Quick Write (2 minutes)

What makes vampires monstrous? Why are they monsters? Why are they scary?

 

Monster Theory

  1. Thesis I. The Monster’s Body Is a Cultural Body (4)
  2. Thesis II. The Monster Always Escapes (4)
  3. Thesis III. The Monster Is the Harbinger of Category Crisis (6)
  4. Thesis IV. The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference (7)
  5. Thesis V. The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible (12)
  6. Thesis VI. Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire (16)
  7. Thesis VII. The Monster Stands at the Threshold . . . of Becoming (20)

Monster Theory Class Notes

Dracula as Palimpsest

pal·imp·sest – a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

  • something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

Dracula 1798 novel > Dracula 1931 Film > Dracula 1992 Film > Twilight books and movies

Or Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned

Incredible Hulk > Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde > Frankenstein and His Monster

Thesis I. The Monster’s Body Is a Cultural Body

  • Each culture will produce their own monsters and their own versions of monsters. “The monstrous body is pure culture” (4).
  • The monsters is born as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment, a time, a feeling, and a place. A monster will always change because culture changes, our fears and beliefs are always changing (4).
  • The monster signifies something other than itself: it is a displacement, it inhabits the gap between when it was created and it is received, to be born again (4).

Thesis II. The Monster Always Escapes

  • “The anxiety that condenses like green vapor into the form of the vampire can be dispersed temporarily, but the revenant by definition returns”
  • “Monsters must be examined within the intricate matrix of relations (social, cultural, and literary-historical) that generate them”
  • “the undead returns in slightly different clothing, each time to be read against contemporary social movements or a specific, determining event”

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bib is a works cited or references page with additional information added to each citation. You begin with the correct reference citation for your sources. For this assignment we will have at least five sources.

Here is a good explanation of citations in MLA.

Explanation and example of an Annotated Bibliography from Cornell

Example 2 Annotated Bibliography from Purdue OWL

Here is the format:

Author(s). “Article Title.” Source, vol. #, no. #, season year, pp. xx-xx. Database, URL.

Example:

Kong, Les. “Business Sources for Education Majors.” Education Graduate Students Journal, vol. 75, no. 4, 2014, pp. 12-19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/52506788.

To each entry you will add the annotation, the paragraph or two that explains the source, why you are using it, and its reliability.

Each professor you will have in the future may have specific guidelines for what to include in an annotated bibliographic entry. Always follow their instructions.

For this assignment, you should include:

  1. Summary of Source, 2-4 sentences
  2. How you are using the source, 1-3 sentences
  3. Reliability of source, 1-3 sentences

In total, you should have a short paragraph, 4-10 sentences, explaining the three points above.

It will look like this:

Krikorian, Mark. “Two Immigration Priorities.”National Review, Dec, 2016, pp. 18-20, SIRS Issues Researcher, www.sks.sirs.com.

This article goes into detail on some of the other less talked about factors of the changes in how we deal with illegal immigrants under our new president and his policies. The author is the director of the Center for Immigration Studies so I assume he is a credible expert in immigration. I will use this source to get more specific in my critique of the border wall proposal.

or this

Krikorian, Mark. “Two Immigration Priorities.” National Review, Dec, 2016, pp. 18-20, SIRS Issues Researcher, www.sks.sirs.com. This article goes into detail on some of the other less talked about factors of the changes in how we deal with illegal immigrants under our new president and his policies. The author is the director of the Center for Immigration Studies so I assume he is a credible expert in immigration. I will use this source to get more specific in my critique of the border wall proposal.

In total, you should have a short paragraph, 4-10 sentences, explaining the three points above.

Homework

  • Annotated Bib 2 on Essay 3 due Thursday