This course schedule provides all the key information for your daily work in the course. Please bookmark it and refer to it for each assignment. Please do not rely on a print version of this page, as I regularly update and change it. Be sure to refer to this page to see what your assignment is.

Jump to today

This course meets daily from 10am - 12pm. We also have required screenings each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. While we might not use the full alotted time every day, we will do so most of the time. Plan to be present for the class and the following screening on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I start class on time, so be there right at 1:00—missing twenty minutes at the beginning will make the business of the course difficult to conduct.

Week 1: History of Zombies in Popular Media

Week one focuses on the emergence of the most popular medium of zombie texts--the zombie film. We view three early zombie films and consider how early cinema history and popular imagination about the zombie figure in voodoo led to the zombie as it appears in its current guises.

T 2 Jan: Introduction, Syllabus review
Discussion: previous knowledge
Syllabus overview
Hand out presentation assignment. Sign up for presentations.
Screening: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Homework for Wednesday: Read Phillips, Post response in OASIS
Select your three top choices for zombie texts to present on

W 3 Jan: Rise of horror film
Quiz: Night of the Living Dead
The rise of the horror film
Discussion: Night of the Living Dead
Discussion: Phillips
Screening: I Walked With a Zombie (1943); Divine Horsemen (1961) - clips

Homework for Thursday: Read Deren, Post response in OASIS

R 4 Jan: Haitian Voodoo zombie
Mini-lecture: Hollywood and Voodoo
Discussion: Deren
Rituals on screen
Discussion: I Walked with a Zombie
How do Haitian voudou zombies relate to other zombies we’ve seen?
Screening: Carnival of Souls

Homework for Friday: Read Walz & Bishop, Post response in OASIS

F 5 Jan: Aesthetics of Horror film
Discussion: Carnival of Souls
Discussion: Walz & Bishop
How do the aesthetics of horror film shape the zombie?
How do I Walked and Carnival influence Night

Homework for Monday: Seabrook, selections, Post response on OASIS

Week 2: Reading Zombies Critically

Week two explores the critical practice of “hermeneutics,” or interpretation. We will engage with a variety of critical texts to begin unlocking the cultural and textual influences that make zombie films frightening. In addition to the films we’ve watched thus far, we will also have presentations from classmates for their outside text project.

Homework for Monday: Seabrook, selections; Post response on OASIS

M 8 Jan: Literature vs Film zombie
Discussion: Seabrook vs. Romero
Lecture: Theory and Hermeneutics
Receive Final Project assignment

Homework for Tuesday: Read Demeterio, "Introduction to Hermeneutics" (online or via OASIS) and Gardner, "Literary Criticism and Literary Theory" (in-class handout or via OASIS); Post response in OASIS

T 9 Jan: Cultural critique through film
Review Hermeneutics
Readings of last week’s films
Final Project assigned, discussed
Screening: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Homework for Wednesday: Horne and Harper; Post response in OASIS

Homework for Thursday: Sheller, Davis, selections; Post response in OASIS
Finish Final Project Proposal

R 11 Jan: Colonialism and Zombies
Discussion: Serpent and the Rainbow
Discussion: Sheller, Davis
Final project proposal due
Presentation: Mayme, Return of the Living Dead & White Zombie
Bobby, Return of the Living Dead 3 & "Night of the Giving Head"
Screening: Dead Alive

Homework for Friday: Creed; Post response in OASIS

F 12 Jan: The Abject, Gender relations
Discuss final project proposals
Discussion: Dead Alive
Discussion: Creed
Presentation: Kelly C, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead
Jonathan, Stubbs the Zombie

Homework for Tuesday: Sontag and Brooks, selections; Post response in OASIS

Week 3: Revisionist Zombies

In week three, the course moves into conversations about the zombie genre as genre. We explore the ways in which recent films and other media are created in the shadow of previous zombie texts, and how they use and abuse those tropes. We will also select a zombie film for the class to watch which we will explore on the last day of class. Finally, week three also includes some time to peer-workshop our final projects, particularly our artists’ statements.

M 15 Jan:
No class: MLKJr Day.

Homework for Tuesday: Sontag and Brooks, Post response on OASIS
Peer discussion materials due

T 16 Jan: Disease as horror
Discussion: Sontag
Clips: 28 Days Later
Presentations: Alex and Brendan G, World War Z
Ben, Walking Dead, Volumes 1 & 2
Christine, Marvel Zombies
Screening: Cemetery Man

Homework for Wednesday: Guins; Post response on OASIS
Bring copies of artist's statement for final project and final project in progress
or Rough Draft of critical essay

W 17 Jan: Tropes and stereotypes
Discussion: Cemetery Man
Discussion: Guins
Clip: Dawn of the Dead, 2004
Presentations: Nick and John B, The Undead and Philosophy
Kellye F, "Herbert West, reanimator"
Peer review of final projects
Screening: Shaun of the Dead

Homework for Thursday: read Carroll; Post response on OASIS

R 18 Jan: Humor and Horror
Discussion: Shaun of the Dead
Discussion: Carroll and revisionism
Presentations: Tim, Dead Rising
Lindsay, The Zombie Survival Guide
Adam, Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2
Screening: Day of the Dead

Homework for Friday: Finish final project

F 19 Jan: Project presentations
Project presentations
Discuss: class choice, readings, tropes, history, etc
Course wrap up