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Description: The figure of the vampire, originating in classic myth and Medieval folklore, has become a staple of contemporary popular culture, due largely to its literary appropriation, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, by the British Romantic poets. For these writers, the figure was a complexly expressive emblem, combining themes of immortality, of bodily and psychic metamorphosis, of exploitative sexual and social relationships, of transfiguring desires and unquenchable hungers--themes that subsequent authors of vampire texts have inherited and built upon. Indeed, thanks to Victorian and modern treatments, the figure has become a rich and subtle icon, condensing into a single resonant image all manner of personal and social obsessions and anxieties. This class will survey representative vampire texts of the past two centuries, attending both to the developing intertextual complexity of the image and to its evolving capacity to address issues of social moment, especially issues relating to race, class, gender and sexuality. Warning: Some of the materials presened in this class are of a graphic and disturbing nature, dealing explicitly with themes of occult horror, sexuality and/or violence. If such material is likely to offend or upset you, you should consider taking a different class. |
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Requirements and Assignments: The first requirement is preparation and attendance; you must be here for every class meeting with the day's reading and/or viewing completed. Further, you must attend the weekly film screenings, which are mandatory. Since the weekly quizzes and the exams will test information presented in lectures as well as in the various texts (literary, filmic) on the syllabus, missing classes will negatively impact your grades on these assignments. Note: The weekly Double Feature screenings are optional, but there will be extra credit questions on the quizzes and exams derived from these movies. The required writing consists of weekly quizzes, two short (5 page) papers, an in-class mid-term examination, and a final. The quizzes, of which there will be roughly twenty over the course of the semester, are designed to test your reading/viewing of the texts and your diligence in attending to lecture materials. The format will be 3-4 short-answer, fact-based questions. Quizzes missed due to absences cannot be made up and will thus count as zeroes against your final quiz grade. I will probably drop the three worst grades in calculating your final score. The two short papers are geared to allow you to develop your own ideas and perspectives on the course materials. These papers may take any of a number of forms: close readings of individual texts; comparative analyses of two or more texts; contextual discussions that address specific texts as representative of larger literary, philosophical, cultural or social concerns ; etc. I am also open to creative projects. You may wish, in these papers, to bring in other texts and/or issues not covered on the syallbus or in the lectures, so long as some major part of your focus is on the latter; in other words, feel free to synthesize the course materials with elements from your own reading, viewing, listening, cogitating, etc. Despite my willingness to entertain diverse sorts of papers in terms of content, I am very picky about their form. They must be double-spaced on 8 1/2 x 11-inch unruled paper, with one-inch margins all around and no font size larger than 12-point type. They must also be proofread for typos, misspellings, and minor grammatical errors; 1/2 grade will be deducted for those that are not. Do not penalize yourself by turning in a brilliantly conceived and well-structured essay in a mistake-ridden and/or slovenly format. A note about late papers: because of the size of this class, it is absolutely impossible for me to accept late papers for any reason short of serious illness or other unavoidable catastrophe. The papers are due in class on Tuesday of the week assigned and must be collected at that time, so make your preparations for planning and writing them accordingly. The mid-term and final will be in-class exams incorporating objective (identification, short-answer) and essay sections. These exams will test the material on the syllabus and in the lectures and will cover that material roughly in halves (e.g. the mid-term through Week 8 and the final Weeks 8 through the end of the semester). Missed exams cannot be made up for any reason short of, etc. (see late paper policy). Grading: The breakdown in grading is as follows: Quizzes = 10%; Papers = 20% each; mid-term and final exams = 25% each, towards your final grade. |
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Week 2. (January 25, 27)
Week 3. (February 1, 3)
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Week 4. (February 8, 10)
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Week 5. (February 15, 17)
Week 6. (February 22, 24)
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Week 7. (February 29, March 2)
Week 8. (March 7, 9)
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Week 9. (March 14, 16)
Week 10. (March 21, 23)
Week 11. (March 26, 30)
Week 12. (April 4, 6)
Week 13. (April 11, 13)
Week 14. (April 18, 20)
Week 15. (April 25, April 27)
Week 16. (May 2, 4)
Final Exam. Topic Sheet |
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