Introduction

Vampires in Popular Culture

Vampire chic is everywhere. It's cool to be a vampire and to love them. Vampires are everywhere and have always been, They were part and are still part of folklore in countries around the world. They became popular in the 19th century and have become way more popular in the 20th and 21st century.  The growth of the Romanticism movement in the 19th century with it's emphasis on the irrational, the instinctual, and the emotional opened the door to the supernatural and its legends. In that period, vampires were terrifying  and the stuff of nightmares, people enjoyed the vampire literature then, they liked being scared.

Gothic fiction is all about exciting the senses with fear and suspense. It feeds extreme emotions: the sick thrill of terror alongside the chilly awe we feel in the presence of the supernatural. Gothic literature is filled with haunted ruins, moldering in shadowy spider webs. It glorifies the inevitable decay of all human endeavors, madness, hereditary curses and death. 

Gothic fiction stems from Romanticism and in this the figure of the vampire had a more profound use than making the reader's skin crawl. The main use of the figure of the vampire is located in 'serious' attempts to express various human relationships. In Romantic literature, the vampire most often was used psychologically as an analogy to explain human interaction and to create thinly veiled eroticism.' (Jorg Waltje, p2)

'The vampire touches upon our deepest fears, the fear of death and of the dead, who in folklorist belief came back from their graves in envy of the living. On the other hand, the vampire has always embodied one of mankind's greatest hopes: the wish for immortality and never fading beauty and strength.'  (Jorg Waltje, p3)

Monsters as iconic as vampires and werewolves have always been characters in stories that people would tell each other around a fire or to frighten children. These stories were told for centuries before they were written down. When authors began to write them down, they played on the human fear of the unknown. Stories of vampires and werewolves haunted the minds of high society members because of the fear of infiltration by evil creatures walking among them undetected. These authors created intelligent vampires, evil beings that were more fascinating for being sophisticated and for somehow being more like us. 

'From the beginning of nineteenth century England through the close of twentieth century America, vampires have been popular confederates of mortals. As parasites, they stretch back through folklore to the beginnings of recorded history, bu they began their significant literary life in 1816, with the self-creations of Byron.' Nina Auerbach (1995)

The classic vampire that becomes part of high society is never detected until it's too late, just like in Polidori's 'The Vampyre". He is almost seen as merciless. He is the one that walks among humanity, cloaked in darkness, the side of human nature that we dare not face.
Stories of vampires and werewolves served as warnings to people, to kill them and not to befriend them.

In the twentieth century everything changed, the vampire stories changed perspectives, it was their turn to tell their stories. Readers began to see a hint of goodness in vampires, and to understand their tormented existence. Today the vampires aren't so scary, they are sensitive, romantic, heroic and portrayed as sympathetic characters. Fans and readers even learned that vampires have complex societies just like us. They are capable of having families, experience love, sorrow and heartbreak. Fans even accepted that  vampires might be just like ourselves. 

In popular culture you will find; vampire fashion, music, film and television. There are other endless elements out there, like toys and cereals.

Popular shows like 'Buffy', 'Angel', 'The Vampire Diaries' and 'True Blood' have made vampires cool, exciting, thrilling and sexy. 

According to folklorist Michael Bell: 'What better food for the imagination than a creature that incorporates sex, blood, violence, shape shifting, superhuman power, and eternal life?'

Peter Nicholls, editor of the 'Encyclopedia of Science Fiction' states why it's better to be a vampire than a werewolf or a zombie: 

'Vampires are aristocratic, drinking only the most refined substances, usually blood. In the iconography of horror, the vampire stands for sex. The Werewolf, who stands for instability, shape shifting, lack of self-control, is middle-class and lives in a dog-eat-dog world. The zombie or ghoul, who shambles and rots is working-class, inarticulate, dangerous, deprived, wishing only to feed on those who are better off; in the iconography of horror the zombie stands for the exploited worker.'

The vampire rules because of his skills and personality, he climbed the social ladder. He has become a symbol of life and glamour. 

In my opinion Vampires started becoming cooler thanks to the pioneer writer Anne Rice and her Vampire Chronicles published from 1976 to 2003.  The first novel 'Interview with the Vampire' with it's Dickensian feel began a wonderful revolution, the vampire needed to be heard, he needed to tell his story and that is what Anne Rice did, she gave the vampire a voice. Since then the readers and fans saw the vampire in another light, they started to listen, to understand him, to sympathize and to adore him. 

Of course the genre did not change entirely, there are still the different types of vampires out there. There are vampires to match other people's interests; Scary, dangerous, predatory, heroic, tragic, vegetarian, sexy, ugly, the list goes on. 

Despite the different types out there, people will still be fascinated and like them.

Nina Auerbach states: 'To the jaded eye, all vampires seem alike, but they are wonderful in their versatility. Some come to life in moonlight, others are killed by the sun; some pierce with their eyes, others with fangs; some are reactionary, others are rebels; but all are disturbingly close to the mortals they prey on. I can think of no other monsters who are so receptive. Vampires are neither inhuman nor nonhuman nor all-too-human, they are simply more alive than they should be. Ghosts, werewolves and manufactured monsters are relatively changeless, more aligned with eternity than with time; vampires blend into the changing cultures they inhabit. They inhere in our most intimate relationships; they are also hideous invaders of the normal. Vampires can be everything we are, while at the same time, they are fearful reminders of the infinite things we are not.' 

She also says that vampires: 'promise escape from our dull lives and the pressure of our times, but they matter because when properly understood, they make us see that our lives are implicated in theirs and our times are inescapable'.


Vampires are also metaphors for many things: the foreigner, the outcast, the gay, the consumers, the lawyers, bankers, the sexual pervert, the drug addict, etc. They are humans with the brakes off. what would it be like if our bestiality went unchecked, if our appetites were remorseless?

A subculture of wanna- be- vampires; people who believe themselves vampires and actually drink blood, attend gatherings or visit graveyards, exists.  

In Bram Stoker's novel Dracula Professor Van Helsing states: 'The strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him.' 

This means that whether vampires are real or not, the fantastical will always fascinate. Things that are scientifically not real but talked about in superstition are exciting and people such as authors or goth culture want to make them real. Van Helsing's statement means that the vampire Dracula is such a powerful being because he exists and no one else believes in vampires. This is perfect for a vampire as unsuspecting people with no knowledge of vampires are the best victims. The vampire stays 'in the dark' hidden and ready to attack. 

More details in the other articles in this blog.

Here's a funny chart on the popular vampire characters.

References:  

. Auerbach, N. (1995) Our Vampires Ourselves. The University of Chicago Press

. Jenkins, C. M. (2011) Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the origins of an Enduring Legend. National Geographic

.Waltje, J. (2005) Vampires, Serial Murder and the Popular Imagination.   Peter Lang