a few key words

Convergence: the bringing together of previously distinct industries, for example computing, telecommunications and television; the merging of media (e.g. internet radio, streaming video on your mobile phone) and the convergence of content such as music, digital images and games on the iPod. ((Mackay, 2001, p. 8)

Capitalism: an economic system in which people are driven to produce goods and services for a profit.

Marxism: a political-economic theory that presents a materialist conception of history, a non-capitalist vision of capitalism and other types of society, and a non-religious view of human liberation. At its core, Marxism holds a critical analysis of capitalism and a theory of social change.

‘Culture Industries’: culture industries like Music, Television, Advertising and Publishing create cultural products and in doing so disseminate culture. Some would argue that they do this with ideological intent.

False consciousness: the Marxist thesis that material and institutional processes in capitalist society are misleading to the proletariat and to other classes. These processes betray the true relations of forces between those classes and prevent workers from seeing their true or material interests.

Hegemony: process by which, rather than relying on physical force (for example the police or the army), dominant groups exercise control by persuading the proletariat that the form of social organisation and power distribution under capitalism is actually in everybody’s best interests.

Patriarchy: a social system in which men dominate. Women are systematically disadvantaged.

Semiotics: the study of signs in their contexts.

Cultural Implosion: the tendency for the old cultural hierarchies to break down, for example, distinctions between high and popular culture in favour of a more dynamic cultural ‘fusion’.

Metanarratives: all encompassing theories that can be applied in any situation at any time.

Nostalgia: the term nostalgia describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form. It was described as a medical condition, a form of melancholy, in the Early Modern period, and came to be an important topic in Romanticism. The postmodernist Jameson claims nostalgia has replaced History in contemporary life.

Masterplot: the stories that recur in numerous forms, connecting to our deepest cultural values as well as our hopes and fears: Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, ‘things that go bump in the night’, ‘rags to riches’ are all examples of masterplots.

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS TO USE AND REVISE

A2 KEY TERMS  http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-2625-W-TRB-OGA2KT.PDF

AS KEY TERMS  http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-2625-W-TRB-OGASKT.PDF

‘Imaginary worlds teach us how to interpret the real world.’ Do you agree with this view of fictions?

Fictions can represent many ideologies of society which reflect and tell us about the culture we indulge in. A very key genre of fiction which plays this role is the genre of Vampire movies, which have many aspects that subconsciously represent our society and help us to interpret our world.

It can be seen that vampire fictions reflect the fears of our society, allowing us to engage and understand the issue through the movie being an accessible cultural product. It is a dominant ideology of many vampire critics and theorists such as Paul Wells that this is a role of the vampire genre, with Wells highlighting societal issues through the decades and their relation to the vampire genre. A very prevalent fear within todays western culture is technology, or perhaps the idea of not having technology as it has become such a large cultural ‘need’, and this fear is arguable reflected in the movie ‘Thirty Days of Night’. With one of the first scenes of the movie being a pile of burnt mobile phones, it is fairly obvious that this is intended to reflect the growing fear of our generation. Another scene then shows the power in the small Alaskan village the movie is set in being cut off, again highlighting the fear of isolation in a society lacking technology. The role of this subconscious fear is to allow the viewer to interpret and analyse the fear within the comfort of their own home, allowing them to explore it comfortably and in depth through a valued cultural product.

Vampire fictions also are said to represent ‘the other’ in society in many ways through the movies. Edwards Said’s theory of the ‘The Other’ can be interpreted in many vampire movies, as the main character (as well as many other characters) are seen as outsiders in society that do not comply to the norms of the culture in the area or time the movie is based. The Lost Boys is a 1980’s vampire film that plays on this theory with many different characters. The vampires themselves are seen as ‘the other’, for being vampires that do not relate to anyone culturally, and the fact that their natural teenage identity is not valued highly in the society that was prevalent in the 80’s. The role of the single mother in The Lost Boys also represents single mothers as the ‘other’ in society, reflecting the revulsion of divorce in the time the movie is set in. Even though the mother is a valued character as she is seen as a protagonist early in the film, she is also displayed as an outsider who the audience grow to, highlighting the social taboo of divorce and single motherhood and therefore allowing the audience to interpret this issue.

