by Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation US that highlights unconventional approaches to teaching.
Title of the course
Ghosts, zombies and monsters: what we fear and loathe in religions
What inspired the idea for the course?
I’m an expert on Tibetan Buddhism, women and gender, but not on ghosts, zombies and monsters. However, my experience teaching introductory courses on Asian religions and religious studies has led me to grapple with the challenge of teaching students the importance of understanding the people we think of as “others,” and to come to terms with things that don’t make sense.
These terrifying, ‘other-than-human’ creatures live at the limits of our moral, social and emotional imaginations, often embodying the problems, concerns, hopes and fears that have shaped our lives. Therefore, they are the ideal pedagogical candidates to challenge prejudices about death, the self and the other.
What does the course explore?
The course is divided into three thematic parts. First, we reflect on ghosts and explore how different cultures provide specific definitions of death and imaginations of an afterlife. We read about Buddhist hungry ghosts, or ‘pretas’, and Chinese ghost stories. We also explore discussions of ghostly occurrences at an airport in Thailand, as well as the experiences of ghost hunters in North America. It is often believed that ghosts are beings who have failed to make the transition to an ideal afterlife and remain stuck in a liminal state, interacting with and haunting the living.
Second, we examine zombies. According to monster theory scholar Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, these are considered another type of liminal beings that are believed to be alive but have lost the distinct stories that make each of them a unique individual. We explore the Haitian origins of zombies and the phenomenon of the “uncanny valley,” the eerie feeling we can experience when we encounter something that seems almost human, but not quite.
Finally, we look at monsters. Monster theories and the study of monstrous creatures as a cultural category have become a flourishing field of research in recent decades. This has opened up many avenues for exploring creatures typically considered categorically different from humans.
The class examines monsters such as cataclysmic animals, gendered beings, exiles from their religious communities, and names invoked in news reports to describe individuals who have committed particularly disturbing crimes. We ask questions like why some animals are more likely to be seen as frightening or evil than others, and what is gained and lost when we call someone a “monster.”
Why is this course relevant now?
Ghosts, zombies and monsters are as old and modern as the people who live with them. We will probably never stop fearing, loathing, or projecting some among us as “monsters.” But at a time when fear, disgust, and labeling hold unusual weight in shaping relationships in our own communities, I believe that thinking critically about how we deal with difference and otherness is an urgent call. Monstrous and demonic creatures ultimately also occupy a place where boundaries are constantly being pushed and redrawn. What was once monstrous can no longer be so, and vice versa.
What is a crucial lesson from the course?
This course brings to the fore what is commonly demonized, marginalized, or invisible in religious traditions around the world, and asks what it is about ghosts, zombies, and monsters that frightens and arrests us. One lesson students learn from the course is that our fears and terrors are always culturally and contextually specific. In other words, ghosts, zombies and monsters are also reflections of ourselves.
What materials does the course consist of?
We look at three films, one for each section: Masaki Kobayashi’s ‘Kwaidan’, Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ and Penny Lane’s ‘Hail Satan?’
Students also become familiar with a variety of stories – both serious and humorous – about ghosts, zombies and monsters, ranging from “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,” a collection of supernatural tales, to Key & Peele sketches about Satan or the zombie apocalypse. and Haruki Murakami’s short story “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo.”
What does the course prepare students for?
Good storytelling plays a crucial role because it allows us to temporarily inhabit another, imaginary world. Many of my students revealed their talent for storytelling during a class session where we went around the room sharing spooky stories. By telling stories to each other, we begin to understand and navigate our differences.
After this lesson, students will not become professional demon tamers or ghost hunters. Instead, I hope they leave with a new-found recognition, if not tenderness, toward creatures and things they originally feared or felt repulsed by.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit organization providing facts and trusted analysis to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: Jue Liang, Case Western Reserve University
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The author would like to thank the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University for providing a Flash Grant to support pedagogical research for this course on ghosts, zombies, and monsters.
