Programs

The Horror Genre: Why Do We Want To Be Scared?

Why do people pay to be scared? Focusing on two of Maryland's most famous productions of horror--the mid-nineteenth century short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and the 1990s film, the Blair Witch Project, set in and around Burkittsville--this lecture by Robert Kachur explores the horror genre, which has often reflected authors' anxieties about sexuality, the unconscious mind, scientific discoveries, unjust laws, and other concerns. Requires video player and television monitor. Adult and high school audiences.

Robert Kachur is Assistant Professor of Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century British Literature at McDaniel College where he also teaches courses on the Apocalypse and horror fiction. He received his Ph.D. in Nineteenth-Century British Literature with a minor in Composition Studies as well as his M.A. in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.