For those of you who might be interested, click through for the reading list I’ve assigned the students taking my “Contemporary Literature: 21st Century Horror” course this fall.

Opening Materials

“The Definition of Horror” by Noel Carroll, a chapter from The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart

“Through a Mirror, Darkly: Art-Horror as a Medium for Moral Reflection” by Philip Tallon,  an essay from the collection The Philosophy of Horror

Severed by Scott Snyder (2012)

The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich (2010)
+ “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” by Jefferey Jerome Cohen, an essay from the collection Monster Theory: Reading Culture

Entrance to a colonial pageant in which we all begin to intricate by Johannes Göransson (2011)
+ “Parasites and Perverts: An introduction to Gothic Monstrosity” by Judith Halberstam, a chapter from Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters

The Marbled Swarm by Dennis Cooper (2011)
+ “The Human” by John Gray, a chapter from Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Maximum Gaga by Lara Glenum (2009)
+ “Approaching Abjection” by Julia Kristeva,  a chapter from Powers of Horror

Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials (Anomaly) by Reza Negarestani (2008)
+ “Black Infinity; Or, Oil Discovers Humans” by Eugene Thacker, an essay from the collection Leper Creativity: Cyclonopedia Symposium

Anatomy Courses by Blake Butler & Sean Kilpatrick (2012)
+ “Formless” by Georges Bataille, from the essay collection Visions Of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939

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[Previous reading lists I've posted include: “Major Figures in American Literature: Gertrude Stein” and "Introduction to Experimental Literature" and "American Postmodernism" and "The European Avant-Garde 1900-1945" and "20th-21st Century Experimental Short Stories"]

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