Vampires in literature, film, and television

1
Vampiresin literature, film, and television

• Stephen Wall-Smith
• ALFA/Fitchburg State College
• Fall 2008

2
Fifth Meeting

• Vampires for Laughs

3
Laugh at evil personified??

• Halloween through the eyes of Mircea Eliade
• Myth and cult can change independently
• Early myth evil is abroad, dress up so spirits
  cant recognize you.
• Later myth declare your independence from evil
  by mocking its weakness.
• Much later myth Have fun for its own sake.

4
Comedy types

• Farce
• Comedy of manners
• Comedy of humors
• Satire/burlesque/black comedy
• Romantic comedy

5
Farce

• The Fearless Vampire Killers

6
Christopher Moore
7
Manners/humors

• The Addams Family
• Uncle Fester patterned on Nosferatu
• The Munsters
• Eddie and Grandpa are both vampires.
• Which is which?

8
Satire/burlesque

• Dracula, Dead and Loving It

9
Romantic comedy

• Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse True Blood
  character), 13 Southern Vampire titles since 2003
• Mary Janice Davidson, seven Queen Betsy titles
  since 2004

10
Dead-End Dating (Kimberly Raye)

• A vivacious vampire with a flair for
  accessorizing, Lil Marchette is unlike most of
  her kind. She prefers lively shades of pink to
  dismal black (soo not her color), plus shes a
  hopeless romantic. In need of a steady paycheck
  to support a compulsive cosmetics habit, Lil
  starts Dead End Dating (DED), a Manhattan-based
  matchmaking service that helps smart,
  sophisticated singles like herself find eternity
  matesand may even help her stake a claim to her
  very own Count Right!When Lil meets geeky
  vampire Francis Deville, she knows hes the
  perfect first client. If she can hook up
  Francisafter a little revamping, of courseshe
  will prove her skills to the vampire community
  and turn DED into the hottest dating service in
  the Big Apple. But just as her business takes
  off, Lil meets the (literally) drop-dead gorgeous
  bounty hunter Ty Bonner, who is hot on the chase
  of a serial killer. Instantly drawn to the
  luscious vamp stud, Lil really wants a taste. But
  as a made vampire, Ty cant procreateand Lil
  will settle for nothing less. Luckily, between
  vampifying Francis and helping Ty solve his
  murder mystery, Lil has no time for silly
  romantic entanglements . . . even if Ty is all
  that and a Bloody Mary chaser!

11
Accidentally - Dakota Cassidy

• Its a lousy first day on the job for Nina
  Blackman when a patient, loopy from the
  anesthesia, bites her. At least he was cute. But
  for real drama she cant beat the next evening.
  Nina wakes up with a set of razor-sharp fangs,
  bionic vision, supersonic hearing, and a taste
  for blood. But theres a good explanation Its
  her patient, Long Island vampire Greg Statleon.
  Actually theyre perfect for each otherif Ninas
  willing to commit to one man for eternity.

12
Love At First Bite

• A first-rate cast, still funny after 30 years.
• See it all, if you can stay!
• Thanks for a great class!