Final Project Critical Essay




Critical Essay to Accompany Final Project Guidelines

The 5-7 page, double-spaced  analytical essay that accompanies your story/film should include the following:

*What is the "obvious" horror? This should be a horror trope such as demon pregnancy, serial killers/slasher horror, ghosts, etc. And then, what is the "horror behind the horror"? This should be the cultural conditions/social problems that lead to your horror, such as late capitalism, religious beliefs, etc.

*A very thorough, researched discussion of the cultural conditions that your story deals with, the conditions that produce or cultivate the horror. For example, if you are writing about an app that a broke student signs up for in order to make some quick cash to pay off her student loans, which makes her do increasingly more difficult and ethically compromising tasks for money, you should include research on economics and student debt.

You should make sure to include any information that is current to this moment (so, it's a good idea to look at current politics) or the historical moment of your story, if you are writing about the past (such as the feminine mystique/reproductive rights for women in Rosemary's Baby).

Also, you can trace the history of your subject(s) a little bit as well and discuss how the past informs the present of your story. After all, past traumas are like ghosts that live on today and create some of our current horrors.

The research should be from the library's databases, primarily, although you can use some news articles as well. Please include at least four library sources and you may include any other sources on top of that. No Wikepedia or .com sites unless approved by me.

*How those cultural conditions contribute to the horror in the story, the setting, the choices the character makes, and the ending.

The horror in the story is essentially the fears (and the fears behind the fears) such as fear of cybercrime, fear of disease, fear of isolation and having to fend for oneself, fear of dependency on technology, etc. It also includes how those fears manifest (zombies, cannibalism, murder, death, mutant trees, etc).

So, say you have a fear in your story that is a fear of dependency on technology (horror), and that is a result of the current technological dependencies we experience in the US (cultural condition). This horror manifests in your zombie-ridden, tech-free world because your reader cannot rely on their tech devices to help them do things like figure out how to get places (GPS) or even look up a recipe for cooking on the internet (or use an oven, for that matter).

The setting should, of course, relate directly to the horror. For example, if you are dealing with a nuclear leak from a plant, then the setting may be the nuclear plant itself or some area nearby that has been affected. You should be able to discuss in your paper how the two relate.

The choices the character makes have everything to do with the cultural conditions and the horrors themselves. After all, our choices in life are shaped by certain things: the family we were born into, the country and class and time we were born into, our personalities, the traumas that have happened to us, our race, gender, religion, etc. At the same time, many people believe we have some degree of free will (freedom of choice) to decide within certain limitations. Remember, you are the puppeteer who rigs the story for your character. What are the limitations and choices for your character, and how do those relate to the cultural conditions, the setting itself, and horrors that make up your story?

You should be able to discuss how the ending of your story relates to the cultural condition and horror. 

*What horror sub-genre(s) your story fits under, and any common horror tropes you decided to play with in your story, and why. Do those tropes line up with the cultural condition somehow? For example, if your story is about the pressure women feel to look beautiful to succeed in Hollywood, then perhaps you will play with the "hot girl" trope in your story. Maybe the hot girl will end up dead. Or maybe you will overturn that trope, and make her kill someone else, just as Jennifer in Jennifer's Body does.

*Some critical discussion of how the horror works we've encountered this Jan Term, and the ideas you've learned in class, influenced your project. *Note: they should have!

*A Works Cited page with MLA formatting.

*Please carefully proofread your essay as well as your story itself for any grammatical errors or spelling problems. You will be expected to have carefully polished your work prior to submitting it.

Please note that you may use the first person in this essay.

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