THE MISKATONIC INSTITUTE OF HORROR STUDIES - LONDON

CORRIDOR GOTHIC

Presented by: The Horse Hospital

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0	LONDON: The Horse Hospital
P	Thursday 24th October, 2019
N	7:00pm

Event information

Instructor: Roger Luckhurst

This class investigates the role of the corridor in Gothic fiction and horror film from the late 18th century to the present day. It seeks to establish this transitional place as a crucial locus, by tracing the rise of the corridor as a distinct mode of architectural distribution in domestic and public buildings since the 18th century. The lecture tracks pivotal appearances of the corridor in fiction and film, and argues that it has become associated with a specific emotional tenor, less to do with amplified fear and horror and more to do with emotions of Angst or dread.

This talk will explore how the corridor has become a modern place of unease and dread, from the hotel hallway of H. P. Lovecraft’s 'The Shadow over Innsmouth’ via Kafka’s labyrinthine passages in ’The Trial’ to the contemporary horror film obsession with corridors, as evidenced in ’Stranger Things’ or Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’. The talk will give a history of the origins of the corridor and its often utopian associations in the 18th and early 19th century, before it became associated with faceless institutions, bureaucracies and the mid-20th century office. By the end of class, Miskatonic students should be able to assess whether we have passed from a corridic to a profoundly anti-corridic era.