01 CAC 12138 MTH3 JACKSON ABE-1180
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The Aesthetics and Psychology of Fear
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We read gothic literature for pleasure, for the thrill it gives us, for the spine-tingling suspense that builds to a sudden—often deeply—unsettling crescendo. No sooner do we recover from one fright, but we feel the narrative tension mounting again. Aside from this pleasure, what is gothic literature about? Why, for instance, the focus on a protagonist’s fear, anxiety, and helplessness? What draws us to the idea of dark foreboding landscapes, the urban underworld, haunted houses, demonic realms, and alien forces? Why are we repulsed by and drawn to urban legends, ominous figures, foreboding fates, and stories of macabre murders? In pursuing these questions, we will look to the critical frameworks offered by psychology, folklore, anthropology, philosophy, and literary theory. We will examine fear’s psychological payoff and the way the gothic traces social fissures and cultural anxieties: how it retells tragedy, human trauma, violence, and the like. If you’re interested in psychological narratives and in understanding the relationship between fear and its affective pleasure, this is the course for you.