{"335861":{"#nid":"335861","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Sinking his teeth into Dracula","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Edgar Browning owes his love of Dracula \u2014 and much of his scholarly career \u2014 to his family\u2019s VCR.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGrowing up in Tennessee during the 1980s, he watched the movies his family taped off television. Horror was his favorite. He was likely one of the few kindergarten students familiar with the oeuvre of Freddy Krueger and Jason from \u201cFriday the 13\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday Browning is a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Literature, Media and Communication who is an internationally recognized vampire and horror scholar. He has published nearly a dozen books and his latest, \u201cThe Vampire in Europe: A Critical Edition,\u201d comes out this month.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis semester Browning teaches \u201cFashioning Monsters, Preserving Normalcy,\u201d which examines the way we construct monsters and otherness in literature, film and society. For example, his class discussed why Leatherface from \u201cTexas Chainsaw Massacre\u201d became more horrifying after putting on lipstick.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMonsters tell us a lot about society,\u201d Browning said. \u201cIn a way, monsters are just like politicians. They show us who is powerful, who should have power and who is powerless.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOf all the monsters out there, Dracula captured Browning\u2019s fascination. He watched the 1979 movie starring Frank Langella over and over again. But it was the 1992 version directed by Francis Ford Coppola that made a lasting impact.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI stopped thinking of Dracula as this fictional thing,\u201d Browning said. \u201cHe was \u003Cem\u003EVlad\u003C\/em\u003E Dracula, a person who had a real history. The movie turned some switch on, and I really honed in on vampires and Dracula.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe sometimes wears a replica of the silver ring Dracula wore in the movies in the 1940s. The center of the ring is a blood cornelian stone about the size of a half dollar. On top of the stone sits a crest containing a crown, a bat and the letter \u201cD.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe 34-year-old cuts an imposing figure at 6\u20194\u201d, but his soft-spoken nature and quick smile reveal an easygoing, scholarly side.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA film theory course during his junior year at Florida State University showed he could have an academic career because of his love of Dracula.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor part of his doctoral dissertation, Browning conducted ethnographic studies of people who identify themselves as real-life vampires. For his book \u003Cem\u003EDracula in Visual Media\u003C\/em\u003E, Browning documented more than 700 Dracula films, television programs, documentaries, animations and video games.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENext semester he\u2019ll teach \u201cVampires and Zombies across History and Culture.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was always someone who liked to ask questions and notice changes,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can see culture evolve by looking at Dracula.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen society goes through economic crises movie studios turn to horror, especially vampires, so villains can get their comeuppance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhat\u2019s strange now is that we want our vampires to \u003Cem\u003Elive\u003C\/em\u003E,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re rooting for the monsters, while it\u2019s normalcy or the people who created the monsters who are being killed off.\u201c\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow is a vampire, horror scholar"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Edgar Browning, a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Literature, Media and Communication,\u0026nbsp;is an internationally recognized vampire and horror scholar.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; This semester Browning teaches \u201cFashioning Monsters, Preserving Normalcy\u0022 and next semester he\u0027ll teach\u0026nbsp; \u201cVampires and Zombies across History and Culture.\u201d\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"John Edgar Browning  has published nearly a dozen books and his latest, \u201cThe Vampire in Europe: A Critical Edition,\u201d comes out this month."}],"uid":"27918","created_gmt":"2014-10-21 11:35:50","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:19","author":"Laura Diamond","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-10-21T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-10-21T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"337371":{"id":"337371","type":"image","title":"John Edgar Browning with fangs","body":null,"created":"1449245201","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:06:41","changed":"1475895051","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:51","alt":"John Edgar Browning with fangs","file":{"fid":"200550","name":"15c10302-p9-006_72.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/15c10302-p9-006_72_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/15c10302-p9-006_72_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":158058,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/15c10302-p9-006_72_0.jpg?itok=Rrn86s_N"}},"337411":{"id":"337411","type":"image","title":"John Edgar Browning portrait","body":null,"created":"1449245216","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:06:56","changed":"1475895051","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:51","alt":"John Edgar Browning portrait","file":{"fid":"200551","name":"15c10302-p9-002_72-2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/15c10302-p9-002_72-2_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/15c10302-p9-002_72-2_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":146078,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/15c10302-p9-002_72-2_0.jpg?itok=TXBRywiC"}},"337421":{"id":"337421","type":"image","title":"John Edgar Browning with Dracula ring","body":null,"created":"1449245216","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:06:56","changed":"1475895051","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:51","alt":"John Edgar Browning with Dracula ring","file":{"fid":"200552","name":"15c10302-p9-008_72.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/15c10302-p9-008_72_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/15c10302-p9-008_72_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":118798,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/15c10302-p9-008_72_0.jpg?itok=ZpSc2-kK"}}},"media_ids":["337371","337411","337421"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"143","name":"Digital Media and Entertainment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"106971","name":"Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow"},{"id":"106961","name":"Dracula"},{"id":"167456","name":"School of Literature"},{"id":"167943","name":"School of Literature Media and Communication"},{"id":"11213","name":"vampire"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"},{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaura Diamond\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.diamond@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}