Details

Subject(s)

• Vampires in literature [Browse]
• Vampires—History [Browse]
• Horror tales, European—History and criticism [Browse]
• European fiction—History and criticism [Browse]
• Vampire films—History and criticism [Browse]
• Social change in literature [Browse]
• Literature and society—Europe—History [Browse]

Series

Studies in German literature, linguistics, and culture [More in this series]

Summary note

"For the last three hundred years, fictions of the vampire have fed off anxieties about cultural continuity. Though commonly represented as a parasitic aggressor from without, the vampire is in fact a native of Europe, and its "metamorphoses," to quote Baudelaire, a distorted image of social transformation. Because the vampire grows strong whenever and wherever traditions weaken, its representations have multiplied with every political, economic, and technological revolution from the eighteenth century on. Today, in the age of globalization, vampire fictions are more virulent than ever, and the monster enjoys hunting grounds as vast as the international market. Metamorphoses of the Vampire explains why representations of vampirism began in the eighteenth century, flourished in the nineteenth, and came to eclipse nearly all other forms of monstrosity in the early twentieth century. Many of the works by French and German authors discussed here have never been presented to students and scholars in the English-speaking world. While there are many excellent studies that examine Victorian vampires, the undead in cinema, contemporary vampire fictions, and the vampire in folklore, until now no work has attempted to account for the unifying logic that underlies the vampire's many and often apparently contradictory forms. Erik Butler is assistant professor of German Studies at Emory University, where he also teaches comparative literature and film."

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-213), filmography (p. 215-216) , and index.

Reproduction note

Electronic reproduction. New York Available via World Wide Web.

Source of description

Print version record.

ISBN

• 9781571138170 ((electronic bk.))
• 157113817X ((electronic bk.))

Statement on language in description

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