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For homework, please have a look at the one-page scan (pg. 99) in the Eula Biss folder on Ilias. The excerpt comes from her book On Immunity, published in 2014 initially and, understandably, revisited by readers and publishers alike in 2020 with the emergence of COVID-19. In this excerpt, she analyzes some representations of vampires in the time periods she focusses on. The archetype of the vampire is explored throughout the book, where she also states that vampires in series and films in the 2010s interestingly display confliction about their impulses (e.g. vampires consuming synthetic blood in True Blood). According to Biss (and other media scholars), what archetypes do at certain periods of history tell us a lot about the ethos and zeitgeist of those times.
Try out taking this approach by selecting one archetype and analyzing its trajectory during at least three different time periods in US history. Archetypes can be any recurring figure used in narratives, e.g. zombies, superheroes, cowboys, lawyers, juries, etc. Try to see if you can include the post-WWII period in your analysis. What purpose does your archetype serve in media during this time?
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