Still need an HONS colloquium course? Interested in film studies or psychology?
An additional Honors colloquium course just became available for the spring ’26 semester!
🎥HONS 230: Suspense and Surrealism in Film
Instructor: Colleen Glenn
MWF at 1:00 pm
Interested? Email Professor Ganaway to add your name to the class list. If enough students express interest, we’ll offer the course!
HONS 230: Suspense and Surrealism in Film
Instructor: Colleen Glenn
MWF at 1:00 pm
This interdisciplinary course will consider Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch as auteur filmmakers whose works weave psychoanalytic theory and the study of human psychology with traditions in art and literature. Although very different in terms of style and content, both directors share a fascination with violence, mystery, and the uncanny, often revealing the horror to be within the family home. Known as the “Master of Suspense,” Hitchcock developed distinctive thematic and aesthetic styles in thrillers such as Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. Influenced by the boom of interest in human behavior in the 1940s and ‘50s, Hitchcock helped popularize modern psychology on the big screen. A generation later, Lynch delivered avant-garde works such as Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive. A sculptor and painter before he became a filmmaker, Lynch drew heavily from surrealist traditions when he moved into cinema, leaving an indelible stamp on the cinematic canon with his edgy and disturbing neo-noir films. Drawing upon art history, psychology, cultural studies, and film studies, we will explore several films from each director, becoming familiar with their unique artistic visions, technique and style, and fascination with the macabre.