GLC 6 Project:

The transformation of the vampire archetype through time

Content

page

I. Introduction 3

II. Metaphor versus Metonymy 4

III. Origin of the vampire 5

IV. Vampires in the Old World 8

1) The first documents on vampires 8

2) Vampire tales before Dracula 9

3) Vampires in the theatre 10

4) Dracula's impact on vampire portrayal 10

5) Bram Stoker - the creator of Dracula 11

6) Historical roots of Dracula 12

7) Vampire depiction in Bram Stoker's Dracula 13

8) Early vampire movies 16

V. Vampires in the New World 19

1) Connection to New Orleans 19

2) Anne Rice - the creator of Interview with the Vampire 22

3) Vampire portrayal in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire 22

4) Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula 24

5) Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire 25

VI. The image of the vampire today compared to the ancient one 26

VII. The contemporary vampire 32

Bibliography 36

Appendix A: survey	39
Appendix B: survey results	41

I. Introduction

The concept of immortality has always fascinated the world's thinkers. Throughout the ages the idea of living forever has encouraged scientists to search for the fountain of youth. But first the mystery of life itself had to be unraveled.

From the very beginning of human existence onwards, blood has been associated with life. This special nectar was too precious to spill or waste for mundane reasons. Many ancient cultures had the ritual of soothing their gods by bringing them a blood sacrifice. For Aztec warriors, the ultimate honor was to be slain in battle or to volunteer for sacrifice in a major ritual. During such a ceremony, their heart was ripped out with a sharp knife and the corpse was then left bleeding on the altar. "Gewaltsame Tötungen [wie diese], bei welchen das Leben dem Körper zugleich mit dem aus der Wunde fließenden Blut zu entströmen scheint, erwecken mitunter den Glauben, daß der rote Saft der Träger des Lebens sei." In Homer's works, for example, the Greek hero Odysseus has the shades in Hades drink blood in order to give them back their soul and consciousness. This course of action can be closely connected to the vampires' sucking of blood to stay alive.

The obvious mortality of men has brought forth various religions, all of which share the belief that blood is needed to live. In Christianity, God himself proclaims that: "[...] im Blut ist das Leben. Deshalb habe ich euch verboten, Blut zu essen. Jeder, der Blut ißt, muß sterben." Here we have a divine taboo, similar to the one in the garden of Eden. And - similar to the first taboo - this one emits a certain fascination as well. If life comes to an abrupt end when too much blood is spilled, maybe it could be used to prolong life as well.

This allure that blood has, coupled with the concept of immortality, lead almost inevitably to the 'creation' of vampires. Since the vampire had to suck blood in order to survive, it was only natural that it became an adversary of all humans. As a result, bloodsucking ghosts were soon feared all over the world, for the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And a creature that was said to suck one's blood and consequently steal one's life was certainly something to fear. And it surely was something to talk, write and read about.

II. Metaphor versus Metonymy

During the last 20 or 30 years we have faced a 'new' vampire, a vampire that has become a popular mass culture figure, or even more, an icon. In the course of the following chapters, I will try to set forth the vampire's rise to stardom. The changes this creature has undergone over time suggest a shift from the metaphoric, Anti-Christ, metaphysical, magical vampire to a metonymic one. The rhetorical distinction between the two types is best explained by David Sapir, who defines metaphor as "an equivalence between terms taken from separate semantic domains," while metonymy "replaces or juxtaposes contiguous terms that occupy a distinct or separate place within what is considered a single semantic or perceptual domain." Thus, for example, when we say 'the woman is an angel', we are producing a metaphor, for 'woman' and 'angel' belong to two different semantic fields, one natural, the other supernatural. A metonymy, on the other hand, would be 'the lady is a tramp', because both words belong to the same human semantic category. Applied to the words 'vampire' and 'human' this would mean the following: Our forefathers used the word 'vampire' to describe supernatural events (making 'human' and 'vampire' two different semantic categories), whereas modern society might tend to use it as a metonymy, which would mean that 'vampire' and 'human' belong to the same perceptual domain, indicating that the vampire itself is no longer a creature to fear but more a strange comrade used for entertainment.

