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RSSS 315 (Tier 2): Ninth Week (Tuesday)

RSSS 315 (Tier 2): Ninth Week (Tuesday). Vampires and Werewolves: Slavic Folklore in Our Culture. News. Topics for today Film comments Interpreting Stoker Religious Sociological Psychological Formalist. Religious. Good vs Evil Infectiousness of evil Links with darkness, decay, death

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RSSS 315 (Tier 2): Ninth Week (Tuesday)

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  1. RSSS 315 (Tier 2): Ninth Week (Tuesday) Vampires and Werewolves: Slavic Folklore in Our Culture

  2. News • Topics for today • Film comments • Interpreting Stoker • Religious • Sociological • Psychological • Formalist

  3. Religious • Good vs Evil • Infectiousness of evil • Links with darkness, decay, death • Opposition to Christianity • Allegorical • Example: Only defense is purity of heart, sacrificial love

  4. Formalist • Sources: folklore and literary • Themes and motifs • Narrative technique, e.g., unreliable narrators • Gothic elements

  5. Gothic features • Mystery, gloom, fog, night, storm • Desolation, isolation • Animals: wolves, bats • Distant past (unforgotten): sense of nostalgia • Old castles, mansions, graveyards, churches (cobwebs, spiders) • Mysterious sounds (howling, flapping, scratching) • Mysterious figures, secrets, threat of violence • Dark colors (black), blood, pale features

  6. Sociological • Economic • Capital, expanding markets • Monopoly on resources • Feminist • Gender roles • patriarchy • Dealing the “other,” aliens

  7. Psychological • Non-Freudian • Freudian • Displaced sexuality • Oedipal themes • Patricide • Matricide • Incest • Dealing with repressed fears

  8. Key passages • Jonathan and the “daughters” • Killing of Lucy • Seduction of Mina

  9. Woman Empowered: Lucy and Nosferatu • Men are secondary • Van Helsing’s role diminished • Jonathan in a trance • Face to face with Dracula: she is not afraid • Terms of the sacrifice: purity of heart plus dawn • Does He hope that she will win?

  10. Literature into Film: Challenges • Background information • Imagery • Suggestiveness • Inner dialogue, monologue

  11. “The Family of the Vurdalak” Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoi 1817-75

  12. “Carmilla”: famous lesbian vampire story First published in Dark Blue, December, 1871 through March of 1872. Some have said: "probably the best vampire story of all" Diminished Gothic's emphasis on external sources of terror Focus on the psychological effects Lesbianism Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1814-73

  13. Afanas’ev’s Bucket of Blood

  14. Forensic bases • Burial practices • Decomposition: features • Decomposition: duration • Possible to explain vampires

  15. Key facts • Shallow or no graves • Bloating during decomposition • Fluids expelled during decay • Dead bodies make noises • Decomposition generates heat • Skin shrinks back • Corpses attract wolves • Puncturing is the best treatment for bloat

  16. Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932) • Famous expressionist film director (Danish; 1889-1968) • Evil presence, atmosphere • Two daughters, one “infected” • Reassuring male presence

  17. Theater background 1931 “hit” Career swings Sad ending Bela Lugosi 1882-1956

  18. Film Versions of Carmilla/Bathory: The Hunger (1983)

  19. Daughters of Darkness (1971) • Another cult “classic” • Harry Kumel • Combines Carmilla and Bathory

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