A Selected History of Vampire Fiction
This week we're reading Polidori's The Vampyre and Theophile Gautier's "The Beautiful Dead." I e-mailed copies to you in PDF form and handed them out in class. E-mail me if you need either of these!
There are obviously *lots* more stories, poems, and novels that feature vampires, particularly if we think globally. It's important to consider the variations in vampire lore, as well as how those different strains (Slavic, German, French, British, Irish, etc.) became intertwined as people read, translated, and wrote vampire stories. Here are just a few highlights of the lineage:
1748 Heinrich August Ossenfelder [German]: The Vampire (poem) -- one of the earliest mentions in modern literature
1813 Lord Byron [English]: The Giaour (epic poem) -- enormously popular
1819 John Polidori [English]: The Vampyre and numerous staged versions follow!
1821 Charles Nodier [French]: Smarra (novella) with alternate title “Les Démons de la Nuit”
1835 Theophile Gautier [French]: "La Morte Amoreuse" ["The Beautiful Dead"] also known as "Clarimonde"
1845-47 James Malcolm Rymer & Thomas Peckett Prest[English]: Varney the Vampire --this was a *very* long series, published in cheap pamphlets, called "penny dreadfuls." It sets many of the conventions we see in modern vampire stories.
1860/70s Paul Feval [French]: Le Chevalier Ténèbre (1860), La Vampire (1865) and La Ville Vampire (1874). Though not well-known today, Feval's vampire novels -- which included female vampires -- were popular in France. They have been translated/adapted into English recently by Brian Stableford. La Ville Vampire (Vampire City) actually features a female vampire-hunter named Ann Radcliffe!
1872 Sheridan LeFanu [Irish]: Carmilla first published in serial; features a female vampire
1897 Bram Stoker [Irish]: Dracula....well, you know what happened here
A Few Notes on Vampire Beliefs and Folklore
Central to beliefs about vampires are worries about what happens to the body and the soul after death. The decomposition of the body was a curious thing for medical specialists and the general public alike. Modern medical understanding of the process of death and decay, as well as popular understanding of it (through representations on CSI and the like) mean that we have far more information about death and decomposition than people of past generations did. Strange things happen to bodies, and a wide variety of variables can change many things about how fast and in what way a body changes after death and burial.
Within some religions – Catholicism for instance – the lack of corruption of a body after death is in some cases a proof of sainthood – many bodies (and body parts) of saints, called “Incorruptibles” were held up as examples to show miracles and these bodies were put on display. (The practice is somewhat more common in Europe than here.) Others found incorruptible bodies more disconcerting, and many saw these as proof of the un-dead.
Sickness and disease, which many cultures were not able to explain due to limited medical information, might also have contributed to vampire lore. Certain ailments, including porphyria (a rare disease causing sensitivity to sunlight) and catatonia (a stupor, symptomatic of a variety of diseases) may have been seen as indicators of vampirism. Because they could not be explained and caused great distress for victims and families, communities may have looked to an understandable source – the vampire. Additionally, an individual who fell into a coma might in some cases may have been buried prematurely, also leading to worries that those who were buried might not stay buried.
You might enjoy "A Natural History of Vampires" from Scientific American.
The BBC did a nice "Where do Vampires come from?" piece.
Smithsonian Magazine did a piece on "Real-Life Vampires."