Manchester University Press
2 The deformed transformed; or, from bloodsucker to Byronic hero - Polidori and the literary vampire
Abstract
This chapter shows the evolution of the Byronic vampire as it mutated from its folkloric roots, as documented in the ethnography of the likes of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, into a powerful literary figure. It also shows that, as this archetype evolved, it did so through an interplay with the actual persona of Byron. Byron's twentieth- and twenty-first-century successors rejoice in their vampiric Otherness, reaffirming themselves against that which they are now not, the deformed transformed. Byron himself had little to do with the vampire's humanisation; yet his physician and rival John Polidori would appropriate his aura of melancholic broodiness and reputation of nocturnal lover and destroyer in The Vampyre. Transgressing all social and ethical boundaries, the Byronic hero is always an outcast, living in perpetual exile on the fringes of society, on the run from persecution and persecuting others in turn.
Abstract
This chapter shows the evolution of the Byronic vampire as it mutated from its folkloric roots, as documented in the ethnography of the likes of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, into a powerful literary figure. It also shows that, as this archetype evolved, it did so through an interplay with the actual persona of Byron. Byron's twentieth- and twenty-first-century successors rejoice in their vampiric Otherness, reaffirming themselves against that which they are now not, the deformed transformed. Byron himself had little to do with the vampire's humanisation; yet his physician and rival John Polidori would appropriate his aura of melancholic broodiness and reputation of nocturnal lover and destroyer in The Vampyre. Transgressing all social and ethical boundaries, the Byronic hero is always an outcast, living in perpetual exile on the fringes of society, on the run from persecution and persecuting others in turn.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Notes on contributors xi
- Acknowledgements xv
- Preface xvii
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 The deformed transformed; or, from bloodsucker to Byronic hero - Polidori and the literary vampire 24
- 3 Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampires and Ireland’s invited invasion 39
- 4 ‘He make in the mirror no reflect’ 56
- 5 The vampire as dark and glorious necessity in George Sylvester Viereck’s House of the Vampire and Hanns Heinz Ewers’s Vampir 79
- 6 The Undead in the kingdom of shadows 96
- 7 Crossing oceans of time 113
- 8 ‘I feel strong. I feel different’ 131
- 9 Gothic Charm School; or, how vampires learned to sparkle 146
- 10 A vampire heaven 165
- 11 The Twilight Saga and the pleasures of spectatorship 181
- 12 The postmodern vampire in ‘post-race’ America 192
- 13 Myriad mirrors 210
- 14 The vampire in the machine 225
- 15 ‘Legally recognised undead’ 245
- 16 The elusive vampire 264
- References 276
- Index 301
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Notes on contributors xi
- Acknowledgements xv
- Preface xvii
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 The deformed transformed; or, from bloodsucker to Byronic hero - Polidori and the literary vampire 24
- 3 Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampires and Ireland’s invited invasion 39
- 4 ‘He make in the mirror no reflect’ 56
- 5 The vampire as dark and glorious necessity in George Sylvester Viereck’s House of the Vampire and Hanns Heinz Ewers’s Vampir 79
- 6 The Undead in the kingdom of shadows 96
- 7 Crossing oceans of time 113
- 8 ‘I feel strong. I feel different’ 131
- 9 Gothic Charm School; or, how vampires learned to sparkle 146
- 10 A vampire heaven 165
- 11 The Twilight Saga and the pleasures of spectatorship 181
- 12 The postmodern vampire in ‘post-race’ America 192
- 13 Myriad mirrors 210
- 14 The vampire in the machine 225
- 15 ‘Legally recognised undead’ 245
- 16 The elusive vampire 264
- References 276
- Index 301
