Manchester University Press
5 The vampire as dark and glorious necessity in George Sylvester Viereck’s House of the Vampire and Hanns Heinz Ewers’s Vampir
Abstract
This chapter suggests that the portrayals of vampires by George Sylvester Viereck and Hanns Heinz Ewers provide some insight into how they could support Adolf Hitler's brutal regime. In House of the Vampire, Viereck's charismatic vampire, Reginald Clarke, sucks the creativity and even the sanity from his victims, but this parasitism allows him to create powerful and immortal works of genius. Ewers's Vampir portrays vampirism as serving the cause of German nationalism: Frank Braun's blood drinking propels him to oratorical heights for his country. Viereck's support of Hitler and National Socialism despite its evils forever shattered any aspirations he had to join the vampire Clarke's pantheon of great men. In Vampir, Jews can either be bloodthirsty, vampiric murderers or sacrificial victims. In Vampir, identity is consistently expressed through the language of blood and through a blood mythology that links Germans and Jews.
Abstract
This chapter suggests that the portrayals of vampires by George Sylvester Viereck and Hanns Heinz Ewers provide some insight into how they could support Adolf Hitler's brutal regime. In House of the Vampire, Viereck's charismatic vampire, Reginald Clarke, sucks the creativity and even the sanity from his victims, but this parasitism allows him to create powerful and immortal works of genius. Ewers's Vampir portrays vampirism as serving the cause of German nationalism: Frank Braun's blood drinking propels him to oratorical heights for his country. Viereck's support of Hitler and National Socialism despite its evils forever shattered any aspirations he had to join the vampire Clarke's pantheon of great men. In Vampir, Jews can either be bloodthirsty, vampiric murderers or sacrificial victims. In Vampir, identity is consistently expressed through the language of blood and through a blood mythology that links Germans and Jews.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
