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| (Source: http://www.transatlantis.net/blog/category/theory/) |
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Readings of Dracula from class on 11/10 (okay, not exactly about Twilight!)
Hi all, please use the comment section below to share your group's "reading" of Dracula from class today!
(And as a way to link this to Twilight, you might think about how well your group's literary "lens" would work if applied to Twilight....)
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Andy, Hana and I got psychoanalysis...General disclaimer, I think Frued was sick and on crack. (Jung ftw)
ReplyDeleteOur section was Mina's "dream" about a misty, red-eyed Dracula materializing in her room. Also, Hana thinks Mina wants to have sex with God. What's amazing is this totally works through psychoanalytic theory. XD
1) Regarding what the excerpt says about the author, he seems to be either religious or well studied in it. He was able to quote verses from the Bible with seeming ease and relates it naturally in ways we don't think would occur to most people. He also seems to fear the boundary blurring of things like sleep, death and night/day.
2) As for Mina herself, she very much doesn't want to be a burden and often emphasizes that she wants to be helpful, not to be helped. We agreed that she becomes almost selfish in her repression, witholding information out of a concern for being perceived as weak. She doesn't seem to have quite come to terms with the supernatural and seems to repress any sense/memory of shameful experiences or fears.
3) I completely do not remember what this question was, sorry! ^^; The answer we had though was that Mina consciously chooses not to tell. If that helps. : /
Oh! And applying Frued or any theory at all to Twilight is terrifying:
ReplyDeleteFrued: Oh, God, we're all doomed...everybody is repressing desires to be controlled completely in their relationships while pursuing an impossible dream. And we probably all like 7 year olds.
Jung: Pretty close to Frued's, actually. Probably a deeper probing of what archetype it's reflecting (darkness, most likely, as it relates to more base desires)
May: Probably a closer focus on what it means socially and as a species, since he was so hung up on existentialism.
Maslow: People are clearly missing out on the love/belonging level; he always felt that was a concern in modern society.
So yeah. :/ Pollack's stuff on Boy Code would be interesting too, I don't imagine he'd approve much either.
In my group, Brittany Tennant, Sarah May, Andrea Hawley, and me Josh Proctor; we were given the biographical type of analyzing the reading. we really did not find a whole lot that led us to believe that his book portrayed a lot of his personal life. we didn't find a lot of evidence that his characters in the book were depictions of people in his book. The only thing that we did come across that over lapped from his life into the book was the importance of the male companions in his life. In his life it kept bringing up these guy friends and family members that he was very close to and were great influences on him and his life. This comes out in his book by the depiction of Van Helsing and the little gang of friends he is surrounded by. Other than that we didn't see a whole lot of cross over between the two at least from the information that was given to us.
ReplyDeleteAnsel Abbett, Christiana Calumpit, Micah Corey
ReplyDeleteThe lens we found we were using was a cross of the Historical and Marxism. It showed us the view of the English as their dominance over the rest of the world.
Our best point from Dracula through this lens was that there is a definite fear of foreigners and that the British, much like the strong male souls in Dracula, will triumph over the foreign menace no matter how strong he may be, and protect the rest of the world.
Sarah S., Thomas, (Wenzie) got the Marxist point of view.
ReplyDeleteAs far as class differences and economic conditions, we mentioned that everyone is aware of the economic forces that affect their lives; as the wealthy have money and are able to do anything and everything they want, which means power. The higher a person is in terms of belonging to a social class, they have more power and control. Something that was brough up was Dracula's castle being located on top the hill that overlooked the village; which we said symbolized authority as he looked down at the villagers who are less wealthy.
A few of our best points involved ideological values that were explicit/implicit, and we mentioned were being street-smart vs. book-smart, or educated vs. uneducated as well as the geographical location, as mentioned above. Through the Marxist point of view, we basically said that money talks and that it is a main source of power.