how horror can horror be read?

Feb. 4th Discussion of previous sessions themes (Graduate TA, if available).

Feb. 9th (T) Readings: W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Conservation of Races" and Anthony Appiah, "The Illusion of Race" (both in packet).

Feb. 10th Film: Birth of a Nation.

Feb 11th Discussion of readings and film.

(Graduate TA, if available, and similarly on other Thursdays after screeenings. Recommended: Manthia Diawara (ed.), Black Cinema.

Feb 16th (T) Readings: Sander Gilman’s "‘I’m Down on Whores’: Race and Gender in Victorian London." Recommended Novel: Dracula.

Feb 17th Ash Wednesday. Film: Nosferatu (Mernau’s version). Cf., as well, Hertzog’s version.

Feb 18th Discussion of Nosferatu. Recommended reading: Jonathan Crane: "Nosferatu," from Terror and Everyday Life (Packet) and Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew.

Feb. 23nd (T) Readings: Michael Omi & Howard Winant, "Racial Formation" (Packet) and Lucius T. Outlaw, "Toward a Critical Theory of ‘Race.’" Presented by Laurie Mengel.

Feb. 24rd Film: The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Feb. 25th Readings: Naomi Zack’s discussion of The Island of Dr. Moreau (Packet). Discussion

March 2nd (T) Readings: Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, chaps. 1–5

March 3rd Film: Watermelon Man.

March 4th Reading: Rest of Black Skin, White Masks. Discussion

March 9th (T) Reading: Gordon, Her Majesty’s Other Children, chaps. 1 and 2.

March 10th Film: Candyman.

March 11th Readings: Gary Hoppenstand’s discussion of Clive Barker’s "Forbidden" (packet). Recommended: Clive Barker’s "Forbidden" & re-read Fanon’s Black Skin, ch. 6.

March 16th (T) Readings: Robert Gooding Williams (ed.), Reading Rodney King

March 17th Film (double feature): Videotape of Rodney King Beating and Pulp Fiction

March 18th Discussion.

March 23rd (T) Readings: Lewis Gordon, Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, Part I; Jean Baudrillard, "I’ll Be Your Mirror" (Packet).

March 24rd Film: The Horror of Dorian Grey. Recommended: Reading Oscar Wilde’s original story.

March 25th Readings: Lewis Gordon, Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, the rest; Anthony Appiah’s "Racisms," from Anatomy of Racism

Spring break Read Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls over break.

April 6th (T) Readings: Naomi Zack’s Race and Mixed Race and Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls.

April 7th Film: Alien 4. Recommended: Alien 1 and 2 and Interview with the Vampire.

April 8th Readings: Lewis Gordon, Her Majesty’s Other Children, chaps. 3 and 4. Discussion

April 13th (T) Readings: David Theo Goldberg, "The Social Formation of Racist Discourse"

April 14th Film: An American Werewolf in London

April 15th Readings: Cornel West, "A Genealogy of Modern Racism," from Prophesy, Deliverance! (packet) and Charles Mills’s "Introduction" to The Racial Contract (packet).

April 20th (T) Readings: Cornel West, "Nihilism in the Black Community." Gordon, Her Majesty’s Other Children, chap. 5. Recommended: Cornel West’s Race Matters (entirety).

April 21st Film: Night of the Living Dead.

April 22nd Readings: Jonathan Crane, "Terror and Everyday Life" (packet) and R.H. W. Dillard, "Night of the Living Dead: It’s Not Like just a Wind That’s Passing Through" (packet). H.P. Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear, esp. the story, "The Lurking Fear." Discussion.

April 27th (T) Readings: Paget Henry, "African and Afro-Caribbean Existential Philosophies" (packet). Recommended: Existence in Black, ed. by Lewis Gordon.

April 28th Film (double feature): Blood Lovers and Scream, Blacula, Scream! And recommended: Blade.

April 29th Discussion and conclusion

May 5–7th Blaxploitation and Other Black Horror Films Festival: Blacula, Blackenstein, J.D.’s Revenge, Vampire in Brooklyn, etc.