mike frank wrote:
 
>after hiding from the threat for some years i've decided to face
>the monster and have agreed to teach a course on horror films
>in the spring . . . while i know at least some of the interesting work
>on the genre, a lot of what i know is fairly advanced, certainly
>too complicated for non specialist undergrads most of whom
>will be taking the course simply to fulfill a humanities distribution
>requirement . . .
>
>can anyone recommend materials [a book or, perhaps even better,
>a number of essays] that would provide appropriate background
>reading for such a course . . . to the extent that the material touches on
>[or tackles] the latent gender issues in the genre i would be especially
>grateful
>
 
When it comes to gender issues in the horror film, Carol Clover's _Men,
Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film_ (Princeton
University Press, 1992) is a must-read. And, it's not too advanced, at
least not in my opinion.
 
Also recommended:
 
David J. Skal: _The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror_ (Penguin
Books, 1993) - A straightforward,
not-too-theoretical-but-still-quite-illuminating history of horror.
 
Mark Jankovich: _Horror_ (B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1992) - A limited, but
accurate account of theories on modern horror film well suited for
non-specialist undergrads.
 
Andrew Tudor: _Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the
Horror Movie._ (Basil Blackwell, 1989) - This ought to be a classic. I've
used this book a lot of times myself. Contains a very clever categorization
of stages in the development of the horror film.
 
Other works of interest:
 
Gregory A. Waller (ed) _American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American
Horror Film_ (U. of Illinois Press, 1987)
 
Barry Keith Grant: _Planks of Reason: Essays on the Horror Film_ (Scarecrow
Press, 1984)
 
and, the classics, although they might seem a bit dated nowadays:
 
Wood, Robin (1978) Return of the Repressed. Film Comment no 14: 25-32.
Wood, Robin (1980) Neglected Nightmares. Film Comment no 16: 25-28.
 
Good Luck,
 
Ulf
Ulf Dalquist                  Phone:  +46 46 2229572
Dept. of Sociology              Fax:    +46 46 2224794
Box 114 221 00 Lund SWEDEN      E-mail: [log in to unmask]
             http://www.soc.lu.se/~socuda/
"Science is about skepticism"
                 Eugene Miya
 
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