To be able to examine this problem, we first and foremost have to define what a vampire really is. Therefore, it is important to know where its origin lies and how it was presented in its first literal accounts. Then the two most influential vampire novels, one depicting the classical vampire, the other the new one - namely Bram Stoker's Dracula and Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire - will be closely analyzed regarding the varying description of their vampire protagonists. Finally, we will distinguish these two and see if the vampire still is a supernatural creature or if it has moved towards or into that metonymic domain that we call 'human'.

III. Origin of the vampire

An unambiguous etymological derivation of the word vampire itself does not exist. Some claim that it derives from the Turkish 'uber', which would make the vampire a 'not-flyer'. Others think it originates in the Slavonian 'upyr', which means 'flying creature', making vampires half-human, half-bat. The origin of the word will stay shrouded in mystery, only today's use of it is certain: a vampire is defined as a reanimated corpse which leaves its grave at night and sucks the blood of living people.

In the ancient world vampirism was often associated with black magic. Depictions of vampires have been found on Babylonian and Assyrian pottery dating back 2,500 years and more. In China, reports of vampiric forms of life begin around 600 B.C. In ancient Greek accounts, among "the crew of Hecate, ”Queen of the phantom-world” we find such monstrous and terrible goblins as the epwpidez, the silent watchers of the night [...] But most stygian and fiendish of all this horrid train were the Empousai (Empusas), most fiendish and most evil, in many ways strangely akin to the vampire." In the fragments of a play by Philostratos the Empusas can be seen at work: "Denn sie pflegte schöne und junge Leiber zu speisen, weil ihr Blut frisch und rein war." In plays like this or in Aristophanes' Ranae the word Empousai is - by some scholars - even translated as 'vampire'. But although this modern translation is made, the Empusas (as well as the Strigae and Lamiae, other vampire-like demons in Greco-Roman lore) are different from vampires as we know them. They are demons, or spirits, who are able to assume a visible body, but who are not (and never were) real human flesh and blood.

Similar legends appear in various parts of the world, making the vampire (or its equivalent at the time) one of the oldest figures in ancient mythology. In the course of time they have become the embodiment of terrors of the night and their mythology varies widely round the world and over time. Originally they were a form of spirit that fed off the living. Various vampire legends include the drawing off of 'life forces', milk from women, tearing out fetuses from pregnant women and, of course, drinking blood. The idea of sucking people's blood is known all over the world. The following Table 1 shows the names of vampire-like creatures in different parts of the world.

