As Nina Auerbach argues in her introduction to Our Vampires, Ourselves, vampires are “personifications of their age.” Vampire Literature: An Anthology is the first anthology designed specifically to introduce students and general readers to the history, theory, and cultural impact of the literary vampire. With coverage from the early nineteenth century to the twenty-first, Vampire Literature: An Anthology brings together a wide range of texts from many eras—and also collects work by American, British, Irish, and Caribbean writers. The focus is on shorter prose texts, primarily short stories and novellas (Polidori’s The Vampyre and Le Fanu’s Carmilla are included in full); in a few cases, longer works are excerpted. A range of illustrations, from political cartoons to film stills, is also included.
With an informative general introduction, headnotes to each selection, and explanatory footnotes throughout, Vampire Literature: An Anthology is an ideal introduction to the genre.
Comments
“A creature of, in the editors’ words, ‘ambiguous multiplicity,’ the vampire has fascinated humans since we started telling stories, and Robin Werner and Elizabeth Lewis have assembled a collection to help readers explore that fascination. The thematic organization encourages readers to contemplate vampires’ immortality, their connection to race and sexuality, their hunger, and their familial relationships. Supplementing the literary examples are critical works featuring various theoretical approaches, including psychological treatments, postcolonial explorations, and racial examinations. The anthology may not answer all your questions about vampires, but it belongs on the shelf of every vampire lover.” — Carol A. Senf, Georgia Institute of Technology
“Vampire Literature: An Anthology is a timely and needed collection that bursts out of the literature classroom to be essential to any scholar or teacher of vampires. With a collection of pieces from around the world, Werner and Lewis have managed to disrupt the European/United States canon and create a new, decentralized and globalized canon of fundamental reading. Their choice of criticism continues their inclusive approach, weaving in a range of essential pieces that work in harmony with the exciting range of classic, largely unknown, popular, and contemporary stories. The insightful chapter introductions offer encyclopedic material that would make this text useful as a complete teaching package. I believe this book will become essential reading for all fans of the vampire for many years to come.” — Melissa Anyiwo, University of Scranton
A Chronology of Texts
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Is a Vampire?
VAMPIRES AND POWER
- John William Polidori, The Vampyre (1819)
- James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Pecket Prest, from Varney the Vampire (1847)
- Vasile Alecsandri, “Vampire (Strigoiul)” (1886)
- Bram Stoker, “Dracula’s Guest” (1914)
- Henrik Galeen, Nosferatu (1922)
- Richard Matheson, “Drink My Blood” (1951)
VAMPIRES AND IMMORTALITY
- Elizabeth Grey, “The Skeleton Count; or, The Vampire Mistress” (1828)
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon, “The Good Lady Ducayne” (1896)
- Arabella Kenealy, “A Beautiful Vampire” (1896)
- Philip K. Dick, “The Cookie Lady” (1953)
VAMPIRES AND RACE
- Uriah Derick D’Arcy, from “The Black Vampyre: A Legend of Saint Domingo” (1819)
- Florence Marryat, from The Blood of the Vampire (1897)
- James Weldon Johnson, “The White Witch” (1922)
- William Crain, from Blacula (1972)
- Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, from Devil on the Cross (1980)
- Jewelle Gomez, from “Rosebud, Missouri: 1921,” The Gilda Stories (1991))
- Ibi Aanu Zoboi, “Old Flesh Song” (2004)
- Octavia E. Butler, from Fledgling (2005)
VAMPIRES AND SEXUALITY
- Henrich August Ossenfelder, “Der Vampir” (1748)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “The Bride of Corinth” (1797)
- Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla (1872)
- Eric Stenbock, “The True Story of a Vampire” (1894)
- Poppy Z. Brite/Billy Martin, from Lost Souls (1992)
VAMPIRE HUNGER
- C.L. Moore, “Shambleau” (1933)
- Fritz Lieber, “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” (1949)
- Angela Carter, “The Lady of the House of Love” (1979)
- Karen Russell, “The Vampires in the Lemon Grove” (2013)
VAMPIRE FAMILIES
- Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, “The Family of the Vourdalak” (1839)
- Stephen King, “One for the Road” (1977)
- Jane Yolen, “Mama Gone” (1991)
- Toni Brown, “Immunity” (1996)
- Nalo Hopkinson, “Greedy Choke Puppy” (2001)
- Silvia-Moreno Garcia, “A Handful of Earth” (2011)
- Kazuki Sakuraba, from A Small Charred Face (2014)
CRITICISM
- Sigmund Freud, from “The Uncanny” (1919)
- Christopher Craft, from “‘Kiss Me with Those Red Lips’: Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1984)
- Stephen D. Arata, from “The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization” (1990)
- Sue-Ellen Case, from “Tracking the Vampire” (1991)
- Nina Auerbach, “Introduction: Living with the Undead,” Our Vampires, Ourselves (1995)
- Carol A. Senf, from “Daughters of Lilith: Women Vampires in Popular Literature” (1999)
- Kendra R. Parker, from “Introduction: The First Bite,” Black Female Vampires in African American Women’s Novels, 1977–2011: She Bites Back (2018)
ILLUSTRATIONS
- Rymer and Prest, Varney the Vampire (1847)
- Le Fanu, Carmilla (1872)
- Punch, “The Irish Vampire” and “The English Vampire” (1885)
- Munch, Love and Pain/The Vampire (1893)
- Braddon, “The Good Lady Ducayne” (1896)
- Stoker, Dracula (1919)
- Burne-Jones, The Vampire (1897)
- Ernst, The Vampire’s Kiss (1934)
- “The Vampire That Hovers Over North Carolina” (1898)
- Murnau, Nosferatu (1922)
- Browning, Dracula (1931)
- Crain, Blacula (1972)
- Rice and Witter, Interview with a Vampire: Claudia’s Story (2012)
- Kikuchi and Amano, Vampire Hunter D (1983–present)
Bibliography
Permissions Acknowledgments
Robin A. Werner and Elizabeth M. Lewis are instructors in the Department of English at the University of New Orleans.
