Working Annotated Bibliography for Research Essay

Boelderl, Arthur R., and Daniela F. Mayr. “The Undead and the Living Dead: Images of Vampires and Zombies in Contemporary Culture.” Journal of Psychohistory, vol. 23, no. 1, June 1995, p. 51. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24166504&site=ehost-live.

[Journal Article] This source examines the vampire as something (or someone I suppose) that is undead rather than the living dead, as they would describe a zombie. The vampire in this source’s perspective is something that has overcome human life and is now released from such confines. This article also however examines Freud’s Totem and Taboo in which he speaks of vampires as dead people who haunt the living. Another key aspect of this article focuses on vampires in contemporary culture and how the public views the creatures and the fantasy that is tied in with the living and the dead. I think this would be an excellent source to include in my research paper because not only does it provide an introduction to what a vampire is, through the eyes of the public, through the eyes of the media, and through the eyes of Freud, but it also explains how this ties into how we perceive these creatures today. This article could also be useful in aiding the main ideas of my thesis which will revolve around: 1) the idea that vampires have a double self or divided self which is their previous living self and now undead self and 2) the idea that the vampire is an uncanny being because they toy with the idea of a bridge between the living and the dead. 

Braudy, Leo. The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and its History. New York: Vintage, 1997.

[Book] In this book, Braudy speaks about an idea of a divided self. He describes this as an unexpressed self and an expressed self; essentially this is a self that acts as a mask we put on for others, and a self we have on the inside that rarely comes out to play. These two selves often battle each other and create what is known as this divided self. The idea of a divided self could be used in one, or both, of two ways in my research paper: firstly, I believe I could argue that the past self and current self of a vampire can create a sense of division or secondly (which I will probably follow through with because it makes a more well-rounded and sensible argument in my opinion), the vampire’s outward human-passing self and inward animalistic self create are versions of an unexpressed and expressed self which in turn supports, by definition, Braudy’s theory of the divided self. I believe taking this theory into the realm beyond humanity could be very entertaining yet informative both for readers, but also to research and write about. *This source will serve as one of my lens texts.

Braun, Heather L. “Vampire God: The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture.” Religion & the Arts, vol. 14, no. 3, May 2010, pp. 347–348. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1163/156852910X494493.

[Book Review] This is a book review on Vampire God: The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture which summarizes it’s main ideas and provides important key terms from the text. Specifically, this book review gives us two important insights: first, that vampires in literature are becoming increasingly human and second, that “Vampires, Hallab summarizes, successfully straddle the line between the living and the dead, test the strengths and limits of science, and reveal social lessons about the importance of community” (Braun 347).  This book review would serve as a supporting piece for my theory of vampires being an example of a bridge between the living and the dead, as they state it nearly directly. Likewise, I think the other main idea of this book that focuses on modern literature could help me introduce and better tie in the young adult books turned movies, like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. 

Clapp, Rodney. “Vampires among Us.” Christian Century, vol. 127, no. 3, Feb. 2010, p. 45. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=48002212&site=ehost-live.

[Article] This article discusses vampires in pop culture and what sort of appeal they use in literature and on-screen appearances. With mentions of Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, we are quickly led into the discussion of vampires being portrayed as something that is not inherently evil, but rather romantic or simply ordinary beings. While there is talk of the vampire being a sexualized being in this article, the author seems to think of this as harmful as they mention vampires being “enemies” and “threatening”. I think this particular article could be a helpful source for my essay because of the references to current day films and television shows that depict vampires, while it also gives opinions of the author and shows what kind of impression they think this media has on consumers. I think this ties in perfectly with my motive of being aware of what type of content we are consuming in regards to television and film surrounding fictional creatures. 

Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. Writing on Art and Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.

[Book] This source provides context and a definition of the uncanny. Freud defines the uncanny as something familiar becoming unfamiliar, I would translate this to be something once being comfortable and known to being unsettling or causing doubt from within. Freud states that there are many things capable of producing uncanny feelings such as: automatons, dolls, mannequins, models, fantasy vs reality, and very importantly, the living and the dead. His ideas of the living and the dead causing uncanny feelings is supported in his work through his example of zombies. I believe this book is crucial to use in my paper in order to define what the uncanny is and what can produce such feelings. I think including this in my intro as well as throughout my paper will give readers better context surrounding the subject of the uncanny. It’s clear from the Boelderl article that there is a connection between the living and the dead, or as the authors of the article would say: the undead, so therefore I’d like to bridge this connection by introducing the uncanny. *This source will be my second lens text.

Twilight. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, performances by Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, Summit Entertainment, 2008. 

[Film] This film is a modern media take on vampires and what that means in relation to their humanity. The film follows a human, Bella Swan, and her male counterpart who happens to be a vampire, Edward Cullen. The main takeaways from this film that can be scholarly analyzed are the ways in which the vampires speak about their human selves compared to their vampire selves. Edward even states in this film that he is “The world’s most dangerous predator.” It is also interesting to examine how the vampires in this film try to hold onto their past human self, such as the Cullen family only drinking animal blood because of their moral values. I believe I can use this film to connect Braudy’s ideas of the divided self and how the human aspects of a vampire’s past life still stay with them as well as how a vampire presents itself to the world, examining its expressed and unexpressed self. This can also serve as an aid to motive which is that: people should take a careful look into what the media is feeding us in regards to fantasy and folklore. 

The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Series, written by Caroline Dreis, Julie Plec, et. al., directed by Chris Grismer, John Behring, et. al., The CW, 2009-2017.

[Television Series] This series closely follows the lives of the Salvatore brothers who are vampires in a town full of humans. The main character, Elena Gilbert, is a young highschooler who is human eventually turned vampire as a result of her close relationship to the magic world of vampires, werewolves, and witches. This series does a great job of showing small aspects of what vampires must do in order to pass as humans, such as wearing special daylight rings in order to be able to walk amongst humans in the sunlight, as well as using vampiric powers such as memory control to make people forget about certain supernatural instances they may come upon. I think examining aspects of this series could be very helpful in supporting my thesis claim of vampires having a divided self in which they must pass as human in the real world. There is an abundance of information in the eight season series that I could pull from in order to not only support the thesis claim I made previously, but much like Twilight it would serve as an example of a very recent media representation regarding vampires, again supporting my motive of why people should care about vampires and how they are displayed. 

Villacampa, Javier, et al. “Applying an Implicit Approach to Research on the Uncanny Feeling.” Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis, vol. 16, no. 1, July 2019, pp. 11–22. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=138165591&site=ehost-live.

[Journal Article] This article focuses on the uncanny valley hypothesis and aims to disprove it. They did so by gathering a group of people and showing them a series of uncanny stimuli (android faces) and capturing what emotional response the participants had to such stimuli. The main emotional response groups were fear and disgust. A test within this test was to see if responses to the uncanny (presumably unusual responses) pointed towards any type of mental illness, like psychopathy. In the end, they concluded that there was no stable connection between the uncanny stimuli they showed and general disgust/fear and similarly, there was only a very slim connection between the uncanny feeling and moral disgust (another category of emotion the researchers were testing). Lastly, their research indicated that there were no connections to psychopathy based on how one emotionally reacted to the uncanny images. I think this article could serve as my first piece of counterargument, showing that there have been studies where the uncanny does not produce feelings of fear or disgust. This would assume that Freud’s ideas of the living vs dead phenomenon could possibly not render uncanny feelings, therefore, my idea of vampires being a source of living vs dead uncanniness would also be arguable.