The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic LiteratureIn his Preface to The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature, James Twitchell writes that he is not interested in the current generation of vampires, which he finds "rude, boring and hopelessly adolescent. However, they have not always been this way. In fact, a century ago they were often quite sophisticated, used by artists varied as Blake, Poe, Coleridge, the Brontes, Shelley, and Keats, to explain aspects of interpersonal relations. However vulgar the vampire has since become, it is important to remember that along with the Frankenstein monster, the vampire is one of the major mythic figures bequeathed to us by the English Romantics. Simply in terms of cultural influence and currency, the vampire is far more important than any other nineteenth-century archetypes; in fact, he is probably the most enduring and prolific mythic figure we have. This book traces the vampire out of folklore into serious art until he stabilizes early in this century into the character we all too easily recognize. - Book Jacket. |
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Page 66
When the lamia is created by a female artist , she is still dramatically sexual , not as the seductress who takes the young male protagonist into unknown worlds , but rather as the demonic “ other woman ” who deprives the young woman of ...
When the lamia is created by a female artist , she is still dramatically sexual , not as the seductress who takes the young male protagonist into unknown worlds , but rather as the demonic “ other woman ” who deprives the young woman of ...
Page 67
For here is a woman who cannot sublimate her wild desires ; here is a woman who gives play to her bestial lusts ; here is a woman who can make men afraid . So like the host of other “ bad ” women in nineteenthcentury literature such as ...
For here is a woman who cannot sublimate her wild desires ; here is a woman who gives play to her bestial lusts ; here is a woman who can make men afraid . So like the host of other “ bad ” women in nineteenthcentury literature such as ...
Page 70
In what seems a waking dream Jane is visited by the horrible woman , “ a woman , tall and large , with thick and dark hair hanging long down her back . I know not what dress she had on ; it was white and straight ; but whether gown ...
In what seems a waking dream Jane is visited by the horrible woman , “ a woman , tall and large , with thick and dark hair hanging long down her back . I know not what dress she had on ; it was white and straight ; but whether gown ...
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Contents
The Female Vampire | 39 |
The Male Vampire in Poetry | 74 |
The Vampire in Prose | 103 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature James B. Twitchell Limited preview - 1981 |
The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature James B. Twitchell,Twitchell No preview available - 2014 |
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References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Living Dead: A Study of the Vampire in Romantic Literature |
| Author | James B. Twitchell |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Duke University Press, 1981 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 29 Feb 2008 |
| ISBN | 0822304384, 9780822304388 |
| Length | 219 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |