Russian 229 - Ghosts on Page and on Stage

Ghosts are everywhere. From ancient religious texts to contemporary bestsellers, from urban legends to theoretical debates about late-stage capitalism, ghosts have haunted the popular imagination. They return time and again to declare that we are not yet done with the past. The ghost is a figure that undermines determinate endpoints and opens up a world in which a chill in the air or a rustle in the house can cause our faculties of rationalism to crumble, as our minds might race toward a supernatural explanation. Going by different names — ghost, spirit, specter, phantom, apparition — these liminal entities exist between life and death, between being and nothingness, between presence and absence. This course traces the appearance and evolution of the ghost in a variety of mediums and societies. Ghosts are simultaneously a commonplace trope in nearly every cultural genre and figures of intense mystification, confusion, and fear. We will journey from the dark castles and rainy moors of Gothic prose to the ghosts of contemporary poetry. Along the way, we will take detours into ballet, opera, theatre, and film from the Russian tradition, pausing to linger on questions of class, colonialism, disability, gender, race, and sexuality.

Offered Fall 2026. Professor Donohoe. 

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, group work, visual analysis.