Every once in a while I come across great academic courses related to horror and my latest find is one presented by horror historian David J. Skal. He is presenting a graduate seminar at Trinity College Dublin based upon his book The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror (Faber & Faber, 2001). Here is the lecture breakdown:

Class #1 – September 29
Lecture/​Discussion: Introduction to topic. The image of the monster in western culture. Roots of modern horror in German romanticism /​expressionism. Early silent films, the rise of Lon Chaney as a major horror icon, and the central importance of Universal Pictures and its connection to Germany to the legacy of mass media horror.

Screening:The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (viewed in class).

Class #2 – October 6
Lecture/​Discussion: Mary Shelley and her “hideous progeny.” The literary, theatrical, cinematic and cultural implications of Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus. “Mad” science as a major twentieth-century myth. Overview of critical approaches to Shelley.

Reading: Shelley, Frankenstein; Skal, The Monster Show (“You Will Become Caligari,” “The Monsters and Mr. Liveright,” and “1931: The American Abyss”).

Screening: Frankenstein (Whale); The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster (Skal documentary).

Class #3 – October 13
Lecture/​Discussion: Roots of the vampire myth in Slavic folklore and English literature, and the history of Dracula from page to stage to screen. Overview of critical approaches to Stoker.

Reading: Stoker, Dracula (including Norton edition essays “Kiss Me with Those Red Lips” by Craft and “The Occidental Tourist” by Arrata); Tolstoy, “The Family of the Wurdalak” (Skal, trans.)

Screening: Nosferatu (Murnau, excerpt); Dracula (Browning); The Road to Dracula (Skal documentary, in-class viewing).

Class #4 – October 20

Lecture/​Discussion: The doppelganger as a major horror motif. Second selves, stolen identities, and the recreated/​revived/​transformed persona. Various critical approaches to Stevenson.

Reading: Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (including Norton edition essay “Sex, Secrecy, and Self-Alienation” by Linehan).

Screening: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian).

Class #5 – October 27
Lecture/​Discussion: The emergence of cultural “decadence” as a literary/​cinematic horror conceit, and the rise of the gay-monstrous.

Reading: Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray including Norton edition essay “Wilde’s Parable of the Fall” by Oates).

Screening: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Lewin); Dracula’s Daughter (Hillyer, excerpt).

Class #6 – November 3
Lecture/​Discussion: Evolution, atavism and degeneration.

Reading: Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau (including Atwood introduction); Skal, The Monster Show (“Tod Browning’s America”).

Screening: The Island of Lost Souls (Kenton); Freaks (Browning); Monster by Moonlight: The Immortal Saga of the Wolf Man (Skal documentary; in-class screening).

November 8-12: Study Break

Class #7 – November 17
Lecture/​Discussion: The ongoing influence of German expressionism and World War I on the horror genre, with American censorship as a shaping force.

Screening: The Black Cat (Ulmer); Bride of Frankenstein (Whale).

Reading: Skal, The Monster Show (“Angry Villagers”).

Class #8 – November 24
Lecture/​Discussion: Mad science, World War II and Cold War paranoia, anxiety and alienation.

Screening: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel); The Universe According to Universal (Skal documentary, in-class screening).

Reading: Skal, The Monster Show ( “I Used to Know Your Daddy,” and “Drive-Ins Are a Ghoul’s Best Friend.”).

Class #9 – December 1
Lecture/​Discussion: The monstrous-feminine as a major horror theme, with reproductive nightmares as a larger cultural subject.

Screening: Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski); The Brood (Cronenberg).

Reading: Skal, The Monster Show (“It’s Alive, I’m Afraid”).

Class #10 – December 8
Lecture/​discussion: The rise of transgressive horror and gruesome special effects during and after the Vietnam era.

Screening: Night of the Living Dead (Romero); The Exorcist (Friedkin).

Reading: Skal, The Monster Show (“Scar Wars”).

Class #11 – December 15
Lecture/​discussion: Two Academy Award-winning films reflect a major cultural assimilation of classic horror icons at the millennium.

Screening: Ed Wood (Burton, excerpts);  Gods and Monsters (Condon); The World of Gods and Monsters (Skal documentary, in-class viewing).

You can learn more about this course at Skal’s website.