The Origins Of The Literary Vampire

Author : Heide Crawford
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442266759
Total Pages : 149 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Origins of the Literary Vampire written by Heide Crawford and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-08-30 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long and distinguished tradition of the literary vampire began in Germany during the Age of Enlightenment. German literature was the first to adapt the vampire figure from central European folklore and superstition and give it literary form. Despite these German origins, scholarly attention devoted to literary vampires has consistently focused on a select set of sources: British and French literature, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the phenomenon of the vampire superstition in general. While there have been many illuminating studies of pre-literary vampires and vampires that have already been firmly established as literary figures, the story of the crucial moment of transition from folkloric figure to literary subject has not yet been told. In The Origins of the Literary Vampire Heide Crawford redirects scholarly attention to the body of German poetry and prose where vampire folklore becomes vampire literature. This book focuses on the adaptation of the vampire superstition from central European folklore by German poets in the 18th and early 19th centuries for an audience that had become increasingly interested in superstition and occult phenomena in an Age of Enlightenment. In addition to establishing that the origins of the literary vampire in 18th and 19th century German poetry and prose were informed by the stories and reports of vampires from Central Europe, Crawford argues that the German poets who adapted this figure from superstition for their creative work immediately molded it into a metaphor for contemporary cultural anxieties and fears—a connection that would inspire horror literature in general and the traits of the literary vampire in particular for the 19th century and beyond. Contemporary culture has exhibited a marked fascination with eroticized and politicized applications of the vampire. This volume traces these erotic motifs, common political motifs and others to the first vampire poems that were written by German poets. Consequently, this book answers three central questions: What were the origins of the literary vampire; how was the vampire of folklore and superstition adapted for literature; and how did German poets contribute to the development of the vampire and Gothic horror literature? By answering these and other questions, The Origins of the Literary Vampire explains how the literary vampire became the ubiquitous horror figure it is today.

Author : Heide Crawford
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781442266742
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Origins of the Literary Vampire written by Heide Crawford and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there have been many illuminating studies of pre-literary vampires and vampires that have already been firmly established as literary figures, the story of the crucial moment of transition from folkloric figure to literary subject has not yet been told. The Origins of the Literary Vampire redirects scholarly attention to the body of German poetry and prose where vampire folklore becomes vampire literature. This book focuses on the adaptation of the vampire superstition from central European folklore by German poets in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries for an audience that had become increasingly interested in superstition and occult phenomena in an Age of Enlightenment.

Author : Barbara Brodman
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1611475805
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Universal Vampire written by Barbara Brodman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the publication of John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), the vampire has been a mainstay of Western culture, appearing consistently in literature, art, music (notably opera), film, television, graphic novels and popular culture in general. Even before its entrance into the realm of arts and letters in the early nineteenth century, the vampire was a feared creature of Eastern European folklore and legend, rising from the grave at night to consume its living loved ones and neighbors, often converting them at the same time into fellow vampires. A major question exists within vampire scholarship: to what extent is this creature a product of European cultural forms, or is the vampire indeed a universal, perhaps even archetypal figure? In this collection of sixteen original essays, the contributors shed light on this question. One essay traces the origins of the legend to the early medieval Norse draugr, an "undead" creature who reflects the underpinnings of Dracula, the latter first appearing as a vampire in Anglo-Irish Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. In addition to these investigations of the Western mythic, literary and historic traditions, other essays in this volume move outside Europe to explore vampire figures in Native American and Mesoamerican myth and ritual, as well as the existence of similar vampiric traditions in Japanese, Russian and Latin American art, theatre, literature, film, and other cultural productions. The female vampire looms large, beginning with the Sumerian goddess Lilith, including the nineteenth-century Carmilla, and moving to vampiresses in twentieth-century film, literature, and television series. Scientific explanations for vampires and werewolves constitute another section of the book, including eighteenth-century accounts of unearthing, decapitation and cremation of suspected vampires in Eastern Europe. The vampire's beauty, attainment of immortality and eternal youth are all suggested as reasons for its continued success in contemporary popular culture.

Author : Thomas M. Bohn
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 1789202930
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Vampire written by Thomas M. Bohn and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2019-09-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An illuminating contribution to scholarship on the vampire figure.”—Slavic Review Even before Bram Stoker immortalized Transylvania as the homeland of his fictional Count Dracula, the figure of the vampire was inextricably tied to Eastern Europe in the popular imagination. Drawing on a wealth of previously neglected sources, this book offers a fascinating account of how vampires—whose various incarnations originally emerged from folk traditions from all over the world—became so strongly identified with Eastern Europe. It demonstrates that the modern conception of the vampire was born in the crucible of the Enlightenment, embodying a mysterious, Eastern otherness that stood opposed to Western rationality. From the Prologue: From Original Sin to Eternal Life For a broad contemporary public, the vampire has become a star, a media sensation from Hollywood. Bestselling authors such as Bram Stoker, Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer continue to fire the imaginations of young and old alike, and bloodsuckers have achieved immortality through films like Dracula, Interview with a Vampireand Twilight. It is no wonder that, in the teenage bedrooms of our globalized world, vampires even steal the show from Harry Potter. They have long since been assigned individual personalities and treated with sympathy. They may possess superhuman powers, but they are also burdened by their immortality and have to learn to come to terms with their craving for blood. Whereas the Southeast European vampire, discovered in the 1730s, underwent an Americanization and domestication in the media landscape of the twentieth century, the creole zombies that first became known through the cheap novels and horror films of the 1920s still continue to serve as brainless horror figures. Do bloodsuckers really exist and should we really be afraid of the dead? These are the questions that I seek to tackle, following the wishes of my daughter, who was ten when I started this project.

