Study Guide: First Exam, 315 Russian Folklore
(Official Version)
Exam will be at 3:30; leave quietly when you finish. Class will begin
again at 4:30.
The exam will consist of matching, identification, multiple choice, and short answer items (where "short" means anything from one or two words to three or four sentences).
Films:
Discovery Channel documentary on Vlad Dracula and Elizabeth Bathory
Viy (main characters? what do they do? what happens in the story? is there any vampirism in the story?)
Mario Bava's film about the Werdulak family (from Black Sabbath)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (ignore this one for now; we didn't get that far in class)
Nosferatu (director?
main actor? characterization of Harker? Renfield? Dracula [originally Count Orlok]? fidelity to book?);
the word "Nosferatu" is of uncertain origin (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu_%28word%29)
Leptirica (Serbian TV film)
Topics: be able to define or characterize, and indicate “who, what, when, and why important”
Romanticism
Dvoeverie
The Gothic
Folklore
Vampire: definition, features, vulnerabilities; behavior
Religious symbols
Natural remedies
Relevant animals
Werewolf: definition, features, behavior and vulnerabilities
Lycanthropy
Poltergeist
Ghoul
Psychic vampire
Shapeshifting
Features of East European folklore vampires
Countries of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (can you find the Balkans on a map? are the country borders the same as they were in the 1700s and 1800s? what areas have we been focusing on in class?)
Relevant religions: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, pre-Christian belief structures
Goethe, Burger, Byron, Polidori contributions to vampire lore
Historical Figures:
Prince Vseslav of Polotsk
Vlad Ţepeş
Elizabeth Bathory
Peter Stubbe
Arnold Paul, Peter Plogojowich, Lastovo Island trial
Bram Stoker
Nikolai Gogol
Alexei Tolstoi
Dom Calmet
Murnau
Max Schreck, Boris Karloff
Readings:
All readings relating to the historical figures and trials (e.g. Vlad the Impaler, Peter Stubbe, Lastovo Island)
Slavic mythology (Machal)
Folk stories: The Wedding Guests, Bucket of Blood, The Werewolf's Daughters
Polidori's “The Vampyre” and Byron's vampire story (draft)
Gogol’s “Viy”
Tolstoi's "The Family of the Vurdalak"
Le Fanu's Carmilla
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Chapters 1-13.