Langara Community Lectures: Unprecedented

Topic: "Heaped with Bloody Slaughter": Lucan's Bellum Civile and the Ancient Origins of Horror Speaker: Shannon Page (M.A), Instructor in English Left unfinished due to the poet’s untimely death in 65 CE at just 25 years old, Lucan’s narrative of the Roman civil war between Caesar and Pompey breaks all the rules of the epic tradition. Gone are the gods and heroes of Homer’s Iliad or Virgil’s Aeneid; here one finds only graphic depictions of dismembered bodies, headless corpses, and necromantic witches. The poem’s combination of sinister supernatural omens and gruesome violence paints an image of martial conflict that is more nightmare-inducing than noble. Though horror is most often regarded as a modern genre with beginnings in 18th century Gothic literature, scholars of Greek and Roman literature have noted that the emotional “grammar” of violence, death, and fear it employs is far older. Taking this view of horror as an affective category, rather than a genre, this presentation explores Lucan’s convention-spurring epic as an early example of a literary work whose purpose is to evoke fear, disgust, and suspense in its audience. That Lucan was also a favourite of later literary heavy-weights, such as Percy Shelley – husband of Mary Shelley, whose novel Frankenstein revolutionized both horror and science fiction – hints at the wide-sweeping but under-explored influence of Bellum Civile on modern horror. Presented in partnership with the Langara College. Accessibility Information VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at info@vpl.ca. The theatre has 74 fixed seats that are 17.5" wide, and three wheelchair accessible spaces Noise level is expected to be low/moderate For more information on physical access, view the Accessibility information on the Central Library page.