Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0133 - Alien/Freak/Monster

This course examines questions of race, gender, sexuality, cultural difference, and reproduction in science fiction and horror films. It investigates how and why people in different social positions have been constructed as foreign, freakish, or monstrous. In addition to exploring the relationship between sex/gender norms and hierarchies based on race/species or class/caste, we will also consider the following questions: Does the figure of the alien/freak/monster reconfigure the relationship between bodies, technology, and the division of labor? How do such figures simultaneously buttress and transgress the boundary between human and non-human, normal and abnormal, Self and Other? How does society use the grotesque body of the alien/freak/monster to police the liminal limits of sexuality, gender, and ethnicity? How does The Other come to embody Pure Evil? Finally, what are the consequences of living as an alien/freak/monster for specific groups and individuals? This course is reading-, writing-, and theory-intensive.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend 8-10 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.