How many of us have seen a Frankenstein movie, whether the Boris Karloff original, the hilarious Mel Brooks parody Young Frankenstein, or the sexy midnight musical, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, to name but a very few? Or how about a Dracula movie, from the early and creepy Nosferatu, to Francis Ford Coppola’s putatively faithful version, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to the action movie Van Helsing? But fewer of us have read the books from which these sprang (however indirectly). In this class, we will read and analyze both of these novels—Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, published in 1818, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, published in 1897—as well as Henry James’s baffling and hypnotic novella The Turn of the Screw, published in 1898. All three richly reward closer study. We will consider them not only as works of literature, but also in their fascinating biographical and historical contexts. (Note to the timid: They aren’t really all that scary—just spooky at times.)
The class will have some brief lectures but will rely largely on discussion. Expect to read around 40-75 pages per week.