21L.430/CMS.920/SP.492  Popular Culture and Narrative

OK,
how about this on the basic structure of 'Dark Shadows': the main tension is between a modern and a pre-modern world, the former embodied in Eva Green's marvellously creepy witch (whose physical architecture is utterly 'unnatural', seeming to resemble that of a store-front mannequin and now CEO of a big faceless food combine) and the latter by the resuscitated Johnny Depp, evoking a world in which (rather a feeble pun, perhaps) consanguinity, i.e. blood, family, human ties were paramount, and for whom the capitalistic bottom line (thanks to vast inherited wealth) is more or less irrelevant?

Hi,
I forgot in the rush on Thursday to remind you to get your evaluations in for the Class.  The Institute regards these as very important, so please make sure you get yours in. 

I've posted some Twilight notes and links to the Materials section as promised.

“Making detailed reference to a range of literary and filmic texts, discuss the changes which took place in the vampire trope during the 20th and early 21^st centuries.”

Guidance Note: you should aim here firstly to display knowledge of the texts; secondly, to fashion that knowledge into a coherent, well-organized discourse; and, thirdly, without being wildly speculative (remember, you should ideally offer evidence for all your major points), to consider the larger issues involved: is the vampire trope really a way of talking about sex, or is it all about our fear of death? Or what else might it mean?  Whatever line you take, you should try to work towards an explanation, however tentative, of why the vampire should have continued to fascinate readers and film-goers in the West for upwards of two centuries. 

As a help here, I shall be posting some materials on the themes of love and death to the Stellar site.

Willie Donaldson 3 May 2012

I've posted some Buffy stuff to the 'Materials' section