ENGH 202: Texts and Contexts

ENGH 202-012: Monsters and Humanity
(Fall 2025)

12:00 PM to 01:15 PM TR

Innovation Hall 135

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Section Information for Fall 2025

Monsters have long haunted our imaginations, serving as powerful vehicles for exploring cultural anxieties, social hierarchies, and the limits of humanity. Through reading and analysis of classic texts like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and contemporary works, this course will consider some key questions: What is a monster? How do monsters in literature engage broader issues of gender, sexuality, and race? Why do certain monsters endure in popular culture, only be adapted in different forms across time? Ultimately, what do they tell us about what it means to be human? We’ll also examine the cultural and historical contexts that gave rise to these monstrous creatures and the ways they continue to fascinate and terrify us today.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Studies literary texts within the framework of culture. Examines texts within such categories as history, gender, sexuality, religion, race, class, and nation. Notes: Builds on reading and writing skills taught in ENGH 101. Offered by English. May be repeated within the degree.
Mason Core: Mason Core, Literature
Specialized Designation: Topic Varies
Recommended Prerequisite: 3 credits of 100-level English.
Schedule Type: Lecture, Recitation
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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