Vampire Literature: An Anthology

Featuring authors from John William Polidori to Karen Russell, this anthology gathers key works of vampire fiction, art, and theory.

“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

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.

• | Author: Elizabeth M. Lewis, Robin A. Werner
• | Publisher: Broadview Press Ltd
• | Publication Date: Sep 20, 2024
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• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781554816064
• | ISBN-10: 1554816068