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Serial Killers: Real and Imagined  By  cover art

Serial Killers: Real and Imagined

By: Emily Zarka, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Emily Zarka
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Publisher's summary

Monster stories aren’t just meant to entertain. They’re meant to inform, even educate. Above all, they ask us to question our own humanity. Nowhere is this truer than in stories of serial killers. What are the origins of this monstrous archetype? Why are we so fascinated with such gruesome terror? What do they reveal about our fears and anxieties?

Explore these and other questions in Serial Killers: Real and Imagined, where public scholar Emily Zarka looks at the serial-killer trope across history, from murky 17th-century legends to 21st-century true-crime obsessions. Using an in-depth analysis of pop-culture texts, she offers various constructions of the serial killer as threat, as cautionary tale, and even as celebrity. You’ll explore why serial murderers become famous, how they’ve been captured (and have eluded justice), their prominent role in film and television, and how the dangerous blending of fact and fiction contributes to our real-world understanding of serial killers as monstrous—almost supernatural—figures.

Stories, Emily believes, are integral to our humanity. And as you’ll discover in this fascinating Audible Original, so are stories pulled from some of the darkest corners of the human psyche.

©2024 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.

About the Creator and Performer

Emily Zarka earned her PhD in literature from Arizona State University, where she currently serves as an instructor in the English department. With expertise in the Gothic genre, horror, and monsters in literature and film, she is the creator, writer, and host of the series Monstrum, produced by PBS Digital Studios. Emily also wrote and hosted the award-winning PBS documentary Exhumed: A History of Zombies.

What listeners say about Serial Killers: Real and Imagined

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Interesting accounts of serial killers

This series of lectures tells us what isn’t presented to the media and what isn’t obvious to the general population. I found it quite interesting on the whole. Some parts were better than others but it would be easy to skip around.

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Very informative

I liked the facts about how fascination with crime and violence evolved. Interesting how folk tales have influenced us.

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So interesting!

Good pacing, interesting info, i learned so much! Dr. Zarka is enthusiastic and beyond knowledgeable. Highly recommend!

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Humans and Media

This series is a great summary of the relationships between humans and media. Everything was covered from history in early novels to current streaming service media. I would recommend for anyone interested in an overview of crime in media.

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Very Informative and Interesting

The narrator was really good! This was very informative, with alot of background informative regarding serial killers, thrillers, horror films, and true crime. It was really interesting to learn more about the statistics, and what influences the culture. Also that true crime shows and podcasts(media as a whole) have actually freed wrongfully convicted people as well as helping put real criminals away!

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The fact based research

I appreciate this being fact based. It provides insights. I don't watch or "like" "Law and Order: SVU". However, I am a big "fan" of the other "Law and Order" series. This helps explain my and America's interests and fascinations with crime and violence. Interesting.

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Enjoyable Easy Read with a But

I personally really enjoyed this. I’m a big reader and already into true crime, so it wasn’t really anything new. But I enjoyed the theories/themes of the lectures, and the vocal performance was very good.

All that being said - there are errors. For example, at one point she calls the Golden State Killer “James” DeAngelo. This is a small mistake (James is his middle name.) But when it comes to “The Great Courses,” I would like to think there has been editing, and that the information presented is factually pristine. So I was disappointed in that.

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