Seminar (SEM)

• IUB GenEd World Culture credit
• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• COLL (CASE) Global Civ & Cultr

• Above class open to undergraduates only
• Above class meets with another section SLAV-T260.
• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• IUB GenEd World Culture credit
• COLL (CASE) Global Civ & Culture credit

Overview The vampire is one of the most popular and enduring images in the world, giving rise to hundreds of monster movies around the globe every year, not to mention novels, short stories, plays, TV shows, and commercial merchandise. Yet the Western vampire image that we know from the film, television, and literature of today is very different from its eastern European progenitor. Nina Auerbach has said that "every age creates the vampire that it needs." In this course we will explore the eastern European origins of the vampire, similar entities in other cultures that predate them, and how the vampire in its look, nature, vulnerabilities, and threat has changed over the centuries. This approach will provide us with the means to learn about the geography, village and urban cultures, traditional social structure, and religions of eastern Europe; the nature and manifestations of Evil and the concept of Limited Good; physical, temporal, and societal boundaries and ritual passage that accompany them; and major historical and intellectual periods (the settlement of Europe, the Age of Reason, Romanticism, Neo-classicism, the Enlightenment, the Victorian era, up to today). We will examine how the vampire first manifested itself in European literature and how it "shape-shifted" its way into the entertainment (and commercial) media of today, through numerous and various readings of fictional, ethnographic, and scholarly works, the analysis of folklore materials, as well as the viewing of movies, television shows, and Internet sites, not only from the U.S. and Europe but from around the world. By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss the origins, classifications, functions, natures, and evolution of the vampire and what that can tell us about historical periods and our own contemporary cultures. Learning Objectives After successfully completing this course, students will be able to: * interpret a broad range of materials (folklore, literature, film, and manifestations/products of contemporary culture from a variety of countries) based on content and function, to place the materials within the era and culture that created them as well as: * identify, discuss, and compare the countries of eastern Europe, their capitals, religions, languages, history, and traditional social structure * discuss belief systems and how they manifest themselves in traditional and modern cultures * discuss the origins, classifications, functions, natures, and evolution of the vampire * analyze unfamiliar authentic folklore and urban materials for content, classification, theme, and purpose * compare contemporary Western culture (as well as select world cultures) with traditional eastern European cultures and belief systems * compare and contrast major historical and intellectual periods of Western culture, especially how they define and approach the concept of Evil (Romanticism, Neo-classicism, the Enlightenment, etc.) * express themselves more ably in spoken and written forms through the analysis of authentic folkloric texts, historical documents, works of literature, movies, and contemporary culture * Ryan, Alan, ed. 1987. The Penguin book of vampire stories. New York: Penguin. * Stoker, Bram; Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal, eds. 1996. Dracula. Norton Critical Editions. or: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. [Any unabridged edition will do; you may decide to buy an annotated edition (one that has extensive explanations and footnotes), which can prove to be an even more interesting read] * Perkowski, Jan. 2006. Vampire lore: from the writings of Jan Louis Perkowski. Slavica. keywords: vampire Slavic East Central European folklore British literature film cinema Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Belarus, Belarusan, Poland, Polish, Czech Republic, Czechia, Czech, Slovakia, Slovak, Hungary, Hungarian, Romania, Romanian, Moldova, Moldovan, Slovenia, Slovenian, Slovene, Croatia, Croatian, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian, Serbia, Serbian,

Seminar (SEM)

• COLL (CASE) Global Civ & Cultr
• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• IUB GenEd World Culture credit

• Above class open to Hutton Honors College students only
• Above class open to undergraduates only
• Above class counts as a 3-credit HON-H course in the Hutton Honors College.
• Above class meets with another section of SLAV-T260.
• IUB GenEd World Culture credit
• IUB GenEd A&H credit
• COLL (CASE) Global Civ & Culture credit

Overview The vampire is one of the most popular and enduring images in the world, giving rise to hundreds of monster movies around the globe every year, not to mention novels, short stories, plays, TV shows, and commercial merchandise. Yet the Western vampire image that we know from the film, television, and literature of today is very different from its eastern European progenitor. Nina Auerbach has said that "every age creates the vampire that it needs." In this course we will explore the eastern European origins of the vampire, similar entities in other cultures that predate them, and how the vampire in its look, nature, vulnerabilities, and threat has changed over the centuries. This approach will provide us with the means to learn about the geography, village and urban cultures, traditional social structure, and religions of eastern Europe; the nature and manifestations of Evil and the concept of Limited Good; physical, temporal, and societal boundaries and ritual passage that accompany them; and major historical and intellectual periods (the settlement of Europe, the Age of Reason, Romanticism, Neo-classicism, the Enlightenment, the Victorian era, up to today). We will examine how the vampire first manifested itself in European literature and how it "shape-shifted" its way into the entertainment (and commercial) media of today, through numerous and various readings of fictional, ethnographic, and scholarly works, the analysis of folklore materials, as well as the viewing of movies, television shows, and Internet sites, not only from the U.S. and Europe but from around the world. By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss the origins, classifications, functions, natures, and evolution of the vampire and what that can tell us about historical periods and our own contemporary cultures. Learning Objectives After successfully completing this course, students will be able to: * interpret a broad range of materials (folklore, literature, film, and manifestations/products of contemporary culture from a variety of countries) based on content and function, to place the materials within the era and culture that created them as well as: * identify, discuss, and compare the countries of eastern Europe, their capitals, religions, languages, history, and traditional social structure * discuss belief systems and how they manifest themselves in traditional and modern cultures * discuss the origins, classifications, functions, natures, and evolution of the vampire * analyze unfamiliar authentic folklore and urban materials for content, classification, theme, and purpose * compare contemporary Western culture (as well as select world cultures) with traditional eastern European cultures and belief systems * compare and contrast major historical and intellectual periods of Western culture, especially how they define and approach the concept of Evil (Romanticism, Neo-classicism, the Enlightenment, etc.) * express themselves more ably in spoken and written forms through the analysis of authentic folkloric texts, historical documents, works of literature, movies, and contemporary culture * Ryan, Alan, ed. 1987. The Penguin book of vampire stories. New York: Penguin. * Stoker, Bram; Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal, eds. 1996. Dracula. Norton Critical Editions. or: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. [Any unabridged edition will do; you may decide to buy an annotated edition (one that has extensive explanations and footnotes), which can prove to be an even more interesting read] * Perkowski, Jan. 2006. Vampire lore: from the writings of Jan Louis Perkowski. Slavica. keywords: vampire Slavic East Central European folklore British literature film cinema Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Belarus, Belarusan, Poland, Polish, Czech Republic, Czechia, Czech, Slovakia, Slovak, Hungary, Hungarian, Romania, Romanian, Moldova, Moldovan, Slovenia, Slovenian, Slovene, Croatia, Croatian, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian, Serbia, Serbian,