Research Paper
You will write a 7-8 page research paper. For this paper, you will select a horror story of your choosing (book, movie, television show, comic book, or game). You will ask yourself a question about this story to guide your research. Some questions you might ask yourself are:
- What makes this a horror story?
- How is this story changing or challenging any horror story conventions we’ve discussed in class?
- Where did the monster(s) in the story originate from?
- How has the depiction of the monster(s) changed over time?
- Why should we fear the event, action, or monster(s) in your story?
- What literary devices or story elements is the creator of your story using to frighten their audience?
- To what extent is this figure uncanny?
Sources
To answer your question, you will use at least one of your scholarly in-class sources:
- The Nature of Horror, Noel Carroll
- The Uncanny, Sigmund Freud
- “The Survival of the Gothic Response,” James Keech
You will also select and incorporate two additional sources:
- one additional scholarly text
- one popular press sources (newspaper or magazine articles, blog posts, opinion pieces, reviews, etc)
Parts of The Project
- Annotated Bibliography of your sources
- Essay outline
- Rough Draft (4-5 pages typed and double spaced in MLA 9th Edition style)
- Second Draft (5-7 pages MLA 9th Edition)