Wish you could have taken my spring semester monster class? Now’s your chance!

Introducing Monster Mash for adults (and high schoolers)!

Monsters are a mainstay of the human imagination. From the ancient Minotaur and Medusa to Medieval dragons and devils to modern werewolves and vampires, we have always been fascinated by the non-human and otherworldly enemy. Monsters give us something to fight as well as something to put in front of us to remind ourselves that we are humans and not beasts.

In this course, we will read monster stories from ancient to modern times and consider ageless questions: 

• What is a monster? 

• What makes something a monster? 

• How does one defeat a monster? 

• What is a man? 

• What happens when a man becomes monstrous? 

• How does one conquer the monster within?

Materials

We will read and study the following texts. In order to cover a variety of sources, we will move at a quick clip. Hopefully, these are some texts that participants are familiar with, and if not, I recommend starting the middle three at your convenience.

• Week 1: Select fairy tales and myths (provided)

• Week 2: Beowulf, translated by Burton Raffel (ISBN: 9780451530967)

• Week 3: Frankenstein (1818 text) by Mary Shelley (ISBN: 9780143131847)

• Week 4: The Hobbit by J. R.R. Tolkein (ISBN: 9780547928227 pbk)

• Week 5: Select short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Flannery O’Connor, and Jorge Luis Borges (provided)

Day and Time

• 7–8:30 p.m. Thursdays (EST), May 30–June 27

• Live classes are recorded and posted online. You are welcome to participate live or asynchronously.

Cost

• $125