There are arguably many feminist ideologies represented within vampire fictions, both old and modern. Back in the Victorian era, the original ‘Dracula’ was successful in metaphorically representing the fear of ‘sexualisation’ during the time. The original ‘Dracula’ eroticised the women featured, and when using them as the ‘victims’ their conventional death consisted of “almost orgasmic screeching, twisting and quivering”, said by theorist Jerome Monahan. It can be argued that although this is the case for earlier and more traditional vampire movies, during the years the genre has adapted to feminist ideologies, resulting in the modern day representation of the female in movies like ‘Thirty Days of Night’. The first step in the confronting of female sexualisation in vampire fictions comes in The Lost Boys, where there are 2 main female characters. The first, previously mentioned is the single mother, who is positively represented as a protagonist, is not sexualised or objectified, although she does feel like she has to rely on a man. This representation of her reflects the present ideology that women ‘need’ a man to fit in with societal norms. Star is the second female character who is definitely signified as a sexual teenager and also the conventional ‘damsel in distress’. The first scene in which she is featured consists of her being flirtatious with the main character Michael, trying to ‘tempt him in’ to her group and the life of a vampire. The attitude of this scene thematically represents Star as an object of desire. Her sexual nature throughout the movie is of that described by the Male Gaze, as she is wearing ‘skimpy’ clothing and ultimately flirting with the main male character in an objectifying way, which is stated by Naomi Wolf to be a scene in which Star is seen from the male audiences/creators’ perspective.  The most modern portrayal of the female character is Stella from the movie Thirty Days of Night. She also is seen as the protagonist, and is sexualised in no way whatsoever. She doesn’t take on the conventional role of a female and reflects the more equal society we live in or should be living in today. In the movie, her job role is a Sheriff in her home town, and she acts as the main protagonist, coinciding with the other Sheriff, Eban. The end of the movie results in her being the one of the only female characters to survive the vampire attack, and shows the majority of people being killed being male. This is a very post-modern twist on the female image created by vampire fictions, and proves that over time, the genre has adapted and adhered to the issues of feminism and helps us to interpret the issue in the ever-changing world that we live in.

Vampire fictions are also a way to remind us what is lost in our society. They are questionably a way of symbolising important ideologies maybe forgotten in today’s post-modern world. Using popular culture has always been a successful way to communicate a message to an audience, such as the growing use of social media now being becoming a norm, and the popular-cultural music that is being exposed to us. Vampire fictions do just this, mixing the role of film and the popular culture within the vampire genre to communicate a message. The Twilight Saga, a series of modern vampire movies based on the books written by Stephanie Meyer, create a new mode of address in communicating lost religious ideologies perhaps important for today’s society. Opposing the previous nature of films such as Bram Stokers’ Dracula, the original Twilight series symbolises the high cultural ideology of ‘no sex before marriage’, and very cleverly does this by making the vampire the character who shows signs of chastity, not the ‘virgin female’ traditionally shown in fictions of this genre. The thematic narrative of love and desire is still present in the series, but is not acted upon by choice of the vampire, making the movies very unconventional and controversial. This ideology carried by the vampire has a religious context, perhaps representing the death of religion in our western culture. Taken from the documentary ‘Vampires: Why they Bite’, the quote “the vampire myth allows us to explore to unsayable”, fits the reflection of the Twilight Saga in that religion has been a taboo subject and a very controversial one for many years, but with it being used as a message in popular culture, the vampire genre has now allowed us to explore it without it being labelled as a taboo.

Vampire fictions and all other fictions are agreeably used within the film industry for representational purposes. They demonstrate to the audience the thematic narratives and cultural issues that our society and the people within it perhaps experience. The issues faced within vampire fictions can be looked upon in regards to metaphors, symbolising the good and bad within us and our society, and reflecting the ideologies known by many in such a way that they are challenged and confronted.

30 Days of Night Notes

Thirty Days of Night is a 2007 vampire movie, signifying the fear of lack of technology and isolation in today's globalized electronic village. The fear is signified through the vampires themselves being intelligent enough to turn the power supply off before hunting the village in Alaska which the film is set.
This film is very distant from the generic conventions of previous vampire films, making it a very post-modern take on the genre. The first element that differs from the conventions of traditional vampire films  is the screen portrayal of the vampire themselves. They seem to have a language of their own which humans are not able to comprehend, but can easy manipulate humans into being bait for them, which is a strange identity for a vampire to have due to our exposure to previous vampires. Another sign that these are unconventional vampires is the lack of bats or capes in the movie, which tend to be a cultural element of any vampire film to date. The location of the film is also very unconventional, as most traditional films of this genre are based in Eastern Europe, whereas 30 Days of Night is based in Alaska to symbolize and represent the fear of isolation. There is a central scene in the film which shows a mass killing of the community living in this village, where the view is portrayed from above. In this scene, it can be argued that we are seeing the killing from a fellow vampires view, which changed the mode of address slightly and lets the audience see and feel how a vampire would when hunting down their next killing. The generic narratives that are valued in vampire fictions are unusually displayed here, such as love, sex, romance and desire. The broken relationship of the protagonists is an unconventional way of showing love and romance. Love is also shown through the father and son relationship between two survivors who stay with the group. When the ill father forgets there s an invasion of vampires and runs out into the streets, his son unquestioningly runs after him which signifies the narrative of love in all forms being played here.

