The Weird and the Eerie

This online course explores two subgenres of supernatural fiction: the weird and the eerie. According to H.P. Lovecraft, the weird is characterised by a ‘certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces’. The eerie is also associated with the outside. For the cultural critic Mark Fisher, the eerie can be found in ‘landscapes partially emptied of the human’. Ancient ruins such as Stonehenge strike us as eerie. Why is there something here when there should be nothing? Conversely, the abandoned ship the Mary Celeste is eerie. Why is there nothing here when there should be something?

This course is open to anyone interested in supernatural fiction; you do not need to have read any of the writers before or have any prior knowledge of these subgenres.

On this course we will read short stories, essays and novellas by some of the most renowned writers of supernatural fiction, including Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson, Robert Chambers and H.P. Lovecraft. We will also think about the different theories that attach to the weird and the eerie, and how these have evolved over time.

By the end of the course, you should be familiar with:

· The difference between the weird and eerie.

· The ways in which these modes have been theorised.

· The broader literary tradition of supernatural fiction.