19th Century Novel to Film: British Monsters

I.  Course Objective
    
This course will focus on the representation of “monstrousness” in four canonical nineteenth-century British novels, read alongside Edmund Burke’s A Philosophic Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757).  The readings and discussion will explore changing ideas about literary form (novels and films) as well as allow us to analyze the ways that the idea of monstrousness changed (or didn’t change) after Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859).  We will ask: what is a “monster”?  How do they terrify?  Are monsters non-human, pre-human, sub-human, or superhuman?  Is monstrosity a matter of the unnatural or the supernatural? Of evil (witchcraft)? Of evolution gone awry?  Of moralâ�¨failure? Is “monstrosity” infectious?  If so, how should one protect oneself?  We will also consider how the notion of “ugliness” engages with aesthetic ideas of beauty.
We will look closely at these texts to investigate how each of these authors used scientific knowledge available to them to create a “monstrous” character. We will explore how each novelist used the idiom of genetics, race, biology, gender, heritage, blood, mating, geography, competition, and nurture in creating human characters, thus destabilizing the notion of the monstrous. We will investigate the extent to which the reader should identify with the monster rather than the humans.
Finally, we will look at the translation and transformation of these novels (well, not the Darwin) into film.  Examining each film in relation to the text, we will consider the strategies that each filmmaker uses to represent monstrosity, such as lighting, camera angles, and music.  

II.  Required Texts:

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1831)
H. Rider Haggard, She  (1887)
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
Bram Stoker, Dracula  (1897)
Edmund Burke: Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
Charles Darwin, from Origin of Species (handout)
 
VI.  Schedule
Week 1        WHAT IS MONSTROSITY?
M  9/1       Introduction to the Course, Concepts and Terminology
For 9/8, read Mary Shelley, Frankenstein:  Introduction through Chapter 10
Burke: Introduction, on Taste.

Week 2        THE LONELINESS OF BEING A MONSTER

W  9/8        Mary Shelley, Frankenstein:  Introduction through Chapter 10
        Burke: Section I: Novelty, II, Pain & Pleasure to V, Joy & Grief
Week 3        PERFORMING MONSTROSITY

M   9/13    Frankenstein  Chapters 11-19  
        Burke, Section VI (Self-preservation) to XIII (Sympathy)
W   9/15    Frankenstein Chapters 20-24 (end)
        Burke, XIV, Sympathy and the distress of others to XIX, the Conclusion
Week 4        ORIGIN OF SPECIES    

M  9/20    Film:  Frankenstein
        HANDOUT: PAPER I ASSIGNMENT, DUE 10/13.
W  9/22     H. Rider Haggard’s  She:  Introduction-Chapter 6
        Darwin: from Origin of Species (handout)
Week 5        EVOLUTION AND MONSTROSITY

M 9/27       She:  Chapters 7-15
        Darwin: from Origin of Species (handout)
W 9/29    She: Chapters 16-22
        Darwin: from Origin of Species (handout)

Week 6         WHO IS THE MONSTER?

M  10/4     She:  Chapter 23-28  
        Burke: Part II Section I: Sublime; Section II: Terror; Section III/IV: Obscurity
W  10/6    She (Film)

Week 7          PORTRAIT OF A MONSTER

M  10/11        No Class: Fall Break
W  10/13    Oscar Wilde Picture of Dorian Gray: Preface-Chapter 3   
PAPER I DUE

Week 8           THE MONSTROUS SOUL

M 10/18    Dorian Gray: Chapters 4-8
        Burke: Part III:  Sections I-XXVII
W 10/20    Dorian Gray: Chapters 9-12
        Burke: Part IV:  Sections I-XXV

Week 9     TEXT TO FILM:  WHAT IS A MONSTER?

M 10/25    Dorian Gray: Chapters 13-20
        Burke: Part V:  Sections I-VII
W  10/27    Dorian Gray: Films

Week 10     THE MONSTER AS DISORDER

M  11/1     Midterm Exam (IDs)
W  11/3    Bram Stoker, Dracula: Chapters 1-5
        Burke: Part II:  Sections V (Power)-XXII (Feeling, Pain)

Week 11    MONSTROUS JOURNEYS

M  11/8    Dracula: Chapters 5-8
W  11/10    Films: Dracula Opening Scenes

Week 12       MONSTROUS GENTLEMEN

M  11/15    Dracula: Chapters 9-18
W  11/17    Dracula: Chapters 19-23

Week 13    MONSTROUS REPRODUCTION

M  11/22    Films
W  11/24    No Class: Thanksgiving Break

Week 14    MONSTROUS UNDEAD  

M  11/29    Dracula Chapter 23-end
W  12/1    Bram Stoker’s Dracula  (Film)   

Week 15    PRESENTATIONS: MONSTROSITY

M 12/6        Presentations
W 12/8    Presentations

Week 16    FINAL
    
M 12/13    Final Exam (IDs)
Th 12/16    FINAL PAPER DUE