ENGLISH 272: URBAN LEGENDS

decorative picture of haunted house on hill at night

Are you into ghost stories? Do you like the unexplained or mysterious… or the downright creepy?

Though not all urban legends are dark or scary (they can be funny!), the genre trends towards spooky, so beware! But if you do like being thrilled and chilled, step on up!

Urban legends (ULs) are a genre of folklore and might be considered the “people’s literature.” That is, instead of a literary genius like Shakespeare or Mary Shelley scribing a poetic piece about a monster, a localized group of people start whispering of a desolate stretch of highway where strange things happen—and then that road becomes where the Vanishing Hitchhiker is known to appear on certain nights. ULs go viral, even making it into literature and film! Did you know that Scylla and Charybdis from The Odyssey most likely came from the Old World equivalent of an UL? So, yes, one of the goals of this class is to challenge the literature-is-nothing-but-books stereotype.

This face-to-face class will study cryptids, superstitions, haunted locations, place-based legends (e.g. what is an Indonesian/Malaysian Pontianak? How about the buildings of the Hawaiian menehune?), superstitions, and possibly more. We’ll look at how these stories are transmitted and maintained—including hoaxes, legitimate investigations, legitimate and valid beliefs (e.g., don’t make Pele angry), performances (like on social media and as around-the-fire ghost stories), and so on. We’ll look at the THEMES of ULs, the anxieties working behind them.

We will read some critical analysis (sorry! ULs are a legit field of study that intersects with literature!), but don’t worry—you’ll have chances to polish your ghost story telling skills!

Some possible assignments:

A Canva presentation on a localized legend or superstition (e.g., why is it that going to bed with your bed wet will make you blind?)
Researching the history of a locale of an UL
A paper on the social anxieties and tensions behind a legend (e.g. why are there more mermaid sightings during periods of economic insecurity?)
Creating a short story as an urban legend (kinda like how Slenderman was created and became an UL)
Telling a ghost story to the class—uh, I mean “class presentation”
Creating a podcast about a story about UHM (yes, we have ULs, too!)
Etc

Some possible textbooks (please don’t buy yet—the list isn’t finalized—and there’s a chance the class could be textbook-less):

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Alvin Schwarz)–part or all of the trilogy
The Vanishing Hitchhiker (Jan Van Brunwald)
The Choking Doberman (Jan Van Brunwald)
Encyclopedia of Urban Legends (Jan Van Brunwald)
Finding O’hana (Netflix movie)
Nope (Jordan Peele movie)
On My Block (TV series)

English 272: Urban Legends is a Writing Intensive class—but the writings are high interest and fun!—-and will satisfy the WI requirement.