CARMILLA

For next week, read to page 292 of Carmilla. As always, these questions are meant to help inspire and guide your reading. Feel free to develop your own questions or respond to another student’s blog.

Your blogs will be due on Wednesday at 11:59 pm.

Your comments on other student blogs will be due by FRIDAY at 11:59.

In addition to your blogs and comments, you also must post in one or more of the discussion forums on my blog by Friday at 11:59 pm. You do NOT have to post in all of the forums, but I will be assessing you on how well you are able to respond to the various prompts and each others' ideas. Remember that Forum C is an open forum, so if there is something you would like to discuss that hasn't been addressed by me or another student, please post there.

* Do a little research on the author and try to locate the historical, social, and political contexts in which he wrote his dark tales. In his day, Le Fanu was called "The Invisible Prince." How did he achieve this nickname and how did he work to perpetuate this persona? Also, you may want to do some independent research on any of the following terms: The Irish Famine, Young Ireland, or Catholic Emancipation. What could an understanding of these historical events bring to a reading of Carmilla? Make sure to quote from and provide links to your research sources.
* The metaphor of the vampire is certainly a capacious one. In terms of this novel, how might we see the metaphor of the vampire functioning in the Irish context? Who (or what) might Carmilla represent in the social, political, and economic sense? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
* How would you characterize the modes of sexuality in this novel? How do we see identity being “queered” or “troubled” in this novel? Use examples from the text to explain your answer.