Union College
Modern Languages and Literatures Department
MLT – 260
EuCiv/GenEd
Spring 2007
The Vampire as Other in East European and American Culture
Monday and Wednesday
2:50 PM - 4:40 PM
Course Description
In
this course, we will discuss the present distribution of the East European
peoples, their prehistory, and their relation to other peoples of Europe and
Asia. We will also survey their early
culture, including pagan, animistic, and dualistic religious beliefs, and
Christianization. Our focus will be the
myth of the vampire, which has had enduring power not only in Eastern European
folk belief but also in American popular culture right up to the present day.
The course will be conducted as a combination of lectures and class discussion
(with an occasional film). In our study of vampire beliefs, we will cover a
wide variety of topics including:
·
Eastern European folk
beliefs about the soul, the source of life, fertility,
community
safety, diseases, comas, and premature burial
·
The coexistence of pagan
and Christian practices in Eastern Europe
·
Eastern European rites
of social passage (mother's purification, infant baptism,
girl's
coming-of-age, courtship and marriage, death, funeral, and posthumous
commemorations)
·
The Vampire as
Other: Boundary-crossers and their
demonization
·
Eastern European
boundary crossers/folk monsters related to the vampire (the
Evil
Eye, strigoi, sorcerers, rusalki, navi, mory/incubi,
werewolves, etc.)
·
The historical Dracula,
the Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes-- his life; his positive
image
in Romanian folklore; and how he came to be a symbol of Evil in Western culture
·
The changing image of
the vampire from its origins to present day-- East
European
communal demon; Enlightenment puzzle; Romantic Sublime Hero; Victorian villain;
Nietzschean Superman; Hollywood predator; sexual brinksman; and postmodern
martyr
Readings
Course packet (including
excerpts from The Darkling and Vampires of the Slavs)
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Book of Vampire Stories (edited by Alan Ryan)
Course
Requirements and Evaluation
Students
will be expected to have completed the reading for each class as outlined below
and to actively contribute to class discussion. I will keep an attendance
record. If you miss more than two class periods, your final letter
grade will be lowered by one full letter.
(If you earn an A for the course but have missed three times, your
final grade for the course will be lowered to a B.) In the event that you know in advance that you must miss a class,
it makes good sense to tell me. You can always leave a phone message for me or
contact me via e-mail. The five-page
paper will be submitted first as a draft and then as a final version. Detailed instructions on the writing
assignment will be provided. The final
grade for the course will be determined based on the following:
1
Midterm Examination (in-class) 30%
1
Five-Page Paper 25%
1
Final Examination (in-class) 30%
Quizzes
and Class Participation 15%
Grading Scale
93-100 A
90-92
A-
88-89
B+
83-87
B
80-82
B-
78-79
C+
73-77
C
70-72
C-
68-69
D+
65-67
D
64
E
The Vampire as Other in East European and American
Culture
Syllabus
Week One
Monday
Introduction
to course/Typology of Vampires: The Vampire as Other
April
1
Wednesday The Image of the Vampire in
East European Folklore
April 3 Readings:
Afanas'ev and Moszynski in Vampire of the Slavs, 160-79 and 180-187 (CP)
Week Two
Monday The Image of
the Vampire in East European Folk Culture (part 2)
April
8
Reading:
"Guide to the Countries of Eastern Europe" (CP)
Wednesday The Problem of Evil in the
Zadruga
April
10 Reading: Vampires
of the Slavs 136-39, 156-59 (CP)
Week Three
Monday Evil in Early Slavic
Religions and in Folk Belief
April
15 10 Minute
Oral Presentations on Countries of Eastern Europe
Reading: The Darkling 75-126 (CP)
Wednesday Rites of Passage and the
Undead
April
17 Reading: Vampires
of the Slavs 188-200, 235-47 (CP)
"Polish
Funeral Customs and Vampire Beliefs" (CP)
Week Four
Monday Film: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
April
22
Wednesday Tolstoy's "Family of
the Vrdolak"
April
24 Reading:
"Family of the Vrdolak" in Vampires of the Slavs 248-71 (CP)
Week Five
Monday
Midterm Exam
April
29
Wednesday Film and Discussion of
X-Files "Bad Blood"
May
1
Week Six
Monday Vampire Disinterments
& Decomposition
May
6 Reading:
Barber, "Forensic pathology & the European Vampire" (CP)
Wednesday Film: Nosferatu
May
8
Draft of
Paper Due
Week Seven
Monday The Vampire in Western
European Culture: 18th-19th Centuries
May
13 Readings:
Polidori, "The Vampyre" (Anthology, 7-24) and Ryder, "Varney
the Vampyre" (Anthology 25-35)
Wednesday The Image of Dracula in
Carmilla
May
15 Reading: Le
Fanu's Carmilla
Week Eight
Monday Stoker's Dracula (Part
1: Chapters 1-16)
May
20
Wednesday Stoker's Dracula
(Part 2)
May
22
Week Nine
Monday Finish
Dracula (Chapters 17-27)
May 27
Wednesday The Image of Dracula in Film: The Vampire in
American Culture
May
29
Paper Due
Week Ten
Monday The Vampire as Other
June
3 Readings:
"The Mindworm" (Anthology, 349-61); "The Girl with the
Hungry Eyes" (Anthology, 334-48)
Wednesday
Review for final
June
5