In order to complete this discussion board writing assignment, you must have completed the following reading and review:
S1:E07, “First Goodbye”, First Kill (2022) [Netflix]
S1:E08, “First Betrayal”, First Kill (2022) [Netflix]
Literary Theory: Marxist Literary Criticism / Postcolonialism
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DB Writing Prompt: Write a 300-500 word reflection in response to this assignment prompt. Your response to this discussion post should try to create a reflection, with supportive textual evidence, that engages with as many questions as possible, in mini-essay form, while also creating a foundation for how you think about and respond to your peers’ posts.
In watching this week’s episodes, S1:E07, “First Goodbye” and S1:E08, “First Betrayal”, and in this week’s in-class writing activity, how can you further explore the power dynamics and socio-economic factors of the First Kill series, thinking about how the storyline and narrative of the series offers a mirror to societal and cultural perspectives that we may or may not experience today. Which characters do you see embodying power structures in both personal and social institutions within the tv series? How are those characters shaped by certain ideas of power? Are these ideas related to partriachy or colonialism? How so?
In what ways do you think the show addresses matters of colonialism and postcolonialism? In other words, how can we approach the tv series, especially these last two episodes, as intellectual spaces that invite us into a larger cultural discourse about the overarching theme of our class? How do vampires, and specifically the vampire narrative in the First Kill series offer political overtones with patriarchy and colonialism through rituals and traditions, asking us to use a postcolonial lens in order to understand damaging social rules and histories? How does the tv series use vampires as a metaphor for power, for class, for aristocracy, for expressions of prejudice and othering in order to raise awareness or create a counter discourse? How do these final episodes ask us to consider these stories as stories of reflection (or the lack thereof, pun intended, get it — vampires have no reflection haha) on considerations and even intersections of culture(s)?
