Overview: In a special Halloween episode, Max and Shaenah explore the cultural and symbolic meaning of vampirism, the varying interpretations of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, and Marxist literary critic Fredric Jameson’s influential essay on Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of “The Shining”.
Main points:
Vampires: Symbolism and Historical Context
The discussion began with an overview of the various cultural and symbolic meanings of vampires and how they can represent the power of blood, the release of repressed sexuality, and the metaphor of exploitative capitalism as a blood-sucking vampire thriving on the “living labor” of the working class . Max and Shaenah explored how vampires have been depicted in various media, including literature and film, and how the 1922 F.W. Murnau film Nosferatu was appropriated by the Nazis in their anti-semitic propaganda. Max provided historical context for the release of Nosferatu, discussing the political and economic climate of post-World War I Germany and the rise of fascism. Max noted it was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel and also compared the film to later adaptations, including Robert Eggers’ recent version released in 2024.
Frankenstein’s Neglected Social Critique
Max shared his view that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often interpreted as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked scientific progress, but he suggested there is also a social critique of capitalism in the text. Some feminist interpretations emphasize its critique of the Victorian bourgeois family and Dr. Frankenstein’s attempt to remove women’s reproductive power. Max noted that Shelley’s father’s anarchist and socialist ideas and her mother’s feminist writings influenced her writing, and that Dr. Frankenstein’s creation reflects social criticism of the treatment of the working class in Shelley’s time. Max highlighted the novel’s critique of a society that values wealth and appearance over character, as well as its feminist commentary on gender hierarchy.
Fredric Jameson’s “Historicism in The Shining”
Max and Shaenah discussed Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining. They explored various theories about Kubrick’s intentions in adapting The Shining including a controversial theory that the film was a confession about his involvement in supposedly staging the moon landings. Shaenah mentioned the documentary Room 237 which goes into depth about the competing theories regarding the film’s narrative.
Max discussed The Shining and its analysis by the Marxist literary critic Frederic Jameson, explaining Jameson’s concept of pastiche, contrasting modernist and postmodernist art forms. Max also touched on how Jameson’s essay illuminates the film’s meta-narrative about history and its pastiche of the ghost story genre.
Cultural Representation and the Mode of Production
Max and Shaenah related how Jameson’s work underscored the relationship between cultural production and capitalism, demonstrated by the way in which artistic movements like modernism and postmodernism reflect economic shifts and what Jameson referred to as their respective “cultural logic.” Jameson defined postmodern art as often involving pastiche and the remixing of past styles as a reflection of cultural production’s historical limitations. For Jameson, Kubrick’s film was a perfect example of postmodernism, noting its use of historical styles and techniques to convey a sense of nostalgia and the dissociation between historical understanding and lived experience in late capitalism. The hosts concluded by recognizing that the film had many layers of interpretation and mentioned Fredric Jameson’s recent death.
Links:
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/historicism-in-the-shining/
