Feminism and Horror: Gender, Power, and the Stories We Fear

Course summary: Explore feminist perspectives on horror in film and literature. In 40 lessons, study how gender, agency, the gaze, the Final Girl, body horror, sexuality, monsters, and cultural change shape fearful narratives. Read and critique established works, experiment with original scenes, and assemble a final evidence-based analysis or creative horror project.

Course overview: For writers, close readers, film students, and critics. Ten modules contain four independently teachable lessons each. Plan roughly 2–4 hours per lesson for reading, drafting, and revision. No film purchase is required: you may analyze accessible clips, approved texts, or the original practice scenes supplied here.

Learning outcomes: Recognize major feminist critical questions in horror; distinguish an observation from an interpretation; analyze viewpoint, body representation, agency, tropes, and historical context; construct a coherent critique; write and revise an original horror scene in which fear expresses a meaningful conflict about power.

Portfolio: Preserve two versions of your practice work, brief shot or passage analyses, notes on interpretive alternatives, and a final reflection. Sensitive topics can be approached through implication rather than graphic depiction. Interpretive claims should cite the film or literary work being analyzed.

AI writing partner: Optional tools may help generate counterquestions about a reading, locate vague language in an original draft, or check whether a scene’s choices follow from its setup. Verify all facts and quotations independently. The human student makes all interpretive and creative decisions and does not present AI prose as personal writing.