Twilight is Fun to Tear Apart & Looking Back on Literary Theory

    Within the reigns of The New Dawn of Vampire Literature, a class I never expected to take, I learned much more than I expected. While I thought the class would merely focus on vampires and analyzing literature, I also got to experience (and learn more about) more developed literary theory than I had encountered so far. We did a lot of work with literary analysis using different types of theory, which I ended up having a lot more fun with than I expected. Since I had so much to say on the topic, I would have to say that Twilight is the piece of literature that I had the most fun with. I particularly liked criticizing the novel from a feminist perspective.

     Twilight is often looked at as an anti-feminist piece of literature, since Bella is (in my opinion) such a helpless, dependent protagonist. A classic example of her submissive personality is after being saved by Edward by a group of men. “’Drink,’ he ordered. I sipped at my soda obediently, and then drank more deeply, surprised by how thirsty I was” (Meyer 44). Bella, unable to think for herself, is always in need of some direction or a man in charge. This is just one example of many ways to tear apart the text with feminist theory. Though it is easy to look like a bra-burning man hater when using feminist theory, I really just enjoyed the opportunities to scrutinize Twilight presented in nearly every scene.

Literary theory, as a whole, was a new concept to me. I have been writing around a dozen papers each semester of college so far and yet have never taken a theory class nor had it explained to me in a classroom setting. I think this is a drawback to modern American university systems, because since I learned theory in this class, I already feel like I can develop my ideas into a much more thorough and coherent thesis, which makes for writing better papers.

Personally, I now feel that literary theory should be mandatory for incoming first years in university, because it is such a useful tool. In my academic future, especially when in other seminars and when writing my senior thesis, I know that the literary theory methods I learned in this tutorial will definitely be a huge help. I have always had an issue with developing my thesis thoroughly and leaving gaps in my reasoning, but now that I know how to dig deeper to get to the meat of a subject, I feel like that will not be a problem in my future.

Truthfully, I thought the tutorial accompanying the seminar had no faults. We learned a lot about literary theory, discussed the texts as thoroughly as we needed to, and got to brainstorm very often. We also didn’t do the same thing every day; our curriculum was always mixed up, so it was never boring. The seminar was also interesting, though the same agenda every day (student led presentations) became a bit drab. For that portion of the class, I recommend maybe less presentations and more of other activities to keep the students interested and willing to learn. Overall, though, The New Dawn of Vampire Literature was never a class I expected to get into and I really had a fun time in the course. I learned things I would not have learned otherwise and was introduced to literature I hadn’t had a chance to delve into in the past.

Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight. New York: Little Brown & Co, 2005. Print.

New Age Vampires; A Job Well Done.

A)                I just finished season one of the Vampire Diaries and I must say that I am very intrigued. The series begins as a normal cliché drama about how hard high school is and how dreamy vampires are depicted nowadays, however season one ended leaving the viewer with so much more. What began as a modern and corny take on our view of vampires, turned out to be an actually clever and interesting series far from what the other vampire literature I have read.

                   My initial thought on this series was that it was going to be similar to Twilight; young girl falls for the hot new vampire in town. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be nothing like I expected. The characters and the plot of this series is captivating and about as realistic as a TV show about vampires and get. The protagonist, Elena, is a young girl struggling with the issues that high school brings. In this way she is similar to Bella, from Twilight. She is sad and lonely because of the loss of her parents and is trying to find her place in the world that has changed so much. However, this is where the similarities stop. Elena is a strong-willed, independent, beautiful girl who grows up immensely within the first season alone; whereas Bella’s character is pretty much the same annoying, dependent, whinny seventeen year old throughout the entire series. Elena does fall for the handsome vampire, Stefan, but she maintains her sense of self throughout her experience. Furthermore, Stefan is nothing like Edward (thank God). He is a bit strange and curious like Edward, but his character has much more depth. He is extremely caring and protective of Elena while still allowing her to live her life and experience things on her own. Stefan acknowledges Elena's weaknesses, but at the same time recognizes and respects her strengths. He is hardly ever hovering over her or locking her away in his home to protect her from the dangers that the town is facing.

