Reading the Vampire

Insatiable bloodlust, dangerous sexualities, the horror of the undead, uncharted Trannsylvanian wildernesses, and a morbid fascination with the 'other': the legend of the vampire continues to haunt popular imagination. Reading the Vampire examines this creature in all its various manifestations and cultural meanings. Ken Gelder investigates vampire narratives in literature and in film, from early vampire stories such as Polidori's The Vampyre , J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 'lesbian vampire' tale Carmilla and Bram Stoker's Dracula , the most famous vampire narrative of all, to contemporary American vampire blockbusters by Stephen King and others and the vampire chronicles of Anne Rice, 'post-Ceausescu' vampire narratives, and films such as F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu and Bram Stoker's Dracula . Reading the Vampire embeds vampires in their cultural contexts, showing how vampire narratives reproduce the anxieties and fascinations of their times: from the nineteenth century investments in travel and tourism, issues of colonialism and national identity and obsessions with sex, to the 'queer' identity of the vampire, the association of the vampire with the 'global exotic' and current concerns about wayward youth, the family and national security.Gelder, Ken is the author of 'Reading the Vampire' with ISBN 9780415080132 and ISBN 0415080134.