In order to respond to this DB, you need to have reviewed the following texts:
Watch: watch films for online remote work
Blade (1998)
Queen of the Damned (2002)
Review: Literary Theory: Critical Race Theory / What Is Critical Race Theory? / CRT
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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.
Over the course of the semester, we continue to deepen our conversations about how the vampire is a metaphor through texts that embrace the gothic horror and vampire fiction literary genres. After having watched both films, Blade (1998) and Queen of the Damned (2002), in preparation for this discussion board writing activity, what could you say or offer about how you might have noticed the ways race and racism play a influential role in these films, within the canon of vampire fiction? Think about how the assigned literary theory for this week’s assigned work, “Critical Race Theory,” invites us to consider the ways we see race as a social construction, one that has been institutionalized, with certain stigmas, stereotypes, and discriminatory notions that relegate people of color, and those who specifically identify as Black. What is the symbolism of the Black vampire in these films? How do you see these films portraying the Black vampire as a metaphor with specific recognition to challenge racism, or maybe, perhaps to perpetuate racism as an unfortunate social fabric of society. In his sutdy, “Gothic Images of Race,” H.L. Malchow describes the cultural difference of the vampire as “other” as “pathology”. How do these films represent metaphoric images of the Black vampire that either facilitate or challenge the social concepts of “race”, of “other” based on the damaging historical precedent of colonialism. By situating the vampire narrative within Black discourses, how do these films invite people to think about social justice? How do these films work to challenge dominant ideas of culture (white-supremacist culture) and counter racism? What ideas of power do you see working in these films? How do you see the characters making efforts to portray the milieu of Black identity and afrofuturism? What dialogue can you create about the cultural aesthetics in both films, especially in the ways they explore the intersection of gothic horror/vampire fiction and Black art/literature?
In order to fully answer these questions, be sure to use specific examples from the film and book, citing quotes, i.e. time stamps from both films (Blade 2:55-5:10) or (Queen of the Damned 4:23-6:12), to support your ideas.
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Please share your thinking and reflection, especially if it includes personal connections, experiences, and stories. Also, in order to support your thinking, please include the quotes, references, in-text citations, via MLA Format. You can include a Works Cited section with this post, listing all the references (separate from in text), though you are not required to.
