College Seminar 002
Tragedy and Horror

Curtis Bowman
Office: Thomas 121
Office Hours: T 2:30-4:30
cubowman@nous.phil.upenn.edu
http://www.phil.upenn.edu/~cubowman

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to read and reflect on literary works that provoke responses in us that we are bound to find puzzling, in particular our responses to the representations of tragic or horrifying events. Normally, witnessing such events is painful, yet in literary contexts we can derive great pleasure from the representations of events that would be anything but pleasurable to us if were they real. Understanding how we can take pleasure in these representations is one of the foundational questions of aesthetics.

We will alternate between literature and aesthetics, using philosophical commentary to deepen our appreciation of the literature. The literary works that we will read will include three famous weird tales by E. T. A. Hoffmann, J. S. LeFanu, and H. P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Homer's Iliad, Sophocles' Oedipus the King, and Shakespeare's King Lear. The philosophical readings will be drawn from works by Sigmund Freud, Noël Carroll, Plato, Aristotle, Simone Weil, Leo Tolstoy, and Stanley Cavell.

Required Texts

Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror    (Routledge)

Homer, The Iliad    (Penguin)

Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House    (Viking Press)

D. A. Russell & M. Winterbottom (eds.), Classical Literary Criticism    (Oxford)

Shakespeare, King Lear    (Signet Classic)

Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays    (Penguin)

Simone Weil, The Iliad, or The Poem of Force    (Pendle Hill)

(Also, there will also be a package of photocopies containing the material from Hoffmann, Freud, LeFanu, Lovecraft, Tolstoy, and Cavell.)

Readings

Horror

(1) The Weird Tale:

(a) E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman"

Commentary: Sigmund Freud's "The Uncanny"

(b) J.S. LeFanu's "Schalken the Painter" and H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror"

(2) Theories of Tragedy and Horror: Aristotle's Poetics (selections) & Carroll's The Philosophy of Horror (pp. 1-11, 12-58, 59-96, 158-195)

(3) Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House

Ancient Tragedy

(1) Homer's Iliad

Commentary: Weil's The Iliad, or The Poem of Force

(2) Sophocles' Oedipus the King

Commentary on Tragedy and its Effects:

(a) Plato's Critique of Tragic Poetry: Book 10 of The Republic

(b) Aristotle's Analysis and Defense of Poetry: Poetics (in its entirety)

Modern Tragedy

(1) Shakespeare's King Lear

Commentary: Tolstoy's "Shakespeare and the Drama" & Cavell's "The Avoidance of Love"

Course Requirements

Students will write one short paper (2-3 pages) and three longer papers (5-10 pages in length). I will read and comment on first drafts of each paper, and then students will meet me for conferences to discuss the comments. Students will then revise the paper for a grade. The papers will contribute to the course grade as follows: first paper (10%), second paper (20%), third and fourth papers (25% each).

Noël Carroll will be visiting Bryn Mawr on February 27th. He will meet with us during the regular class time, and then give a public lecture later in the day. Students are expected to attend the lecture. Please make arrangements to do so in advance.

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This page last modified on January 23, 2001.