ICC “Between the Lines” Program Explores Young Adult Horror Genre, Author R.L. Stine April 2

Join Illinois Central College’s “Between the Lines” program (if you dare) to explore the young adult horror genre with a presentation titled, “R. L. Stine’s Fear Street and Other Scary Places,” on April 2, from 2:30 to 3:30 pm in Room 212C/D on the East Peoria Campus. Mary O’Reilly and Amanda Funk-Hilton will offer a presentation on the book and lead the discussion.

O’Reilly and Funk-Hilton will be exploring the horror genre, its value outside of voyeuristic titillation and jump scares, through R.L. Stine’s young adult series, Fear Street. Topics of interest will include: Why is horror a valuable narrative tradition and what do scary stories do besides scare us? Can we learn from them? Can they empower or even comfort us?

Participants will be looking for answers to these questions (even if they have to walk through the deep, dark woods to do so) and exploring concepts such as gender representation and fluidity, nostalgia and escapism, and children and young adult book series as gateways into more complex literature on Shadyside’s notorious Fear Street.

The presenters also will make some horror reading recommendations—frightening or disturbing stories and books that shaped them or their understanding of the genre—and ask participants to offer up some impactful horror suggestions of their own. ​

“Between the Lines” is a lecture series presented by the faculty members of the English, Humanities and Language Studies Department at ICC. The goal of the series is to offer literary presentations that will interest students and people in the community, as well as promote reading literacy and scholarly study.

The programs are free and open to the public.