Happy October! it’s the beginning of Halloween month so we have something a little special. Just over a year ago, we had a show where we invited a bunch of academic friends who teach comics and we developed a course syllabus for a theoretical comics studies course on the air. It was a lot of fun and we came up with a list that none of us would have done on our own. Well, we decided it’d be fun to do that again, but this time with another of our favorite pop culture genres: MONSTERS! Mav and Hannah are joined by Heather Duda and Michael Chemers from our previous monster studies shows as well as returning guest John Darowski and new guest Nicole Aceto to develop the MONSTER SYLLABUS (muhahahahah)!!!! What books should we be reading? What movies should we be watching? What is a monster anyway? We’re going to work it all out. Join us and let us know what you think. Oh… and fair warning, there’s a monster at the end of this podcast.
Citations and Links
- This episode’s Call for Comments
- Course Syllabus Texts:
- Required Monster Theory Texts
- Monster Theory: Reading Culture by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
- The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous edited by Asa Simon Mittman
- Our Vampires, Ourselves by Nina Auerbach
- Required Monster Story Texts
- Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- Carrie by Stephen King
- The Monk by Matthew Lewis
- Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula by Valdimar Ásmundsson and Bram Stoker
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Zone One by Colson Whitehead
- The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories by Angela Carter
- The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
- The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone
- Required Monster Other Media
- Us directed by Jordan Peele
- White Zombie directed by Victor Halperin
- Night of the Living Dead directed by George Romero
- Assorted episodes of Beyond Belief by The Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast
- Assorted Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Assorted Episodes of Penny Dreadful
- The Monster at the End of this Book (youtube version)
- Extra Credit/Independent Study Texts
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- What Savage Beast by Peter David
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Blacula directed by William Crain
- Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah & James Howe
- What We Do in the Shadows directed by Taika Waititi
- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
- Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
- Man-eaters by Chelsea Cain
- Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
- Hellboy by Mike Mignola
- I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly
- Interview With The Vampire: Claudia’s Story by Anne Rice
- Required Monster Theory Texts
- Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme.
- Order The Monster in Theatre History by Michael Chemers
- Order The Monster Hunter in Popular Culture by Heather Duda
- Listen to John Darowski discuss Frankenstein on Episode 202 of The Protagonist Podcast
- Follow Hannah on Twitter: @hannahleerogers
- Follow Mav on Twitter: @chrismaverick
- Follow Mav’s Personal Blog: http://chrismaverick.com
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@chrismaverick @HannahLeeRogers Attn @NostromoSerg
Attn @NostromoSerg
Under “Monster Theory” texts, I’m going to recommend “Monster, She Wrote” by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson, who (among other things) host the “Know Fear” podcast. There’s a decent review of it up on Tor, if you’re curious: https://www.tor.com/2019/10/04/book-reviews-in-monster-she-wrote-by-lisa-kroger-and-melanie-r-anderson/
Thanks, Amy!
You’re quite welcome!
Now I kind of want to find someone teaching “The Rise and Cultural Impact of the Classic Universal Monsters” and offer to be a TA, because I can think envision what great syllabus for the class for the class would look like, but I’m too lazy to ever teach it.
Also I love that theme so much that I think the only reasonable way to hope to keep it in a single semester would be requiring the students to watch the intro movies to the seven main Universal monsters (Dracula, Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s monster, the Bride, Mummy, Invisible Man, and Creature From the Black Lagoon). I might even include Hunchback, Phantom, one of the group movies (eg Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man), and an Abbott & Costello. That way there’s more semester time for the real meat of analyzing what led
to these movies and their place in 1920s-1950s American culture and how they still impact and influence media and society today.
In podcasts and parody, I will also recommend The Monster Hunters.