Not all vampires suck. And those that do, do not necessarily do it in the same manner. Contemporary literature and popular culture offers any number of different vampires, with different agendas and make-up (in film and on TV, literally). Modern bloodsuckers are impressively diverse and interesting, which is why we will devote this entire seminar to them. Together we will take a look at selected works of recent vampire literature as well as the vampire representation in popular TV series. We will ask ourselves a question: what makes vampires so popular and captivating? Why are they, as Veronica Hollinger puts it, “the monsters-of-choice these days”? We will analyze such cultural issues as gender, spirituality, mythology, science, nature, the concept of evil et cetera as they are treated in vampire literature and on vampire TV. In the process, we will touch upon the general rules and functional modes of popular culture, literature and the TV as fields of cultural production.
Our primary materials will include literary texts
Fred Saberhagen, The Dracula Tape
Anne Rice, The Vampire Armand
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Susy MacKee Charnas, “Advocates”
Lynda Hilburn, The Vampire Shrink
as well as TV series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (created by Joss Whedon)
Angel (created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt)
True Blood (created by Alan Ball). |
