Spring 2011 texts

For those who are curious, here are the texts for my spring 2011 class, UH 300-009 a.k.a. 21st-Century Fantasy: The Dark Fantastic. The title is a bit misleading, as we'll spend the first third of the semester on some influential precursors before we hit the current stuff.

• Jeffrey Ford, The Shadow Year (2008)
• Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (2008)
• Joe Hill, Heart-Shaped Box (2007)
• Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
• Stephen King, Under the Dome (2009)
• Kelly Link, Pretty Monsters (2008)
• Peter Straub, American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to Now (2 vols., 2009)
• Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger (2009)

I reserve the right to add or subtract texts, of course, but the above is the list I have sent the bookstore. Movies I haven't quite decided on, but they definitely will include The Haunting (dir. Robert Wise, 1963) and might include Pan's Labyrinth (dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2006) or The Orphanage (dir. Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007) or Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008).

I'd like to wedge Terry Pratchett's new Tiffany Aching novel onto the syllabus, too, but I'd hate to do that without the previous three T.A. novels as well ... and there's only so much room. Grumble, gnash, grind.

Please help spread the word to those who might be interested.