The Farquhar College of the Arts and Sciences’ latest Faculty Lecture Series, “The Good, the Bad, and the Vampire” on Oct. 31 shed light on the evolution of vampires and society’s fascination with the cultural phenomenon.
Barbara Brodman, professor in the Division of Humanities in the Farquhar College, opened the lecture wearing fake vampire teeth in the Cotilla Gallery in the Alvin Sherman Library and spoke about the transformation of vampire legends from the 19th century to 21st century in relation to Farquhar’s theme for the 2013-2014 academic year, “Good and Evil.”
Brodman spoke about vampire legends in Greece, where vampires were viewed as disturbing and evil creatures. Eventually, the vampire legend went from the scary Dracula to the beautiful and alluring beings in “The Vampire Diaries” and other TV shows and books. Pop culture’s portrayal of male vampires as romantic and desirable has come a long way from the haunting, repulsive vampire.
Brodman said things like the “Twilight” series embody the 1950’s vision of women’s place in society because Bella, a human, falls madly in love with Edward, a vampire, and she leaves everything she’s ever known behind for him. Brodman said young girls today have that image of what their role in society should be and what their femininity should be because of such films.
Brodman hopes her lecture will inspire students to read vampire novels. She and James Doan, also a professor in the Division of Humanities, attended a conference in Scotland in 2006 and thought it would be fun to explore the distinction between vampire and Don Juan. The two also attended a vampire conference in London in 2011.
Brodman and Doan co-wrote “The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend” about the history of the vampire legend, and the recently published sequel, “Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic” about how the perception of vampires has changed over time.
Doan, who teaches courses like folklore and mythology and will be teaching a course on vampires next semester, has been intrigued by vampires since he was a teenager when he watched “Dark Shadows” on TV and films like “Dracula.”
He said, when he came to NSU in the early 1990s, he was thinking about new courses to offer, and “came up with the idea of a course on the vampire; no one else was doing that at the time.”
Doan’s interest is in the mythological foundations of vampires and echoes Brodman’s sentiment on the overly romanticized vampire, which he calls “vampire light.”
Lora Kuehn, senior psychology major, came to the lecture because of her newfound interest for vampires.
Kuehn said, “It was really insightful how [Brodman] connected the paradigm shifts of history with the changes of the vampire image.”
Brodman teaches courses Latin American, Caribbean Studies and International Studies courses, but thinks the topic of vampires is a “wonderful myth” — even if she doesn’t believe in them.
The next lecture series, “Personal Genomics: Good, Evil, or Both?” by associate professor and director in the Division of Math, Science, and Technology, Emily Schmitt, will be held Nov. 14 at noon in the Cotilla Gallery in the Alvin Sherman Library.