                This story contains many of the same themes as the other novels we have read. It has first person narration in the form of diary entries (similar to Dracula) that Elena and Stefan keep so in almost every episode we hear the direct thoughts of the protagonist human, as well as the vampire. Also, the theme of good v. evil is extremely prevalent throughout the season. Initially, we have Damon, Stefan’s brother, who is the quintessential bad boy vampire. He comes into town, killing as he pleases, having zero remorse for his actions. Then, we have the evil vampires that return from the past, seeking vengeance on the town for what happened to them hundreds of years ago. Because of the latter, we actually get to see character growth from Damon, which is always the intriguing part of cinema, watching the characters develop and relating to their struggles. Damon’s behavior shifts from evil vampire, to an actual friend of Elena. This is much different from what we saw in Interview with the Vampire, where Lestat continued to be the evil vampire he was in the beginning, and there was no shade of grey between good and evil. Here we have a more fuzzy area, where evil isn’t always as evil as we think it to be.

                Another aspect that I thoroughly enjoyed is how well they blended the new, modern view of vampires, with the old, traditional features. We have teenagers going to school and living amongst vampires, just like in Twilight and True Blood, but it is not all romance and false depictions. Vampire Diaries actually makes it believable that vampires could exist amongst humans, which I think is something that the other series were lacking. The way in which they depict the killings, the mind control, and the manipulation make it very traditional to how vampires were initially introduced into literature and film. These are very important features of vampires that are what initially drew me to them; the fear of the other. They don’t sparkle in the sunlight, they don’t always have control over their hunger, and they can be killed fairly easily. Now, this is only season one, so who knows what the rest of the series has in store for us. But thus far, I think that for the reasons I mentioned, this is by far my favorite piece of work that we have studied.

B)                This course and tutorial have opened up a new outlook on literature for me. The theories and analysis that we have done over these past eight weeks has been something that I never did while reading novels. Although initially I found the constant digging and interpreting to be slightly annoying, now it is something that I find I actually enjoy doing and it is definitely going to carry on to every book I read from now on.

                Thinking too deeply into things that someone has written has never been something I thought to do, perhaps because I did not know how to go about doing it. Now that I have learned how to approach literature from such a view, I find that it really does help understand the text better. For instance New Historicism was an important aspect in learning about Dracula because the novel played directly off of how things were during that time. The fear of the un-known and the lack of information/certainty about such unknown things is what made that book so frightening. Interview with the Vampire’s approach on opening the door to the mind of the other was fascinating as well, especially reading it right after Dracula. Two completely different ways of looking at the same subject matter. This tutorial was extremely helpful in reading these novels; and the theories and approaches we learned opened my eyes to things I probably would have missed had I read these works on my own. I would not change a thing about the tutorial; it was a very interesting and enjoyable experience.

Submission as a Social Norm for Women

Near the beginning of the novel Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, the clumsy and socially awkward protagonist Bella Swan is nearly hit by a car that loses control on the icy road. For a split second, Bella expects to die; however, seemingly out of nowhere, the impossibly gorgeous and moody Edward Cullen swoops in to save the day. Bella notices that his speed and strength are nowhere near human, and tries to discover how he saved her. This opens up the door to Edward’s controlling and dangerous personality.

Edward and Bella’s first interactions are fueled with passion and anger, which, as Leisha Jones’ journal article “Contemporary Bildungsromans and the Prosumer Girl” describes, are aspects of a relationship that women are unable to resist. Some of the dominant social norms for the female, as described by Jones, are that as women grow up, they learn to be submissive as well as “[equate] sexuality with danger” (Jones 440). Jones determines that Twilight outlines these characteristics with ease.  In Twilight, it is no difficult matter to determine that Edward Cullen is the sexy bad boy who is always in charge. Bella is “an all-too-human girl who falls in love with the perfect unattainable loveobject vampire;” in other words, a stereotypically helpless female who wants what she can’t have (Jones 441). When Bella is almost hit by the car and Edward saves her, Bella admits that she was “consumed by the mystery Edward presented. And more than a little obsessed by Edward himself” (Meyer 17). Bella’s curiosity overwhelms her common sense and she continues to chase down this dangerous boy despite what that means for her independence.

