Final Proposal!!

For my final project, I was leaning towards doing a creative project, and possibly a collage or photography or portrait type project, where I would be comparing the various depictions of vampires from Dracula and Interview with the Vampire that we’ve discussed in class. I plan on comparing and contrasting the depictions of how vampires look and act, thus defining the differences between the “Old” and “New” vampires. My goal in this project is to show the transition and transformation of the idea and visual picture of what a vampire looks like, and how all the characteristics have changed over the years and stories written about these creatures.

To start this project, I would review each book’s/author’s description of their main vampires: namely, Count Dracula within Dracula and Louis of Pointe du Lac in Interview. After organizing that evidence, I would attempt, in my own interpretation, to put together a visual depiction of what the vampires would look like. Probably using posterboard, and various pictures (whether cut out of magazines or printed off my computer), I could organize these pictures to symbolize what these characters could look like, and how they differ. I would explore why the authors created the characters to look this way, and what the importance could be of the metamorphosis.

Oftentimes, the society around a person at a certain time period has a large impact on what a person dresses and acts like; the big question I’d like to answer, also, is are vampires products of their social environment and history? Or are they timeless beings that are idealistic and historically significant? Within Dracula, we can see that he does not try to be a human, or redeem himself in any way, however, we do not see him as a “young vampire,” thus are unable to make judgments about what he tried to do early on in his “vampire life.” Louis of Point du Lac, on the other hand, gives us his full story firsthand, and implores upon us that he has tried to humanize himself and truly find out if he is damned, and if his soul is intact or completely shrunken and destroyed. By seeing Louis’ process through life as a vampire, we get a more modern picture of what it “was like” for him, and the challenges he had to go through, especially with certain surroundings impacting his life. Dracula, as well, is an interesting character, as, after awhile, he seems to completely control all around him, acting very confident and poised at all times with the other characters. The differences between these two vampires can shed light onto the time period they are both portrayed within, and how that time period affected the vampires themselves, as well as other people living at the time the stories were released.

I am very interested in where my project will lead me, and what else I can learn about the cyclical creation of vampires throughout history, as well as what various authors view most important in creating their personalities, physical characteristics, wants, and how they are socially impacted by people and customs of their time.