Event Details

In the long history of vampire stories in English, a major shift occurred in the late 1990s with the groundbreaking TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which recast vampires from inscrutable, violent-tempered Others like Count Dracula or Count Orlok into characters embodied by North American teenagers.

On May 6, Heather Klemann PhD '13, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Yale University, will explore how the teen-vampire genre navigates the quest for authenticity amid its own clichés and contrivances. Focusing on Ariane Louis-Seize's recent original film Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant, 2024), the talk will examine how Gen-Z teens, in particular, are reshaping the genre's boundaries.

Speakers

  • Heather Klemann (Senior Lecturer in English at Yale University)

    Heather Klemann

    Senior Lecturer in English at Yale University

    Heather Klemann is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Yale University, and the Course Director for English 1014 Expository Writing Seminars. She received her PhD from Yale University’s Department of Comparative Literature in 2013 and has taught vampire literature and film for nearly a decade. In 2022, she received the Fred Strebeigh and Linda Peterson Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Her research has appeared in Studies in Romanticism, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and The Lion and the Unicorn. She is currently working on manuscripts on new directions in vampire fiction and film since the 2010s, as well as on writing pedagogy.

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Tickets

Free
Standard Price Complimentary
Pay in Advance for the "For Humanity" Lecture Series

Free for participants who have paid in advance for the “For Humanity” Lecture Series

Standard Price Complimentary

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