Though Bella begins with a confident, independent streak, this quickly goes downhill as she starts to argue with Edward over whether or not he was actually standing next to her at the time of the car accident.  Edward argues Bella into submission, and forces her to agree to lie (Meyer 15). He refuses to take no for an answer: “`Bella, you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about.` His tone was cutting” (Meyer 17). The fact that Bella becomes willing to adapt her version of the story to fit Edward’s is a point in which Bella fails to maintain her independence. From then on, she falls head over heels for Edward Cullen, the dominant, angry, and mysterious vampire. Instead of completing herself through a journey of self-discovery, education, and mistakes as most young adults do at Bella’s age, Bella is ready to throw that away for someone else. Rather than being her own person, “`...she does not know her own name, and therefore cannot know either who she is or whom she is destined to be`” (Barry 135). Bella is looking for someone to complete her. And as someone that Bella equates his danger with sexuality, Edward fits the job description.

Works Cited

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 3rd ed. New York: Manchester University Press, 2009. Print.

Jones, Leisha. “Contemporary Bildungsromans and the Prosumer Girl.” Criticism 53.3 (2011): 439-469. Project MUSE. Web. 22 May 2012.

Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight. New York: Little Brown & Co, 2005. Print.

Dracula and the Neo-Marxist Literary Theory

                Although there are many literary theories to choose from when it comes to the novel Dracula, I have chosen to focus on Neo-Marxism. I have done this because the ideas of Marxism and Neo-Marxism are fascinating, in that they both draw upon the aspect of society and how people relate/interact with one another based on class differences. The main aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society and all aspects within a society and culture are viewed as products and processes of human activity. In the novel Dracula, the characters have characteristics which fall into the Neo-Marxist approach of literary theory.

                In Dracula, the class difference between the characters is quite evident. In the beginning of the novel, Jonathan, a proletariat, sets off from his home in London to visit Count Dracula in Transylvania. During his journey he encounters numerous Eastern Europeans who he describes were “at every station there were groups of people…just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets and round hats, and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque” (Stoker, 6). It is clear that even though he is not of upper class, he doesn’t usually mingle with peasants, or those who are of lower class than he.

                Once Harker arrives at Dracula’s castle, it is clear that the Count is of upper class. Jonathan describes the castle and its furnishings to be “extraordinary evidences of wealth…the table service is of gold, and so beautifully wrought that is must be of immense value. The curtains and upholstery of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of my bed are of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are centuries old, though in excellent order” (31). As the novel goes on, it is clear that everything the Count owns is of significant status and he enjoys living in the lap of luxury. Dracula owns property in England, as well as Transylvania, and is presumed to come from a line of wealthy ancestry. He is in a definite position of power and is prime example of what Marxism refers to as the bourgeoisie.

                The females in this novel are also of middle/upper class, vainly spending their days enjoying the lifestyle that comes with being upper class women. Mina, who longs to "be useful to Jonathan," perfectly represents a woman in the society of the early nineteenth century (84). Mina is consistently seen in an idealistic light, instead of in a realistic way. Near the end of the novel while Mina is recovering from her encounter with Count Dracula, Harker writes that she is "sleeping now, calmly and sweetly like a little child" (517). He compares her to a child, or at least someone who is more helpless than he, and he expects nothing more from her.  Lucy, on the other hand, is more sexualized and uses her money to better herself in hopes of finding a suitor. She possesses the greed that is stereotypic of the upper class and wonders even why she can’t marry as many men as she wants (93). Due to their consumer nature, both women play not only into the category of Feminine Criticism, but also Neo-Marxism.

