Vampire - A New History

Published to mark the bicentenary of John Polidori's publication of The Vampyre, Nick Groom's detailed new account illuminates the complex history of the iconic creature. The vampire first came to public prominence in the early eighteenth century, when Enlightenment science collided with Eastern European folklore and apparently verified outbreaks of vampirism, capturing the attention of medical researchers, political commentators, social theorists, theologians, and philosophers. Groom accordingly traces the vampire from its role as a monster embodying humankind's fears, to that of an unlikely hero for the marginalized and excluded in the twenty-first century. Drawing on literary and artistic representations, as well as medical, forensic, empirical, and sociopolitical perspectives, this rich and eerie history presents the vampire as a strikingly complex being that has been used to express the traumas and contradictions of the human condition.

About the author

Nick Groom, known as the "Prof of Goth," is professor of literature in English at the University of Macao.

Product details

• Authors: Nick Groom, Groom Nick
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 08.09.2020
• EAN: 9780300254839
• ISBN: 978-0-300-25483-9
• No. of pages: 320
• Subjects: Guides > Spirituality > Ancient knowledge, ancient cultures; Non-fiction book > Dictionaries, reference works > Foreign-language dictionaries; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology, Ireland, Folklore, myths & legends, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Literature: history & criticism, Literature: history and criticism, Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology)