I: Representations
In this section we’ll explore the way various narrative forms represent the intersection of death and technology, focusing particularly on horror. These representations include examples from fiction, film, and videogames.
Tuesday, January 17 (Week 1)
- Introduction
- The Ghost of Bob Ross
Thursday, January 19
- Walter Benjamin, “The Storyteller” (1936)
- Ray Bradbury, “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950)
Tuesday, January 24 (Week 2)
- “Be Right Back” from Black Mirror (season 2, episode 1) [Screening on Sunday, January 22, 8pm Hance Auditorium]
- Blog: Group A
Thursday, January 26
- “Be Right Back” continued (with in-class scene analysis)
- Isabel Pinedo, “Recreational Terror: Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film” from The Journal of Film and Video (1996)
- Screening on Sunday, January 29 at 8pm in Chambers 2164: The Exorcist (1973, dir. William Friedkin)
- Blog: Group B
Tuesday, January 31 (Week 3)
- Paul Tremblay, chapters 1-5 of A Head Full of Ghosts (2016)
- Barbara Creed, “Woman as Possessed Monster” from The Monstrous-Feminine (1993)
- Blog: Group C
Thursday, February 2
- Chapters 6-17 of A Head Full of Ghosts
- Postmodern Horror Snapchat project handed out
- Blog: Group A
Tuesday, February 7 (Week 4)
- Chapters 18-22 of A Head Full of Ghosts
- Blog: Group B
Thursday, February 9
- Chapters 23-26 of A Head Full of Ghosts
- Postmodern Horror Snapchat Story due
- Blog: Group C
Tuesday, February 14 (Week 5)
- Dead Set, episode 1-2 (search for “Dead Set” on Netflix)
- Susan Sontag, “The Imagination of Disaster” from Against Interpretation (1965)
- Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” from Monster Theory: Reading Culture (1996)
- Blog: Group A
Thursday, February 16
- Dead Set, episodes 3-5 (with in-class scene analysis)
- Kyle William Bishop, Introduction to American Zombie Gothic (2010)
- Comparative Horror Analysis assigned
- Blog: Group B
Tuesday, February 21 (Week 6)
- Carly Kocurek, “Who Hearkens to the Monster’s Scream: Death, Violence, and the Veil of the Monstrous in Video Games” from Visual Studies (2015)
- Blog: Group C
Thursday, February 23
-
Ewan Kirkland, “Resident Evil’s Typewriter: Survival Horror and Its Remediations” from Games and Culture (2009)
II: Social Media
In this section we’ll examine death and its expression and consequences on social media and the Internet, including the recurring theme of communing with the dead through technology.
Tuesday, February 28 (Week 7)
- Natalie Zarrelli, “Dial-a-Ghost on Thomas Edison’s Least Successful Invention: the Spirit Phone” from Atlas Obscura (2016)
- The Phone Call from the Dead trope
- Blog: Group A
Thursday, March 2
- Jonathan Sterne, pages 287-311 of “A Resonant Tomb” from The Audible Past (2003)
- Comparative Contemporary Horror Analysis due by midnight March 1
- Blog: Group B
Tuesday, March 7 (Week 8)
- Spring Break (No Classes)
Thursday, March 9
- Spring Break (No Classes)
Tuesday, March 14 (Week 9)
- Jed Brubaker, Gillian Hayes, and Paul Dourish, “Beyond the Grave: Facebook as a Site for the Expansion of Death and Mourning” from The Information Society (2013)
- Connor Graham et al., “Gravesites and Websites: A Comparison of Memorialisation” from Visual Studies (2015)
- Haunted Media Project assigned
- Blog: Group C
Thursday, March 16
- Eric Meyer, Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty (2014)
- Whitney Phillips, LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online from First Monday (2011)
- Megan Garber, Enter the Grief Police from The Atlanta (2016)
- Blog: Group A
Tuesday, March 21 (Week 10)
- Rob Walker, Cyberspace when You’re Dead from New York Times (2011)
- Alex Senemar, What Happens to Your Data when You Die? from Medium (2015)
- Ethan Chiel, What Happens to a Twitter Bot after Its Maker Dies? from Fusion (2016)
- Blog: Group B
Thursday, March 23
- No Class: work on Haunted Media Project
III: Augmented Death
In this section we’ll consider the changes to death, dying, and the afterlife in the offline world wrought by contemporary technology.
Tuesday, March 28 (Week 11)
- Lex Berko, Death on the Internet: The Rise of Livestreaming Funerals from The Atlantic (2014)
- Tamara Kneese, QR Codes for the Dead from The Atlantic (2014)
- Shahak Shapira, Yolocaust (2017)
- Blog: Group C
Thursday, March 30
- Read at least two articles from Fusion‘s series on the future of death
- Haunted Media Project MVP due in class
- Blog: Group A
Tuesday, April 4 (Week 12)
- Alexandra Sherlock, “Larger than Life: Digital Resurrection and the Re-Enchantment of Society” from The Information Society (2013)
- Celebrity Deaths and Afterlife: Selling the dead, Behind the Tupac hologram, and the resurrection of Hollywood actors
- Blog: Group B
Thursday, April 6
- Haunted Media Project due
Tuesday, April 11 (Week 13)
- Robin Marantz Henig, “Death by Robot” from The New York Times (January 9, 2015)
- Danny Yadron and Dan Tynan, “Tesla Driver Dies in First Fatal Crash While Using Autopilot Mode” from The Guardian (June 30, 2016)
- Jack Stewart, “After Probing Tesla’s Deadly Crash, Feds Say Yay to Self-Driving” from Wired (January 20, 2017)
- Final Project handed out
- Blog: Group C
Thursday, April 13
- Ganna Yankovska and Kevin Hannam, “Dark and Toxic Tourism in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone” from Current Issues in Tourism (2014)
- Blog: Group A
IV: The Death of Technology
In this section we’ll imagine the death of technology itself, including obsolescence, e-waste, and the post-digital world.
Tuesday, April 18 (Week 14)
- Easter Break (No Class)
Thursday, April 20
- Raiford Guins, “Landfill Legend” from Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife (2014)
- Blog: Group B
Tuesday, April 25 (Week 15)
- Emily St. John Mandel, chapters 1-12, Station Eleven (2014)
- Blog: Group C
Thursday, April 27
- Steven Jackson, “Rethinking Repair” (2014)
- Station Eleven, chapters 13-26
- Blog: Group A
Tuesday, May 2 (Week 16)
- Station Eleven, chapters 27-47
- Blog: Group B
Thursday, May 4
- Station Eleven, chapters 48-55
- Blog: Group C