ENGL 63.06 The Undead South: Horror and Haunting in U.S. Southern Literature

This course explores the many forms of horror and haunting—racial, cultural, historic, economic, political—in the region known as the U.S. South, a national space where the possibilities of regeneration are continually thwarted by the aftershocks of a harrowing past. “Undead” tropes encompass numerous varieties of posthumous horror: the dead rising from graves; mourning and funerary practices; the glorification of lost causes and heroes; the excavation of unsuccessfully repressed crimes and bodies. We will consider both traditional forms of Gothic representation (in works by Poe, O’Connor, Faulkner, etc.) as well as contemporary resurgences in the vampires, zombies, and other necrotic forms of recent literature, television, film, and other media. Along the way, we will seek to identify the disturbing ways that the U.S. South has served—both consensually and coercively—as a kind of purgatorial space for America’s most haunting histories.

Instructor

Benson Taylor

Prerequisite

Recommended: two completed English courses

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:LIT; WCult:W

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Department-Specific Course Categories

Junior Colloquium: Course Group III

Offered

• Fall