American SuperNaturalism

Course Description

America has long displayed a degree of contempt for its supernatural literature, often regarding such writing as being at odds with America's championing of rationality, skepticism, and pragmatism, as well as with its Judeo-Christian roots.  Yet American supernatural literature has often been quite well-written, and many examples of such literature have worked their way into the American literary canon.  Perhaps more importantly, such ghostly texts have been consistently popular among readers; consider, for example, the new and recent crop of (occasionally) high-quality, supernatural-themed television shows and films.      

In this course we try to come to terms with America's ambivalent relationship with its supernatural literature by surveying the origins and evolution of such writing over the last 200-odd years.  Readings are from such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry James, Edith Wharton, H. P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Rice, and Stephen King; we also consider a few filmed or televised 'texts.'  To more fully explore the breadth of American supernatural literature, we discuss history, culture, religion, myth, race, and—especially—psychology, philosophy, gender, and sexuality.