Part of the purpose of this course is to look at the different ways that the vampire can be, or has been, re-defined by different works--both literary and theoretical. According to Jenkins, Stoker did not define Dracula based on Vlad the Impaler. But other theorists have argued that he did. To loosen up our normal theoretically-driven posts, what do you think? Why do you believe Dracula was defined in the ways that Stoker defined him? What makes Dracula represent "the vampire"--why do we still honor Stoker with creating, defining, and representing the vampire (especially given that there were several vampire stories floating around before Stoker wrote Dracula)? Jenkins says that "all roads lead to [Dracula]"--and I want you to really explore why you believe that's the case.
Given that we have read several different pieces that ask you to redefine your understanding of the vampire, your response may be based in some theory. If up to this point, as some of you have mentioned, you haven't, in some way or another, re-defined or expanded your understanding of the vampire, explore why that may be. Are your own conventions driving your understanding of the vampire blurring the possibility of an expansion? Do you view the vampire through a Dracula-like haze?
**I'm not looking for you to *knock the readings here rather explore your own understanding of the vampire, where it came from, and why the belief is there.
300-500 words. Engage with others.
Due: Thursday, April 19, 2012 by class time.
As we continue to engage with Rai's blog and with our own understanding of media ecology theory, we are going to respond to one of the questions driving this class: what is the ontology of monstrosity that the vampire is caught up in? If we understand that ontology is the study of being or essence of being/existing and that monstrosity is the condition of being "abnormal" then we can begin to question the existence of the vampire. So, for this blog post, I want you to respond to question above--what is the ontology of monstrosity that the vampire is caught up in--by specifically looking at Dracula. What is the ontology of monstrosity that Dracula is defined by? Ground your thinking in both the text, Dracula, and the other readings we have done thus far (could be Halberstam, Jenkins, Rai, McLuhan, etc).
Shoot for 300-450 words. Engage with others. Don't be afraid to loosen your boundaries and think outside the box here, so long as you support what you are saying with the texts we are reading.
Due: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 by class time.
After beginning to investigate media ecology theory, I want you to try and put some of your understanding into practice. Halberstam says that "monsters are meaning machines" and that "we need monsters and we need to recognize and celebrate our own monstrosities." So, we might argue that the vampire is the medium, but what then would the "content" of vampire be (given that McLuhan argues it's another medium)? Attempt to answer this question by using The New York Times piece as evidence--what is the content of "the vampire" according to this piece? How then might you begin to question if the vampire is an assemblage of media, sensation, etc, etc?
Respond to these questions and conclude by offering your own list of vampire vs. zombie teams that, in a sense, respond to your own musings above.
Engage with one another. Shoot for 250-500 words.
Due: Thursday, April 5, 2012.
"Twilight Zone" provides us with an interesting historical context of the vampire and his rise to fame within our culture. It also, and perhaps convincingly so, shows how the line between what is considered myth and what is considered reality can become blurred inside people's minds. To support his research, Collins Jenkins provides "interpretive" data shown through a historical lens. Deconstruct his chapter and find a sentence, a paragraph, a theme, etc that you might consider a researchable topic in relationship to the vampire (i.e. a researchable question could be: in the 21st century, do we still consider the vampire to be highest level of supernatural species?). Discuss how you might go about researching the topic. What would you need to know and why? How might you connect to a larger theme that isn't just something based around a literary analysis (i.e. given the example question above, you might bring in different anthropological theories to provide a context for how species understand a top-down order to living)?
Do some brainstorming in this blog post to see what you can begin to come up with in terms of research and vampires. I'm looking for you to be able to start to "dig deep" and see connections between vampires and research that extends beyond literature and literary analyses.
Shoot for 250-400 words. And do engage with one another.
Due: Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by class time.
