For most of us mortals, there is no way to avoid the deadly, but dreamy vampires in books like Twilight and TV series like The Vampire Diaries and True Blood the vampire craze is literally impossible to ignore (just ask Robert Pattinson).
And now, not only have they infiltrated our movies, TVs and gossip magazines, they have taken over the classroom, as well. The University of Hertfordshire is hosting a conference about vampires in literature.
The conference, titled “Open Graves, Open Minds: Vampires and the Undead in Modern Culture” will stretch over two days and examine every possible modern presence of vampires in pop culture.
So get out your 10 lb. Twilight collection and your “I <3 Edward Cullen" shirt, but leave your silver daggers at home. Oh, and no werewolves allowed. These classes may just be the next best thing to getting bitten by your hunky vampire soulmate.
And, though the classes do not debate the pros and cons of “Team Edward” vs. “Team Jacob” (though, wouldn’t it be great if they did?), seminars will include other equally entertaining topics like:
- “‘You are the most dangerous creature I’ve ever met.’: Female Sexuality as Monstrous in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series.”
- “Zombies and Ninjas and Class, Oh My!: Marxist Paradigms in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
- “The Twilight Saga and the Pleasures of Spectatorship: the Broken Body and the Shining Body.”
- “You beautiful piece of dead meat…’: the negotiation of intimacy and sexual exploitation in Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels”
- “Vegetarian” Vampires: Morality of the Anti-Villains in Selected Vampire Novels.”
The university will even be offer a Master’s Degree in Vampire Literature in the future, a dream come true for those teens out there who wallpaper their rooms with Edward Cullen and wait in line for the midnight premier of Twilight: New Moon.
And for those of you vampire fanatics stuck in this country wishing you could attend two days of Edward Cullen mania, here is a little something to tide you over: