AMERICAN VAMPIRES: ANNE RICE’S "INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE"

Beginning with a discussion of the Stonewall Riots and the beginning of the LGBTQ movement, this course will discuss Anne Rice’s reimagining of the vampire mythology through her groundbreaking novel The Interview with the Vampire (1976). We will examine the various ways she explores prejudice and intolerance in American culture from her depiction of plantation culture in the Antebellum South, the patriarchal oppression of women, and homophobia. Rice not only reimagined this mythology, dispensing with several of Bram Stoker’s innovations, but she also opened up new ways for vampire stories to comment on contemporary American life.