MONSTERS: THE LAST GASP

Or “Vampires and Blood Myth”

ANT 4990 / ANG 5990 Spring 2011 

Terry J. Prewitt, Professor of Anthropology (tprewitt@uwf.edu)

Western "blood myths," based in traditional societies of the Near East and Eastern Europe and still manifest in Christian theology, offer the "vampire" as a folk tradition closely linked to our deepest religious concepts and liturgies.  The vampire and other monsters also emerged in the early 19th century as one of the literary responses to "scientific" modernism, ultimately influencing such contemporary cultural products as novels, films, plays, and postmodern cultural criticism.  The course will explore the "blood myth" foundations of Western culture through classical, Romantic, and contemporary resources, and pursue many of the genres of monster lore common in our culture today..

Most students never consider either the mythic nature of male-centered Western values or their connection with the Christian adaptation of Jewish tradition (alongside a wider tradition of 1st century blood myths).  Our lives are deeply touched by this foundation. Through readings, presentations, discussion and analysis the class will clarify the connections between religion, literature, and common culture that manifest these deeply held cultural ideals and help explain some of our cultural pathologies.  Throughout, we will find that we are much more intimate with the Monster than we ever imagined.

RESOURCES

The class is grounded in my writing over the past 20 years, including The Elusive Covenant (my commentary on Genesis, published in 1990) and an article:  "Unholy Anorexia: Vampires of the Body and Sign" (1993), and other writing on popular culture, literary analysis, and religion.  Merging my interests in biblical study with  cultural and gender criticism, I find many parallel themes with my colleague Laurence Rickels, author of  The Vampire Lectures (1998), who builds a detailed critical treatment of the vampire in our culture, and a recent article I edited for the American Journal of Semiotics (2011) by Elizabeth Hirschman and Morris Holbrook, “Consuming the Vampire: Sex, Death, and Liminarlity.” We will also consider works like Barbara Creed’s The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 1993) and Roxana Stuart's Stage Blood: Vampires of the 19th Century Stage (1994).  Of course, we will read from the  tradition of Vlad III, as ably portrayed by Radu Florescu in Dracula, Prince of Many Faces : His Life and His Times (1989) and Bram  Stoker's Dracula (1897), as well as from other critical and popular books related to our themes. In association with the “monster” theme we will review foundational literary works of the 19th century like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and some of the poetry of Robert Browning and works by Oscar Wilde. Among the readings will be segments from my novella, The Squatter (1993-4), produced specifically for participants in the course.  Also recommended is any standard edition of the Bible, preferably a New Revised Standard Version.

ASSIGNMENTS:

READINGS.  All students are required to read assigned materials from the following resources:

Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated Edition
ISBN : 0393970124 (the book is also available in on-line versions)

The following book is recommended: The Vampire Lectures, by L. Rickles
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press     
ISBN : 0816633924 (not available on line)

Other materials will either be distributed in class or accessed as on-line resources.  I have tried to make as much of the material as possible available through on-line versions or distributed materials. 

CRITIQUES.  All students will write three individual critiques.  These writing assignments are long essays (500-750 words) that critically review a book or film.  Critique assignments must reflect upon specific interests stated in the assignment, but may pursue a number of stylistic forms. These critiques will be linked to the group project. Each critique is valued at 9 points toward the final grade. [total 27 points]

GROUP PROJECT.  Each student will be assigned to a team whose task will be to analyze and critique a “monster genre” in contemporary culture.  The genres will be developed in the early sessions of the class, and will reflect student interests and input as well as some established categories we should pursue. Graduate students will be assigned as group leaders/facilitators.  Each of the groups will follow an investigative framework laid out in a formal assignment process.  Individual essays will be organized around the group topic, and will ultimately serve as a foundation for the group report at the end of the course. Individual support and participation in the group is valued at 9 points toward the final grade—these marks may vary according to my assessment of individual work and my interactions with the group as a whole. 

GROUP REPORT.   Each group will present a formal report on their findings.  This report will include oral presentation with or without power-point supports. The formal group report grade is also valued at 18 points, and each member of the group will receive identical marks.

