In this course, we will track the American Horror tradition from its beginnings in the18th century, through its various permutations, and into the present day. We will explore the cultural and psychological underpinnings of horror texts across multiple genres (short stories, novels, films, etc.) in hopes of determining what horror tells us about our fears, our desires, our world, and ourselves. Students should be prepared to analyze texts from a variety of literary and theoretical perspectives and apply tools from psychoanalytic theory, feminist theory, and more. Topics include psychological horror, body horror and (dis)ability, queerness and sexuality, social contract theory, otherness, Black representation, gender and the “male gaze,” and horror as social commentary.