Author : Bram Stoker
Publisher : Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN 13 : 0394848284
Total Pages : 97 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Dracula written by Bram Stoker and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 1982-04-12 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: String garlic by the window and hang a cross around your neck! The most powerful vampire of all time returns in our Stepping Stone Classic adaption of the original tale by Bran Stoker. Follow Johnathan Harker, Mina Harker, and Dr. Abraham van Helsing as they discover the true nature of evil. Their battle to destroy Count Dracula takes them from the crags of his castle to the streets of London... and back again.

Author : Nick Groom
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300240813
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Vampire written by Nick Groom and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative new history of the vampire, two hundred years after it first appeared on the literary scene Published to mark the bicentenary of John Polidori’s publication of The Vampyre, Nick Groom’s detailed new account illuminates the complex history of the iconic creature. The vampire first came to public prominence in the early eighteenth century, when Enlightenment science collided with Eastern European folklore and apparently verified outbreaks of vampirism, capturing the attention of medical researchers, political commentators, social theorists, theologians, and philosophers. Groom accordingly traces the vampire from its role as a monster embodying humankind’s fears, to that of an unlikely hero for the marginalized and excluded in the twenty-first century. Drawing on literary and artistic representations, as well as medical, forensic, empirical, and sociopolitical perspectives, this rich and eerie history presents the vampire as a strikingly complex being that has been used to express the traumas and contradictions of the human condition.

Author : John Polidori
Publisher : Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN 13 : 8728110374
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Vampyre written by John Polidori and published by Lindhardt og Ringhof. This book was released on 2022-06-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not dissimilar to modern day stories, ́The Vampyre ́ offers an interesting mix of fangs and romance, and Polidori's tale of Lord Ruthven is a spooky love story that will leave you hiding under your duvet. The young Aubrey is captivated by the mysterious Lord Ruthven, who takes her to Rome. A disagreement between the two, leads Ruthven to travel onward to Greece on his own where he falls in love with Ianthe. She tells him about the tales and myths of vampires but is found killed shortly after. Without connecting the two incidents, Aubrey reunites with Ruthven once more and she rejoins him on his travels, which leads to her eventual heartbreak. Fans of ́Twilight ́, ́Dracula ́, and ́Buffy the Vampire Slayer ́ will enjoy this short story, which is regarded as the first vampire novel to be published. Known by some as the creator of vampire fiction, John William Polidori was an English writer and physician. ́The Vampyre ́ is his most successful piece of writing and the first published modern vampire story. A friend to Lord Byron, Polidori also brainstormed with Percy Bysshe Shelley and a soon-to-be Mary Shelley. Mary later worked on a tale with her husband which would become 'Frankenstein'. Polidori died at his father's London house aged 25, weighed down by depression and gambling debts.

Author : Elizabeth Kostova
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 075951383X
Total Pages : 660 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Historian written by Elizabeth Kostova and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2005-06-01 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The record-breaking phenomenon from Elizabeth Kostova is a celebrated masterpiece that "refashioned the vampire myth into a compelling contemporary novel, a late-night page-turner" (San Francisco Chronicle). Breathtakingly suspenseful and beautifully written, The Historian is the story of a young woman plunged into a labyrinth where the secrets of her family’s past connect to an inconceivable evil: the dark fifteenth-century reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for the truth becomes an adventure of monumental proportions, taking us from monasteries and dusty libraries to the capitals of Eastern Europe—in a feat of storytelling so rich, so hypnotic, so exciting that it has enthralled readers around the world. “Part thriller, part history, part romance...Kostova has a keen sense of storytelling and she has a marvelous tale to tell.” —Baltimore Sun

Author : Sharon M. Gallagher
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476627967
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Irish Vampire written by Sharon M. Gallagher and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:  The origins of the vampire can be traced through oral traditions, ancient texts and archaeological discoveries, its nature varying from one culture to the next up until the 20th century. Three 19th century Irish writers—Charles Robert Maturin, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker—used the obscure vampire of folklore in their fiction and developed a universally recognizable figure, culminating in Stoker’s Dracula and the vampire of today’s popular culture. Maturin, Le Fanu and Stoker did not set out to transform the vampire of regional folk tales into a global phenomenon. Their personal lives, national concerns and extensive reading were reflected in their writing, striking a chord with readers and recasting the vampire as distinctly Irish. This study traces the genealogy of the modern literary vampire from European mythology through the Irish literature of the 1800s.

Author : Luise White
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520922298
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.97/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Speaking with Vampires written by Luise White and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the colonial period, Africans told each other terrifying rumors that Africans who worked for white colonists captured unwary residents and took their blood. In colonial Tanganyika, for example, Africans were said to be captured by these agents of colonialism and hung upside down, their throats cut so their blood drained into huge buckets. In Kampala, the police were said to abduct Africans and keep them in pits, where their blood was sucked. Luise White presents and interprets vampire stories from East and Central Africa as a way of understanding the world as the storytellers did. Using gossip and rumor as historical sources in their own right, she assesses the place of such evidence, oral and written, in historical reconstruction. White conducted more than 130 interviews for this book and did research in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia. In addition to presenting powerful, vivid stories that Africans told to describe colonial power, the book presents an original epistemological inquiry into the nature of historical truth and memory, and into their relationship to the writing of history.