PARTICIPATION.  This class includes a D2L website to help facilitate group work, general discussion, and access to diverse on-line resources.  I will also place assignments in modules on the website, and use drop-boxes to collect work.  Nonetheless, the MAIN WORK of this class will be in the regular classroom, offered through lectures and general discussion. The general participation grade in this class is based on in-class attendance, timely presentation of assigned work, and participation in classroom discussion.  The participation grade consists of 6 points.

THERE ARE NO TRADITIONAL EXAMINATIONS IN THIS COURSE

GRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT.  Each graduate student will develop an individual project which links to subject matter of the course to their graduate program.  The intention of this assignment is to produce synthesis, a proposal for more intensive work, bibliography, historiography, or other work supportive of individual study and/or (inter-)disciplinary development.  I will meet with the graduate students independently of the undergraduates to organize group activity and help in development of ideas for individual research.

LECTURE/ACTIVITY/ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

PART I—Foundations of Blood Myth in Western Culture

SESSION 1.   Introductions to the class, materials, general approach, and an opening lecture:  Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, and Other Creatures of the Night. (Interview with Guillermo del Toro on “The Power of Myth”). 

SESSION 2.  Lecture:  I. Approaches to Genre Analysis in Folklore, Literature and Ethnography:  Grand Tour and Related Methods  II. (BUFFY:  The Dracula Episode) 

READINGS TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE SESSION 2:

     1. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) Chapter 5  (ON LINE RESOURCE)

SESSION 3.  I. Frankenstein, the Romantics, and 19th Century Ethos.  II.  Final Group Organization and Abstracts.     

 

READINGS TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE SESSION 3:

 

     1. The Vampyre (John Polidori)  (ON LINE RESOURCE)  

     2. Porphyria’s Lover (Robert Browning) (ON LINE RESOURCE)

     3. Sonnets from the Portuguese (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) (ON LINE RESOURCE)
          See especially sonnets V, VIII, IX, XXVIII, XXIX

 

BEGIN READING DRACULA NO LATER THAN THE THIRD WEEK OF CLASS

SESSION 4.  Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922), Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931), and Vampyr (Carl Theodor, 1932) Dreyer), Frankenstein (1931), The Wolf Man (1941), Night of the Living Dead (1968).

SESSION 5.  I. Other Draculas: Explorations in the Core Tradition, plus Love at First Bite (1979), A Polish Vampire in Burbank (1985), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).  II.  The New Orleans Connection:  Anne Rice, Nancy Collins, Poppy Z. Brite,

READINGS FOR

     1. Complete reading Dracula

     2. Bram Dijkstra, “Metamorphoses of the Vampire: Dracula and His Daughters,” pp. 333-351, in Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Fin-de-Siecle Culture (electronic reserve).

SESSION 6.   I. Vampire Hunters: Vampires, The Forsaken, Vampires: Lost Muertos and Blade.   II.  Urban Vampires: The Hunger (1983) , Nadja (1994), Habit (1997)

READING FOR :

     1. Christopher Craft, “‘Kiss me with Those Red Lips’: Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” pp. 444-459, in the Dracula text (electronic reserve).

     2. Stephen D. Arata's "The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization," pp. 462-469, in the Dracula text (electronic reserve)

SESSION 7.   1. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992) and Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merighe, 2000).  2.  Xenophobia, with special reference to H. P. Lovecraft.

SESSION 8.   The Company of Wolves (1984), Underworld (1998, 2002, 2004), Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004), and Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008)

SESSION 9.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Joss Whedon, 1997-2003):  Hush, Once More with Feeling, and other cool stuff.

SESSION 10.  Shaun of the Dead (2004), Fido (2006), Zombie Strippers (2008), Zombieland (2009)

SESSION 11.   I.  Convergence in Blood Myth:  Stigmata (1999), Dracula 2000 (2000), and Passion of the Christ (2004).  II. Mirrormask (David McKean; Neil Gaiman, 2005) Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006).

SESSION 12.   GROUP REPORTS 

 

SESSION 13  GROUP REPORTS

SESSION 14  GROUP REPORTS