In this course, we'll consider American texts about the supernatural. We'll begin in the colonial period, when many New Englanders interpreted surprising events as divine or demonic interventions. We'll look at texts about Salem witchcraft and colonial revivals, comparing the way authors argue that these events are supernatural or natural, divine or diabolical. We'll then consider American writers who use the supernatural to investigate the mind, issues of class and gender, and questions of identity. We’ll close by considering ghost stories in performance. Texts include Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World; Melville, "The Apple-Tree Table"; James, The Turn of the Screw; Hopkins, Of One Blood; Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables; Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses.

This spring, most materials for this course will be housed on a course wiki. To join the wiki, click here and select fysbx1181-001-2011-1 from the drop-down menu.

Once you have joined the wiki, you can access it by going to http://fysbx1181-001-2011-1.wikispaces.columbia.edu/ and logging in with your UNI.