First Name:
Victoria
Last Name:
Ajemian
Major Department:
English
Thesis Director:
William Brewer
Date of Thesis:
May 2009
This thesis examines select texts from vampire as a reflection of societal fears and concerns of its age. As literature changes with society and age, vampires themselves have been transformed by writers who reflect and critique the taboos of their age. Folklore utilized vampires to explain deaths from unknown causes, particularly disease epidemics. The Romantics and Victorians used vampire literature to expose and confront fears of their age, such as fear of sexuality, homoerotic and female, and fear of the "Other," which, according to them, needed to subdued and killed. In contemporary works, vampires have been a mirror for the concerns of the time such as sexuality and individual choice, which are to be addressed and understood before being condemned and labeled as evil. Vampires as "other" in literature provide a means by which examining the taboos and fears can be seen in different ages; vampires, with the change in both narrative perspectives and physical descriptions, have moved from monsters to a being with monstrous qualities and into a being who revolts against the monstrous side of himself or herself in a desire to embrace the "lover" instead. "The Vampyre," Varney the Vampire, "Carmilla," Dracula, The Vampire Lestat and Twilight were and still are phenomenal works in the vampire literary genre because of their appeal to the masses in not only the reflections of their society, but also because they reflect society in ways that are both familiar and foreign. With the combination of the familiar and strange to readers, vampire literature can delve deeply into societal fears and concerns that cannot or will not be discussed in the open.