University of Baltimore offers zombie studies class

The University of Baltimore is offering horror fans a new English lit course on zombie studies.

“Zombies are one of the most potent, direct reflections of what we’re thinking moment to moment in our culture,” says Arnold Blumberg, author of the book Zombiemania, which looks at the undead in American pop culture, and tutor of the new class of the living dead.

His students will be required to devour 16 classic zombie movies as part of their studies, as well as reading a host of zombie-focused comics. But as crackpot as a course like this might initially sound, there is some merit to studying the undead in modern storytelling.

Zombie films are often gratuitous, cannibalistic gore-nography, but the better examples from the genre are well-known for addressing a vast array of social issues; particularly in times of economic gloom and social upheaval. As a storytelling device, few concepts have proven as insightful or resilient as the living dead.

“It’s a back door into a lot of subjects,” says chair of the university’s school of communications design Jonathan Shorr. “They think they’re taking this wacko zombie course, and they are. But on the way, they learn how literature and mass media work, and how they come to reflect our times.”

For their finals, students can substitute the obligatory research paper for writing their own zombie script or putting together storyboards for their own tale of the undead.

This should probably be a night class though, eh?

[Via The Baltimore Sun]