This paper will deal with immortality and the fear of death as embodied in the vampire: its construction, its body, and its pop culture eminence. The impetus for this line of thought began with our reading of White Noise, where Jack and his wife are consumed by their fear of death, a death that becomes more imminent and concrete with the introduction of the "airborne toxic event." Their fear of death drives them to the novel's tragic end.
[...] But with a little garlic, some sunlight, and a sharp stick, the living forces of good could manage those vampires. It might also be important to note that the time of Stoker's first publication of Dracula was nearly ten years after Jack the Ripper terrorized London without ever being brought to justice. A passage written by Harker's wife Mina embodies this fear, the new fear of the crazed killer: yet, if it be true, what terrible things there are in the world, and what an awful thing if that man, that monster, be really in London!” (Stoker 205) Keep in mind that this was also the height of popularity for the serialized Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. [...]
[...] And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have powers of their own which mere ‘modernity' cannot kill.” (Stoker 39) Although the vampire was a mythic character in Europe as early as the Middle Ages (Marigny it wasn't until the nineteenth century that vampires truly caught on as legendary figures. A historian would wonder why that particular time period was the right time for the vampire (as we know it today) to be unleashed. Here are a few perspectives on what might have happened. [...]
[...] Perhaps we think, now in the 21st century, that immortality may not be too far off, and we need an attractive, user- friendly package to prepare for it. Vampires are that package. Bibliography Primary Texts: DeLillo, Don. White Noise. Harmondsworth: Penguin Interview with the Vampire. Dir. Neil Jordon. (America.) 1994. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, Inc Secondary Texts: Bosky, Bernadette Lynn. “Making the Implicit, Explicit: Vampire Erotica and Pornography.” The Blood if the Life: Vampires in Literature. Leonard G. Heldreth and Mary Pharr, eds. [...]
[...] I may be dead, but I'm still pretty: The Body of the Vampire When the vampire appeared on the scene in tales across Europe, its body was represented in a fairly consistent pattern: “Although the vampire's body is strong and agile, and capable of superhuman feats like flight and shape- shifting, as a re-animated corpse it retains elements of abjection. Descriptions of vampires stress pallor, smooth, poreless skin, long hair and nails, all corpselike attributes. They may resemble humans, but are clearly Other, as Undead who have passed beyond mortality.” (Powell 224) The vampire body is also very sexual. [...]
[...] Vampire Legands in Contemporary American Culture: What Becomes a Legend Most. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press Gordon, Joan and Vernoica Hollinger. “Introduction: The Shape of Vampires.” Blood Read: The vampire as metaphor in contemporary culture. Joan Gordon and Veronica Hollinger, eds. Philadelphia: Univerity of Pennsylvania Press Latham, Rob. Consuming Youth: Vampires, Cyborgs, and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Marigny, Jean. Vampires: Restless Creatures of the Night. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc Marx, Karl. Grundisse: Foundations of the Critique of the Political Economy. [...]
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