Publisher's Synopsis
Whether as bloodthirsty monsters or mesmerizing seducers, vampires have always held powerful sway over the human imagination. Representations of vampires range from the terrifying to the ridiculous, but after several hundred years their popularity remains undiminished.
Vampires Over the Ages: A Cultural Analysis of Scientific, Literary, and Cinematic Representations gives students the materials to analyze the way the vampire image has changed over the centuries, particularly as it relates to politics, sexuality, and culture. The book surveys the vampire legend historically, compares scientific, literary, and cinematic representations of vampires, and analyzes vampire images from a cultural perspective. Readers will be exposed to classic vampire literature such as Teophile Gautier's Clarimonde and August Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata. Notable writers including Karl Marx and Oskar Kokoshka provide a political framework for the vampire legend, and excerpts from the work of Sigmund Freud yield psychological insight. Featuring primary sources ranging from the Literature/Film Quarterly to Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire, the book is a comprehensive and fascinating examination of vampire legend and lore and how they have changed over time. Vampires Over the Ages: A Cultural Analysis of Scientific, Literary, and Cinematic Representations can be used in film and literature courses, as well as those that focus on popular culture and early scientific theories about vampire plagues. Tomislav Longinovic is a professor of Slavic and comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research interests include South Slavic literatures and cultures, Serbo-Croatian language, literary theory, Central and East European literary history, and translation studies. His previously written books include Borderline Culture, Vampires Like Us, and Red Knight: Serbian Women's Songs, which was co-edited and co-translated with Daniel Weissbort. His most recent book, Vampire Nation, won the 2012 Mihajlo Misha Djordjevic Award for the best book in South Slavic Studies, presented by the North American Society for Serbian Studies (NASSS). Professor Longinovic also writes fiction in both Serbian and English, notably Sama Amerika and Moment of Silence.
