Reading the vampire / Ken Gelder.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gelder, Ken, 1955-

Series:

Popular fiction series.

Popular fictions series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vampires in literature.

Vampire films--History and criticism.

Vampire films.

Physical Description:

xi, 161 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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 the vampire in all its various manifestations and cultural meanings. Ken Gelder investigates vampire narratives in literature and in film, from early vampire stories like 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, the vampire chronicles of Anne Rice, `post-Ceausescu' vampire narratives, and films such as FW Murnau's Nosferatu and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Reading the Vampire embeds vampires in their cultural contexts, showing vampire narratives feeding off the anxieties and fascinations of their times: from the nineteenth century perils of tourism, issues of colonialism and national identity, and obsessions with sex and death, to the `queer' identity of the vampire or current vampiric metaphors for dangerous exchanges of bodily fluids and AIDS.

Contents:

1. Ethnic vampires : Transylvania and beyond

2. Vampires in Greece : Byron and Polidori

3. Vampires and the uncanny : Le Fanu's 'Carmilla'

4. Reading Dracula

5. Vampires and cinema : from Nosferatu to Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'

6. Vampires in the (old) new world : Anne Rice's vampire chronicles

7. Vampire blockbusters : Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Brian Aldiss and S.P. Somtow.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-156) and index.

ISBN:

1-134-89533-X

1-134-89534-8

0-203-13205-X

1-280-33576-9

9780203132050

OCLC:

475882129