Lesson Plan: Societal "Monsters" and the Anti-Semitic Roots of Vampires from the Middle Ages to Today

Title

Lesson Plan: Societal "Monsters" and the Anti-Semitic Roots of Vampires from the Middle Ages to Today

Creator

Anastacia Lowe, Graduate Student, Fitchburg State University

Rationale

Before we begin our adventure through the world of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we need to explore the vast and important history of vampire folklore and legend. Much of what you may know about vampires comes from pop culture, literature, and urban legends. However, many of these superstitions and characteristics have much more sinister origins than you may expect.

This three-part unit is designed to take you through some important elements of vampire folklore and superstition from the Middle Ages to present day. Each activity has a central essential question that we will answer by the end of this unit.

Essential Questions

Part 1: "The Other" and the Uncanny
  1. What do we need in order to feel human?
  2. How does the process of "othering" impact the identities and self-conceptions of both the victims and perpetrators?
Part 2: Anti-Seminitism and the "Blood Libel"
  1. What are the root causes of prejudice, stereotyping, and scapegoating?
Part 3: It Continues
  1. How can literature help us to understand the past, present, and future?
  2. What can studying literature and history tell us about our culture and society?

Lesson Sequence

Click for Full Lesson Plan

Bibliography

“A History of Anti-Semitism.” Newsela, newsela.com/read/lib-anti-Semitism/id/29342/?collection_id=2000000101.

“Blood Libel: A False, Incendiary Claim Against Jews.” Anti-Defamation League, www.adl.org/education/resources/glossary-terms/blood-libel.

Dümling, Sebastian. "Killing Fear by Killing Time: Stoker's Dracula as an Epochal Conflict Narrative." Narrative Culture, vol. 3, no. 2, 2016, pp. 180-205. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.fitchburgstate.edu:2048/login?url=https://search-proquest- com.ezproxy.fitchburgstate.edu:2443/docview/1923218463?accountid=10896.

Gardenour, Brenda. "The Biology of Blood-Lust: Medieval Medicine, Theology, and the Vampire Jew." Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies, vol. 41 no. 2, 2011, p. 51-63. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/flm.2011.0045.

McCallum, Heather. “Vampires.” In the Footsteps of Monsters, 8 Nov. 2016, eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/monsters/tag/vampires/.

Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. "Nazis, Jews and Nosferatu". Dangerous bodies. Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781784996758.00011.

Robinson, Sara Libby. “Blood Will Tell: Anti-Semitism and Vampires in British Popular 1875-1914.” GOLEM: Journal of Religion and Monsters vol. 3, no. 1, 2009, pp. 16–27.

Citation

Anastacia Lowe, Graduate Student, Fitchburg State University, “Lesson Plan: Societal "Monsters" and the Anti-Semitic Roots of Vampires from the Middle Ages to Today,” Teaching the Middle Ages in Higher Ed, accessed May 5, 2024, https://medievalhighered.omeka.net/items/show/54.