synthesis essay on dracula and other works?
Maybe it's the wording of my professor's syllabus, but I am totally lost on what to write about. Here is the original text of the prompt:
Quote:
...I want you to use the tools of psychoanalytical and/or gender criticism to address the surrealistic and/or (pseudo)scientific elements of two (or more) of the films we have recently watched (namely, Cronos, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary, Brand Upon the Brain!, Die Farbe, and Vampyr). Please also make reference to Dracula (the novel) as it is relevant to your discussion.
I'm having a hard time deciphering what the content of my essay should include. Should I pretend I am a psychologist and analyze the Freudian motives of the characters' actions? That's all I can summise from the prompt and that seems unlikely since this isn't a psychology course. And even if I did choose to write about, let's say, Dracula's embodyment of being stuck at (or not necessarily needing to move on from) an immature stage of psychological development (and how characters in the other works also display similar phenomenon), how could I relate this to surrealistic and/or (pseudo)scientific elements in the work? I just don't see how they mesh... please help :( I at least need to be able to form a topic for tomorrow and I'm so stuck! :(
Thanks for reading :)
