Department of English

In this reading-intensive course, we will explore the literature and art of haunted spaces. The class will be multidisciplinary, and in addition to examining classic and contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and film, we will be discussing architecture and architecture theory (including spite houses, Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, and McMansion Hell), learning about the history of belief in ghosts and what it says about our relationship with the past, and exploring the question of what it means for something to be haunted. Students will learn to think more laterally about literature, art, space, and genre, and to respond critically and creatively to their inquiries and discoveries. This is not an introductory course—students should come prepared to read, think, research, ask questions, engage with their classmates, go out on creative and critical limbs, and geek out with their professor about this weird thing she’s obsessed with.