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      Blood ties: Southern vampires in True Blood

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      GIANNELLI-THESIS.pdf (1.103Mb)
      Date
      2015-01-26
      Author
      Giannelli, Federica
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
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      Abstract
      In recent years, the figure of the vampire has proliferated in American literature and media. According to Stephen King, creatures of horror such as vampires appear cyclically in cultural representations to exorcise social anxieties and to cope with periods of acute crisis. In Nina Auerbach’s view, vampires are powerful representations of social critique who adapt themselves to different cultures and historical times. Against this background, I will analyze how the modern American vampire intersects with contemporary American culture in the TV series True Blood. Because the setting of this media text is the American South, my approach will be regional. I will highlight the characteristics of this area of the United States by discussing the different cultural values embodied by the Southern vampires. I will investigate how the representation of these modern vampires is an expression of the American regional past due to its connections with an important historical moment: the American Civil War. This framework will help me explain why regional vampires embody specific cultural values, and I will show how these characters are peculiar because they offer opposite portrayals simultaneously produced within the same culture. In order to highlight the cultural aspects emerging from True Blood, I will frame my analysis through the lenses of capitalism and race. These two focal points will allow me to discuss contemporary American culture and its contradictions.
      Degree
      Master of Arts (M.A.)
      Department
      English
      Program
      English
      Supervisor
      Banco, Lindsey
      Committee
      Hynes, Peter; Bartley, William; Wheeler, Anne Marie
      Copyright Date
      January 2015
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2015-01-1918
      Subject
      vampires
      vampire narratives
      cinema
      Charlaine Harris
      Southern Vampire Mysteries
      True Blood
      American South
      Interview with the Vampire
      Civil War
      United States
      capitalism
      Marx
      racism
      slavery
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