MONSTERS: THE LAST GASP

Seminar and Lectures, Spring 2012 - University of West Florida

This is the last incarnation of the course originally offered as “Vampires and Blood Myth.” Over several years the class has evolved to include a wider range of literary and cultural forms, pushing more deeply into the 19^th Century literary roots of English and Continental vampire genres, and taking advantage of the broad expansion of vampire, zombie, and werewolf films made over the 20^th Century into our decade. At the core, this course is about postmodern culture, the relationships between science and culture, and the contributions of aesthetics to popular cultural expressions of the dilemmas of our contemporary world. To an extent the class has become a fusion of some traditional anthropological ideas and broader approaches to cultural studies in the humanities. In particular, the assignments are geared to the adaptation of ethnographic methods to literature and film, thus supporting both the application of postmodern critical theory and descriptive/analytical approaches to descriptive work with living communities.

A LATE PAPER, LIKE A SILENT STUDENT,

IS LIKE A STAKE IN THE HEART (BUT NOT MINE).

Remember, all written work should conform to the AAA STYLE GUIDE, specific assignment requirements, and my general writing guide.

(updated December, 2011)

CLICK ON  ICONS TO OPEN A NEW VEIN OF THOUGHT. LINKS MAY BE ADDED BELOW THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER. ALL OF THE LINKS INCLUDED HERE ARE PROVIDED BECAUSE THEY OFFER GENERAL CONTENT USEFUL FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE COURSE. MOST OF THE LINKS BELOW ARE TO BOOKS OR CULTURE-CRITICAL ESSAYS. 
WHEN BROWSING THROUGH PAGES LINKED FROM BANNERED SECTIONS, FOLLOW THE ADVISORY WARNINGS PROVIDED ON THE PAGES.   LINKAGE HERE DOES NOT IMPLY THAT ALL CONTENT IS EQUALLY CRITICALLY USEFUL. REMEMBER, IN THE VAMPIRE WORLD NUDITY AND EROTICISM ARE HARD TO AVOID.  SO, AS BELA SAID IN GLEN OR GLENDA: 
"BEVARE, BEVARE, BEVARE OF THE BIG GREEN DRAGON." 

	General Syllabus		Blood-Christ & Anti-Christ Myths
	Course Flier and lecture plan		Anti-Christology?  Dracula 2000 Review
	Bibliography		Blood, Magic, and Stigmata Mythos
	Anorexia		Performing Arts
	Vampires, The Body, and Eating Disorders		Dracula: The Musical (2004)
	Unholy Anorexia
	Film		Zombies and Mummies
	Urban Vampires in Latin American Cinema		“Fido”
			“Shaun of the Dead”
	Literature		“Zombieland”
	Carmilla		“Bubba-Hotep”
	Dracula
	The Vampire and Frankenstein
	Elizabeth Barrett Browning
	Robert Browning