Reading the Vampire

<p>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.<br><em>Reading the Vampire</em> 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 <em>Carmilla</em> and Bram Stoker's <em>Dracula</em>, 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 <em>Nosferatu</em> and Bram Stoker's <em>Dracula</em>.<br><em>Reading the Vampire</em> 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.</p> Ethnic Vampires: Transylvania and beyond; Part 1 Vampires in Greece: Byron and Polidori; Part 2 Vampires and the Uncanny: Le Fanu’s ‘carmilla; Part 3 Reading Dracula; Part 4 Vampires and Cinema: From Nosferatu to Bram Stoker’s ‘dracula’; Part 5 Vampires in the (old) New World: Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles; Part 6 Vampire Blockbusters: Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Brian Aldiss and S.p. Somtow; Part 7 Conclusion;