ANG1755 Vampires in Film and LiteratureWinter 2020
Description:
This course will consider the development of Vampire literature, from its early manifestations in the nineteenth century, most notably Bram Stoker’s 1897 Dracula, to Stephen King’s 1975 Salem’s Lot, and Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s 2010 American Vampires. Students will be introduced to a diverse array of texts, films, and TV episodes which will allow for a wide-ranging discussion of issues at play in Vampire literature. Indeed, Vampire lore offers a rich and varied focus for textual analysis, including themes surrounding sexuality, race, disease, social class, and death. The spectrum of works under consideration will broaden the students’ perspective on the Vampire theme and its literary and sociological influence on other works and on contemporary society at large. As the title of this course indicates, students will be required to attend screenings of several films and TV episodes during the semester. Examinations will cover both literary texts and films. Students should note that the works under consideration in this class contain explicit scenes of violence and sexuality.
Requirements:
- Midterm exam: 60% (film question: 15% / literature questions: 25%)
- Final essay: 40% [Due to the coronavirus, the schedule and final assignment, along with the weighing of the assignments, had to be modified]
Students not enrolled in a program in the English department are allowed to submit their written works in French. (Les étudiants non inscrits dans un programme de la section études anglaises du département de littératures et langues du monde sont autorisés à soumettre leurs travaux en français.)
Works Studied:
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Books:
- Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)
- Richard Matheson, I am Legend (1954)
- Stephen King, Salem’s Lot (1975)
- Ann Rice, Interview with the Vampire (1976)
- Laurel Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures (1993)
- Charlaine Harris, Dead until Dark (2001)
- Octavia Butler, Fledgling (2005)
- Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque, American Vampire (2010)
-
Films:
- Terrence Fisher, Dracula (1958)
- Roman Polanski, The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
- Stephen Norrington, Blade (1998)
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TV episodes:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: ‘Lie to Me’ (2.7; 1997)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: ‘Buffy vs Dracula’ (5.1; 2000)
- Ultraviolet: ‘Habeas Corpus’ (1.1; 1998)
Schedule:
- 6 January: Introduction / Film Dracula (slides week 1)
- 13 January: Fisher / Film The Fearless Vampire Killers (slides week 2)
- 20 January: TV ’Buffy vs Dracula’ / Stoker (slides week 3)
- 27 January: Matheson (slides week 4)
- 3 February: TV ‘Habeas Corpus’ / King (slides week 5)
- 10 February: TV ’Lie to Me’ / Rice (slides week 6)
- 17 February: Midterm exam (Part I)
- 24 February: Midterm exam (Part II)
- 2 March: Reading week
- 9 March: Film Blade
- 16 March: Class cancelled due to Coronavirus
- 23 March: Hamilton (slides week 12)
- Video Lecture by Dr. Jerry Hogle “The Dark Immortality of the vampire” (starts at 9′)
- 30 March: Harris (slides week 13)
- Article on vampires: Matthew Kratter, “Twilight of the Vampires: History and the Myth of the Undead” (Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 5 [Spring 1998])
- Article on Dracula: Sunggyung Jo, “‘Vampiric Reading’: Dracula and Readerly Desire” (Texas Studies in Literature and Language 61, 3 [Fall 2019])
- 6 April: Butler / Snyder and Albuquerque (slides week 14)
- Article on Rice: Laura Davidel, “Agency in the Ricean Vampire’s Compulsion to Feed” (Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 9, 1 [2020])
- Article on Butler: Susana M. Morris, “Black Girls Are from the Future: Afrofuturist Feminism in Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling” (WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 40, 3 & 4 [Fall/Winter 2012])
- 13 April: Bank holiday
- 20 April: Final Essay due
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism – the stealing or “borrowing” of another person’s written work and passing it off as one’s own – is a very serious academic offence.
Plagiarism occurs when:
- the work submitted was done, in whole or in part, by an individual other than the one submitting or presenting the work;
- an entire work (e.g., an essay), is copied from another source, or parts of the work are taken from another source without explicit reference to the author;
- an essay copies a sentence or paragraph of another work with minor variations.
Plagiarism occurs not only when direct quotations are taken from a source without explicit acknowledgement, but also when original ideas from the source are not acknowledged. A bibliography or “works cited” is insufficient to establish which portions of the student’s work are taken from external sources; formal modes of citation (i.e., page numbers and the author’s name in parenthetical references) must be used for this purpose.
Professors are required to report all cases of plagiarism to the Dean. The minimal disciplinary measure for cases of plagiarism is an F on the assignment, essay, or exam. Further measures can include an F in the course, suspension from the Faculty, and even the requirement to withdraw from the University. If you are unclear on the definition of plagiarism or you are unsure about how to avoid it, please do not hesitate to ask me. Ignorance is not a valid defence.
This content has been updated on March 25, 2020 at 0 h 18 min.