Instructor: David Levine
TBD | Location: TBD
Enrollment: Limited to 15 students
Briefly America’s most terrifying movie, now an inexhaustible source of camp, reference, and technique, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist is a rich allegory of postwar America. But its very deficiencies, blind spots, and occlusions also make a powerful lens onto the present day. This advanced workshop in devising, adaptation, and critical intervention will perform (literally) an examination of the significance, meaning, and unholy afterlife of The Exorcist, created over the semester using historical research, conversations, attempts at re- staging, religious rites, death-metal growls, and head turns of 180 degrees or more.
The Exorcist is horror fiction. The book and film contain offensive language, depictions of sexual and domestic violence, sacrilegious treatment of religious icons, realistically depicted invasive medical procedures, and expulsion of bodily fluids. We will be treating these subjects with care, but we will be discussing disturbing images and themes throughout the semester.
Students who have taken English 10 and 20, or at least two practice-based/studio courses in TDM (or TDM 97), will be prioritized for enrollment.
This course satisfies the “1900-2000 Guided Elective" requirement for English concentrators and Secondary Field students.