Freshman and Sophomore Programs

Ghost Stories: Why the Dead Return and What They Want From Us Instructor(s): Russell Berman Prerequisites: None
Ghost stories haunt our imagination. When the dead return they may scare us or warn us, they may pursue us with violence or burden us with sorrow. They shock us with the "boo" of surprise, just as they frustrate us by their elusiveness. Blood-chilling stories terrify us, but they also provide entertainment. The ghost story is one of the most enduring genres; from classical literature to popular film. Yet behind the door of the story lurk both anxiety and wisdom: anxiety about our own mortality and wisdom about the cultural place of the past, between memory and regret, mourning and forgetting. The undead point to what we have not accomplished, just as they direct us---since the ghost of Hamlet's father---toward deeds. In this seminar, we will explore some of these ghostly ambitions. During the summer, in preparation for the seminar, students will read selected stories and novels and post comments to the course website. When we convene in the autumn, we will examine classic short story incarnations of ghosts by authors such as Henry James, P.G. Wodehouse, Eudora Welty, and Ray Bradbury, before turning to some ghostly novels by Shirley Jackson, Peter Straub, Ann Siddens and Jonathan Carroll. We will also spend some dark and stormy nights with ghost films and even follow the trail to some hauntings at Stanford and in the Bay Area. Students are expected to participate regularly in the CourseWork discussion forum and work in small groups with other course members to discuss and present readings.

Russell A. Berman is the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities, chair of the department of comparative literature, and the faculty director of the Introduction tothe Humanities Program. He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1972 and his Ph.D. from Washington University in 1979, when he also joined the faculty at Stanford. Awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he was also honored by the German government, which presented him with the Federal Officer’s Service Cross.Professor Berman lived for many years in Germany and Austria and has published extensively on their literature and culture. His interests range widely, including the modern novel, the history of journalism and the media, poetry, and film, as well as comparisons between German, French, and American literature. His published work includes treatments of many periods in German cultural history, including the Nazi era and German unification. His book, The Rise of the Modern German Novel, won the German Studies Association Award, as did his Enlightenment or Empire: Colonial Discourse and German Culture.