Applying Vampire Fictions to the Key Concepts and Theoretical Approaches

Dark Shadows - Applying Mode of Address
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6tVdffCr_M

How is the vampire represented? - We are meant to feel sympathy for the vampire, as as the start of the trailer he explains how he became a vampire, and throughout the trailer shows signs of not wanting to be who he is with lines such as "Witch, you cursed me to be this hideous creature".
Is the text entirely serious in  its tone or is there an element of humour? - The trailer is humourous and therefore situates the movie under the comedy genre, rather than horror, which is unconventional for a vampire movie.
What are the assumptions made about the audience from the trailer? Who seems to be the target audience and what does it suggest about the people who will enjoy watching it? - As the movie is a comedy, this means that the assumptions made about the audience are that they are supposedly young adults or teenagers. As there are elements of sex involved this shows that the audience are intended to be of this age also. As the year is also set in 1972 it is possible that the suggested audeince for this movie would have been people of this era, or people who enjoy the style of the era.
What are the texts attitudes to the traditions and repertoire of elements of the genre? - The traditions and elements of the vampire genre are here made into a joke, not in a disrespectful way, but to add to the humorous side of the film. At first we are shown a 200 year old house which the vampire once owned, along with old style clothing and all aspects of a horror film you would expect from the 19th Century. We later see him rising from his coffin very fast, not as dramatic and slow as would have been seen in a traditional vampire film. This is nontraditional as it is set in the 200 year old house which has been redecorated to suit the 1970s, with a disco ball and very colourful furniture, as well as a TV which is introduced by the vampire being confused by, again making humour of the traditional conventions.

Bram Stokers' Dracula - Applying Narrative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMvD2Jlyy9U

Repertoire of Elements which are traditional of a vampire film such as the burning cross, bats, sharp teeth, rising from the coffin and medieval scenery such as the large dark house and fires for light, arew all featured in this trailer. Iconography for the genre is all represented in these elements, as well as the character types associated with this genre also being features, such as sexualised women (main woman Mina) and a being who can change forms (Dracula). Rising from the coffin and transforming into mist are both iconic narrative moments expected of a traditional vampire film, which is what is given here.
This particular film, as it is so traditional and conventional, is made with room for adaptation and evolving, as theorist Douglass Pye states "the generic context is narrow enough for recognition to take place but wide enough for enormous individual variation".

The Lost Boys - Applying Ideology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_lwtRMg0ts
Fear of teenagers in the 1980's is shown through the vampires of the film being featured as 'ruthless' teenagers. This metaphorical fear is said to be common in vampire films, shown as a prevalent fear within contemporary society shown through the main characters or plot twist in the story.

Vampires and the Narrative Key Concept

The theory of Genre - it can be argued that Vampire fiction are a sub-genre of horror fiction, though some also argue it has created a genre of its own.

Genres can be identified through their signifiers - the repeated style, iconography, characters, events and settings used.

Terms related to the Genre Theory:
Iconography - Images, objects and sounds associated with the genre. (Stake to the heart - garlic - blood - coffin - capes)
Style - Ways which the iconography is presented - colours, edits, camera angles etc.
Setting - Locations typical to the genre (Graveyard - medieval castle)
Characters - Key types of characters associated with the genre (pale vampires, usually male)
Narrative moments - Set pieces, events, expected by the audience (Rising from the coffin - turning into a bat - biting - stake to the heart)
Themes - Deeper meanings to these films which are associated to the genre.

Everyday Racism: Video on The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/mar/18/everyday-racism-what-should-we-do
A short video in the style of a moviemaker presentation on how everyday racism effects the lives of black people and how the dominant ideology of black people creates a norm of white supremecy