A new course for Fall 2025!
Taught in French. This course takes our contemporary fascination for the undead seriously and explores how French literature offers an insight into these misunderstood figures, so often reduced in popular culture to mere specters of superstition. Students engage with literature that highlights the cultural, historical, and literary depictions of the undead. They analyze how representations of the undead in American cinema diverge from presentations emerging from French-speaking cultures, from which Hollywood filmmakers have nevertheless borrowed some of their most recurrent motifs.
Additionally, students will study the interplay between folklore, religion, and science in shaping the narratives around zombies and other undead figures, including a class visit to the Voodoo Museum in Strasbourg.
Prereq: Previous completion of a FRE300-level course
Department: French
Location: Strasbourg
Semester: Spring
Credits: 3