Vampires on Film Freshman Seminar Winter 2019 Thurs. 11-11:50 LIT 237
Professor Lampert-Weissig Office: Literature 3347; phone: 822-0204; llampert@ucsd.edu
www.talesofthenight.org


Week One: Introduction

Week Two: Everything you always wanted to know about vampires (but were afraid to ask).   I will be talking about the history of vampires and vampires in literature as well as taking questions.

Week Three: Murnau, Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922). You can view this film, now in the public domain, very easily on the web through youtube or google video. A copy of a good restoration is also on library reserve.  Thinksheet question:  Is Nosferatu a sympathetic monster?  Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him? Why or why not?

Week Four: Herzog, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979). This film is on reserve at the library, readily available through Amazon, i-Tunes and other video outlets. Thinksheet question:  What, according to this film, is the nature of evil?

Week Five: Crain, Blacula (1972). On reserve at Geisel library (on the first floor) and available through major video outlets.
Thinksheet question:  The opening of this film, which depicts the character of Mamuwalde visiting Dracula in order to enlist his help in ending the slave trade, was added to the original script at the suggestion of the lead actor, William Marshall.  What difference does this addition make to the figure of the vampire?

Week Six: Vampire Diaries (Season 1 episode 1) AND story, Polidori, "The Vampyre" (You may skip intro. materials; search for the first line: It happened that in the midst of the dissipations")
Thinksheet: Stefan and Damon Salvatore are literary descendents of Lord Ruthven, the vampire in Polidori's short story. Find one point of connection between "The Vampyre" and "The Vampire Diaries" and write about that--one paragraph to one page double-spaced typed.

Week Seven: Ball et.al, True Blood, Season One, Episode One. On reserve at the library, readily available through Netflix and other video outlets and will be available if students wish to have a screening.  Thinksheet question:  Are vampire rights human rights?  Why or why not? 

Week Eight: Final meeting

Course requirements: Thinksheets: This class is graded pass/fail.  In order to pass the class you need to respond to three thinksheet questions (that means you may skip two questions).  The thinksheet questions are listed in the syllabus. Think sheets are response papers designed to stimulate discussion and help students engage with the works we are reading. All topics are already listed above.  
Thinksheet responses need only be a paragraph long.  They should be no longer than one page.  Please type if you can—it makes it much easier for me to comment. I will comment on your thinksheets and try to give you feedback to what you have written, but I won’t grade the thinksheets. If your thinksheets show effort and engagement with the assignment, you will pass the course. If I determine that your thinksheets do not show the kind of effort that I expect or if there seem to be other problems, I will inform you in my comments on the thinksheet and ask you to meet with me to discuss improvement. Beyond that, only documented medical excuses or documented personal emergencies will excuse a late thinksheet. It is your responsibility to inform me about such emergencies as soon as it is possible for you to do so and, indeed, if you don’t let me know what’s going on, I can’t help you.

Academic Integrity: The University’s policy on Academic Integrity can be found here: http://senate.ucsd.edu/manual/appendices/app2.htm.  Reading through this policy will supplement our discussion of academic integrity in class.  If you ever have any questions regarding this policies please contact me and we can go through them together.