                Capital is another important aspect of Marxism, which is prevalent in Dracula. The count acquires gold, money, and materialistic items, which are considered capital; however he also obtains blood and human life. The act of Dracula sucking blood and stealing mortal’s lives is a representation of gaining more capital. The bourgeoisie needed money and power to preserve their position of power within society, as Dracula needs human blood to secure his being. It is the blood of the lower class that he attains through manipulation and seduction, similar to how Marxism views mortal upper class people and how they treated the lower class. Without blood, the lower class could obviously not survive, and without obtaining their blood, Dracula cannot survive; the society would fall apart.

                All of course is restored when Dracula is defeated; the lower class triumphed the upper class and harmony was restored in the universe. To Marxism, this is the triumph of the lower class as well as the institution of socialism. The mark on Mina’s head, for instance, which was put there by Dracula when he was alive, disappears once he is dead. This is symbolic of things reverting back to how they should be, how Marxism interprets society should be; with no evil and greedy upper class and suffering lower class. Of course this isn’t factual, because Jonathan, Van Helsing, and Arthur are all of middle/upper class, and there still are peasants about the cities. But good has triumphed evil and it is the beginning of a better, classless, society.

-Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York. London: W.W. Nortan and Company, (1997). Print

-Yelin, Louis. Deciphering the Academic Hieroglyph:  Marxist Literary Theory and the Practice of Basic Writing. Web

-Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester. Manchester University Press, (2002): 124

Dracula: Chapter 1 -- Jonathan Harker's Diary, Eastern European Landscapes, and Scantily Clad Women

Bram Stoker’s Dracula begins with the travels of Jonathan Harker, an Englishman on his way to Transylvania to meet with Count Dracula in his castle, where he has business to attend to with the Count. Jonathan Harker travels through Eastern Europe on his journey to Count Dracula’s castle. The journey takes him five days, though he only briefly mentions the first two days, and instead goes into great detail about the last three.

Harker describes most of the countries as very beautiful. They seem to be all rolling hills, castles, and blossoming trees. There isn’t much depth to his descriptions of the various lands, besides that they are aesthetically pleasing. There is, however, much more to draw from his thoughts on the people in the towns he passes through. Harker judges the people as being quite poor, going so far as to call them peasants and question the women’s modesty (or lack thereof). It almost seems that he regards their fears and religious beliefs as quaint; that is, until the end of the chapter, where he starts to doubt himself and become as fearful as them. One also gets the impression that he sees these peoples’ lives and the places they live in as novelties. Harker takes on a “tourist” persona as he travels through Eastern Europe, a place he has never seen before. It’s almost as if he is on vacation, trying different foods and meeting different people, only to be shoved into reality when he is whisked off to Count Dracula’s castle.

The countries and people are only depicted in this manner because this chapter is written as a first person narrative by Jonathan Harker. One could also describe it as an intradiegetic and autodiegetic narrative situation, such that Harker is the main character/protagonist inside of the story. The format of the narrative is also extremely important; Harker’s narrative in Dracula is presented to the reader in diary format. With this form of a first person narrative, the reader gets to look into the protagonist’s thoughts from the perspective of a personal journal. Another thing worth noting is that it seems that Harker writes in the diary at the end of the day, so one may also consider that the narrative is told in the past (rather than being delivered as a play-by-play in the present tense), presumably giving Harker time to reflect on the day’s events before writing them down.

Being introduced to the basic concepts and techniques of literary theory has aided in my interpretation and analysis of the text. Breaking down the process definitely made answering these questions much easier, and I think my answers are the more developed because of it. As Peter Barry said in Beginning Theory, “Require [theory] to be clear, and expect it, in the longer term, to deliver something solid.” I think, if one takes the right steps, theory will always be clear. Simply breaking down the narrative situation and how that affects the text is an easy and very important first step to any sort of analysis. One needs to understand the voice of the text before proceeding to dissect the meaning of the words.