Country	Name of Species	How it becomes a vampire	Approved method of disposal
Africa	Owenga Otgiruru	Reincarnation of old evil sorcerers
Albania	(a) Sampiro (b) Liugat	(a) Natural causes	(a) Stake through heart
Arabia	Ghul	It is a desert-devil that eats corpses
Bavaria	Nachtzehrer	Being born with a second skin	Coin in mouth, cutting off head with an axe
Bosnia- Herzegovina	Blautsager	Bitten by another Blautsager	Put hawthorne in his coffin; he/she will have to pick them up, so the sunrise will destroy him/her.
Bohemia	Ogoljen Mura		Burial at crossroads
Brazil	Lobishomen	Linked to lycanthropy	Nail him to a tree with daggers
Brittany Cornwall	Moribund	Bit by a werewolf
Bulgaria	Krvopijac Obour	Did unholy acts, like orgies during Lent	Chain it to the grave with wild roses
Ceylon	Katacan	It is a kind of zombie
China	Ch'Ing Shi Ch'Ing Shuh		An iron blade through his heart
Crete	Kathakano		Boiling head in vinegar
Croatia	Pijavica	Incest with mother	Cutting off head and putting it between legs
Czech Lands	Vilkodlak
Dalmatia	Kuzlak	Weaning before time	Transfixing with a hawthorne bough
Greece (Ancient)	Lamia Empusa	Demoniacal origin
Greece	Brukulaco Brucolak	Son of an excommunicate or the excommunicate himself	Cutting off and burning head
Hungary	Farkaskoldus	It is a werewolf that sucks blood
Hungary	Liderc nadaly Vampir		Stake through heart; nail through temples
India	Punyaiama
Istria	Strigon		A hawthorne branch through the heart
Italy	Vampiro
Ireland	Dearg-dul		Piling stones on its grave
Macedonia	Vryolakas	Natural causes	Pouring boiling oil on it; driving nail in its navel
Malaysia	Penaggalan
Mexico	Cianteteo	Witchcraft
Moldavia Bosnia Turkey	Vourdalak	Killed by another Vourdalak	Cut off head and burn it
Moravia Moldavia Romania	Drakul Drtakul	One possessed	Steal his shroud from his coffin and destroy it
Morlachia	Vrukolak	(as Vryolakas)	(as Vryolakas)
Poland	Upier and Upierzyca	When born with teeth	Bury face downwards
Prussia	Gierach (Stryz)		Putting poppy seeds in grave
Rome (Ancient)	Lemures Striges Mormos	Evil spirits
Russia	Myertovets Vurdalak Upierzhy	Son of were-wolf or witch; Witchcraft	Transfixing it with a stake through its chest, driving stake through heart; to be hit only once, otherwise revives
Rumania	(a) Strigoiul (b) Muronul	Born out of wedlock to parents begotten out of wedlock	(a) Taking out its heart and cutting it in two; garlic in mouth, nail in head (b) Nail through forehead or stake through heart
Slovenia	Vukodlak
Serbia	Vlkoslak Mulo Dhampir	Incest or killed by a were-wolf; being stillborn	Cutting off its toes; driving nail in its neck
Saxony	Neuntöter		Lemon in its mouth
Spain	Vampiro		No known remedy
Sweden	Vampyr
Portugal	Bruxsa	Witchcraft	No known remedy

Table 1: Vampires around the world

Table 1 shows that vampires are not only a European phenomenon, but that they can be found all over the globe, "For, let me tell you, he [the vampire] is known everywhere that men have been. In old Greece, in old Rome; he flourish in Germany all over, in France, in India, even in the Chersonese; and in China [...] He have follow the wake of the berserker Icelander, the devil-begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar". In the different myths, the vampire can appear as a human, wolf, horse, goat, frog, hen, cat, dog, donkey, pig, snake, butterfly and even as a haystack. Its most famous apparition, however, is the shape of a bat. Bats were originally lucky charms (in countries as diverse as Greece and China, where they were called 'Fuk-schii', which means 'rat of fortune'), but from the fifteenth century onwards, they were subject to extermination for they were said to hide in their dwellings the evil vampires as well.

IV. Vampires in the Old World

As we have seen, dating back to Greek and Roman lore and sometimes even farther, one can find certain demons and blood-sucking ghosts of the most hideous malignancy that are similar to what we today call vampires. The peculiar quality of the vampire, however, especially in Slavic tradition, is the reanimation of a dead body.

1) The first documents on vampires

The first documents on a reanimated dead corpse date back to 1725. It was in that year in the Serbian village of Kisolova that the case of Peter Plogojowitz became widely known. A lot of witnesses claimed to have seen him alive after his burial and he was said to be the cause of a vampire plague in the surrounding area. The incident was reported in numerous official files, leading to an opening of the grave by the local authority. No signs of decay could be seen on the corpse, and so a stake was put through its heart and afterwards it was burnt to ashes.

As a result of this official investigation, science became interested in the case. The Prussian Academy of Science was asked for its expert opinion, and as early as 1728 the first book on Vampirism was published, called Über das Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern, written by Michael Ranft. Since then, a lot of different books on the subject have been published, both trivial and scientific. Although sensible explanations for the so-called vampire phenomenon have been found nowadays, a lot of people still believe that they exist.

