A Course of Study with Bite

I'm not a huge fan of the Twilight books or vampires in general - though I have read Meyers' series (regrettable) and Stoker's Dracula (entertaining) - but if the newest iteration of vampire mania is to be believed (and it can be; see below), you can now, actually, get a DEGREE in Vampire studies. (Don't get me started on the silliness run amok in higher education...)

Beginning this fall, the University of Hertfordshire in England will offer Reading the Vampire, a master's degree in vampire literature. The course offers students an in-depth study of vampires in literature and the ways in which the idea of the 'vampire' has embedded itself in modern culture.

Course Description from UofH website:

Reading the Vampire: Science, Sexuality, and Alterity in Modern Culture
This module investigates vampire narratives in literature from early vampire stories such J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s lesbian vampire tale Carmilla and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the most famous vampire narrative of all, to the twentieth-century vampire chronicles of Anne Rice and the romantic blockbusters of Stephanie Meyer. Since their animation out of folk materials in the nineteenth century, vampires have been continually reborn in modern culture. They have enacted a host of anxieties and desires, shifting shape as the culture they are brought to life in itself changes form. Reading the Vampire embeds vampires in their cultural contexts, exploring their relationship to modernity; the influence of key thinkers such as Darwin, Marx, and Freud will be addressed, together with issues of gender, national identity, technology, consumption, and social change. The module will provide a forum for the development of innovative research and examine these creatures in all their various manifestations and cultural meanings.

Comments

  1. Twilight is simply and yet beautifully written. The descriptions of Forks leave you feeling like you can almost smell the damp air and hear the rain falling on the roof. The romance between Edward and Bella is both touching and compelling. There is a melancholic feel to their impossible love, yet at the same time they both are unwilling to give up hope that their relationship is not doomed. The book reaches a fever pitch of excitement as the romance between Bella and Edward turns into a frantic race to stay alive.

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  2. Wow! I'm not sure what else to say about that. I thought I'd seen everything in higher ed, but I guess that was just hubris on my part ;o)

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