Year 1: Roots of the Swamp

ST105 Nature, Body & Transformation

Why the changing body frightens, what the grotesque and the abject name, and what we mean by "nature" when a man becomes a plant. Bakhtin, Kristeva, Morton and Alaimo, tested against Swamp Thing, The Fly and Annihilation.

6 lessons 6 units 2 assignments

Introduction

Swamp Thing's story is a transformation: a man becomes something made of the swamp. Every writer who has touched the character has had to decide what that change means, and Year Two will show you Alan Moore's answer. This module prepares the ground by asking the questions the answers depend on. Why does a body that changes frighten us? What is a grotesque body, and why has it been funny as often as horrifying? What is the abject, and why is rot its emblem? And what do we mean by "nature", the thing the character is supposed to have become, when nature is itself an idea with a history?

Four thinkers. Mikhail Bakhtin on the grotesque body, open and unfinished and in exchange with the world. Julia Kristeva on the abject, met already in ST102 and now applied. Timothy Morton, who argues that the very idea of nature gets in the way of thinking ecologically. Stacy Alaimo, whose trans-corporeality describes bodies and environments as continuous with each other. Beside them, three primary texts across three media: Wein and Wrightson's origin issues, David Cronenberg's The Fly, and Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation.

By the end you should be able to say what kind of body Swamp Thing has, in terms a philosopher would accept, and why that body was the right one for the story Moore went on to tell.

Learning objectives

  • Define and apply the concepts of body horror, the grotesque body, the abject and trans-corporeality.
  • Analyse transformation scenes across comics, film and prose fiction.
  • Explain Morton's critique of the idea of nature and test it against a text.
  • Compare how different media represent a body in the act of changing.
  • Build an argument that uses at least two theoretical frameworks without collapsing them into each other.
  • Prepare for Year Two by articulating what Swamp Thing's body is before Moore redefines it.

Lessons

Unit 1: Week 1: The body that changes

Body horror, and The Fly.

  1. Body horror and The FlyWhy a changing body frightens, watched at length in Cronenberg's film and again in Swamp Thing #1.180 min

Unit 2: Week 2: The grotesque body

Bakhtin: open, unfinished, in exchange with the world.

  1. Bakhtin and the grotesque bodyThe body that eats, rots, grows and overflows, and why it is comic as well as terrible.120 min

Unit 3: Week 3: The abject

Kristeva applied: rot, corpse, border.

  1. The abject, appliedKristeva's concept put to work on the swamp, the corpse and the body that will not keep its edges.120 min

Unit 4: Week 4: What is nature?

Morton and the idea that gets in the way.

  1. Ecology without natureMorton's argument that "nature" is an idea we made, and what it changes to drop it.150 min

Unit 5: Week 5: Bodies and places

Alaimo's trans-corporeality and Annihilation.

  1. Trans-corporeality and AnnihilationAlaimo's idea that bodies and environments flow into each other, read through VanderMeer's Area X.200 min

Unit 6: Week 6: The swamp as body

Synthesis, and the question for Year Two.

  1. The swamp as bodyBringing four frameworks to one creature, and stating what he is before Moore changes the answer.120 min

Core texts

Secondary reading

Assessment

Two assessed pieces. The first is a close reading of one transformation scene from The Fly, Annihilation or Swamp Thing #1 to #3. The second is a research essay applying two theoretical frameworks to Swamp Thing's body across the Wein and Wrightson issues.

ST105-A1: Close reading: a transformation scene

Choose one transformation scene from The Fly, Annihilation, or Swamp Thing #1 to #3. How does the text represent a body in the act of changing, and what does its medium allow or prevent?

Length
1500 words (1350 to 1650)
Sources
Primary source only. Primary source only. One scene, identified exactly.

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ST105-A2: Essay: what kind of body?

Using two of the module's frameworks (Bakhtin's grotesque, Kristeva's abject, Morton's critique of nature, Alaimo's trans-corporeality), what kind of body does Swamp Thing have in Wein and Wrightson's issues? Where do the two frameworks agree, where do they conflict, and which describes the comics better?

Length
2000 words (1800 to 2200)
Sources
Research assignment, minimum 2 secondary sources. Research assignment. Two of the module's theoretical texts are required, cited with page numbers. Primary evidence by issue and page.

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Source requirements

Assignment 1 is primary source only. Assignment 2 is a research assignment requiring at least two of the module's theoretical texts, cited with page numbers.