English 44 - Summer Sessions I, 2023

Intro Topics in Fiction

Topic: introductory course in vampire literature

Class Information

Instructor: Dávila Corujo, Abraham Luis
CRN: 51359
Time: MW 2:10-4:40
Location: 1001 Shrem
GE Areas: Writing Experience

Description

Today, the figure of the vampire is ubiquitous. Novels, television series, films, and other forms of entertainment continue to revisit vampirism, begging the question, just what is it about this monster that draws us in? This course will focus on a historical overview of the vampire, starting with its earliest iterations during the start of the nineteenth century. We will continue to engage with subsequent iterations of the vampire, tracking the ways in which this figure has evolved into what we have inherited today. Together, we will put this evolution in conversation with questions of sexuality, race, gender, and class, all of which have irrevocably marked the vampire's literary development.

Grading

Letter Grading

Texts

Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and Vampires or Revenants of Hungary, Moravia, etc. (Extracts), Antoine Augustin Calmet
The Vampyre & Other Tales of the Macabre, John Polidori; ed. Chris Baldick
The Phantom, Dion Boucicault
Varney the Vampire (Extracts), James Malcolm Rymer; Thomas Peckett Prest
Christabel, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler