Fear and Learning

This groundbreaking collection of new essays presents critical reflections on teaching horror film and fiction in many different ways and in a variety of academic settings—from cultural theory to film studies; from women’s and gender studies to postcolonialism; from critical thinking seminars on the paranormal to the timeless classics of English horror literature. Together, the essays show readers how the pedagogy of horror can galvanize, unsettle and transform classrooms, giving us powerful tools with which to consider interwoven issues of identity, culture, monstrosity, the relationship between the real and the fictional, normativity and adaptation. Includes a foreword by celebrated horror writer Glen Hirshberg.

Aalya Ahmad teaches at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, and has published work on zombie fiction. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.

Sean Moreland has published numerous essays, primarily on literary and cinematic horror, as well as poetry and short fiction. He is chief editor of Postscripts to Darkness (pstdarkness.com), and is on the editorial board for the Edgar Allan Poe Review.

Edited by Aalya Ahmad and Sean Moreland
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 284
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6820-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9260-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
Foreword by Glen Hirshberg 1
Introduction: Horror in the Classroom
Aalya Ahmad and Sean Moreland 5
Postmodernism with Sam Raimi (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Theory and Love Evil Dead)
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock 19
Towards a Monster Pedagogy: Reclaiming the Classroom for the Other
John Edgar Browning 40
When the Women Think: Teaching Horror in Women’s and Gender Studies
Aalya Ahmad 56
Acts of Re-Possession: Bollywood’s Re-Inventions of the Occult
Possession Film
Sean Moreland and Summer Pervez 75
Beyond the Lure: Teaching Horror, Teaching Theory
Brian Johnson 95
A Raven’s Eye View: Teaching Scopophilia with Dario Argento
K. A. Laity 124
The Hulking Hyde: How the Incredible Hulk Reinvented the Modern Jekyll and Hyde Monster
Lance Eaton 138
Critical Thinking on the Dark Side
Lisa Marie Miller 156
“Inside…­Doesn’t Matter”: Responding to American Psycho and Its Dantean Agenda
Miles Tittle 179
In the Dark of Your Own Psyche: Jungian Theory and Horror
J. A. White 200
Skins and Bones: The Horror of the Real
John Edward Martin 224
The Pedagogical Value of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in Teaching Adaptation Studies
Ben Kooyman 245
About the Contributors 265
Index 269

“Enthralling…a fascinating book”—Popmatters.com