2) Vampire tales before Dracula

The very first substantial vampire tale in literary history was written by Dr. John Polidori. Titled simply The Vampyre and published in 1819, it launched the powerful new Gothic sub-genre of vampiric fiction, which commonly expresses middle-class suspicion of the decadent aristocracy. But it already contained a description of the vampire protagonist, Lord Ruthven, that will be used and further developed by other authors in the years to come. Obviously of aristocratic descent, Lord Ruthven has a deathly pale face, is able to rise from the dead and is generally described as a monster. And he possesses "irresistible powers of seduction as well as [...] licentious habits which make him dangerous to beautiful hostesses." He uses these powers well (at least for his purposes), and a dark, but nonetheless beautiful erotic image will be attributed to the vampire until the present day.

In 1872 Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu published his short story Carmilla which was built around a female vampire. It deals quite openly with the sexuality of the lesbian vampire, who seduces another girl. Despite being female Carmilla is described as a monster that has to be decapitated, for she "[...] has been dead more than a century!" The story caused a lot of public indignation when it was published right in the midst of the Victorian Age because of the way sexuality was then portrayed therein. Le Fanu used vampire folklore in a skilful way and he managed to clearly describe the connection between eroticism and vampires. His main metaphor, a dead creature which drinks the blood of young, attractive women, shimmers with erotic meanings. Bram Stoker admits that this tale influenced his novel, Dracula, although the sexual aspect in Dracula isn't as predominant as in Carmilla.

3) Vampires in the theatre

Before celluloid was invented, the vampire was already a star on the theatre stage. This tradition started as early as 1820 when Lord Ruthven, the vampire from Polidori's novel, could be seen in Charles Nodier's Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin in Paris. After the death of the actor who played Lord Ruthven, the clergy ordered that he wasn't allowed a Christian interment, because of the godless role he had played on stage. But despite the Church's disdain, Lord Ruthven became increasingly popular in the following years, leading to theatre productions with him as a main character all over Europe and eventually to a romantic opera called, of course, Der Vampyr, in which Lord Ruthven's first words are: "Bei der Urkraft alles Bösen [...]". Following the public opinion of the time, the vampire becomes more and more of an antichrist, an accident of nature that shouldn't be allowed to exist.

4) Dracula's impact on vampire portrayal

If Bram Stoker hadn't written his novel Dracula, the most famous vampires nowadays would probably be Lord Ruthven and Carmilla. Stoker was actually so impressed by Le Fanu's creation, that in the original first chapter of his novel the grave of Carmilla was discovered. Stoker turned down that section (which was released two years after Stoker's death bearing the title Dracula's Guest) and created his Dracula without the participation of other powerful vampires. By focusing almost entirely on Dracula himself, Stoker managed to reduce vampires to a single person only. It was through the depiction of Count Dracula that the vampire gained such famous and universal traits as being immortal, aristocratic, corrupt, unholy, seductive, and ruthless.

5) Bram Stoker - the creator of Dracula

Abraham (Bram) Stoker, an Irish novelist and short story writer, was born in Dublin in November 1847. After attending university at Trinity College, Dublin, where he became the President of the Philosophical Society and where he developed a great passion for the theatre after witnessing a performance by the actor Henry Irving, he began working as a clerk for the Civil Service in 1870. But as early as 1871 he began writing theatre reviews, for his interests in the arts continued to grow. In 1878 he was appointed business manager at London's Lyceum Theatre by Henry Irving. As Irving's tour manager, he traveled to America and Canada on several occasions. Although Stoker wrote a number of short stories which appeared in magazines, his reputation as an author stands almost wholly on his novel Dracula, which was first published in 1897. It was an immediate success, and has never since been out of print. In America, where it has been in print since 1899, it is still a best seller. Dracula remains one of the most powerful creations of terror ever conceived, and the fame of this monstrous literary creation can only be compared to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Bram Stoker died on April 20th 1912 in London.

6) Historical roots of Dracula

Stoker didn't want to write about a simple bloodsucker, "[...] seine Schöpfung sollte ein Überghoul sein.". And he indeed managed to achieve this, creating "[...] die klassische moderne Version des gräßlichen Vampirmythos [...]". Even today the word 'vampire' is almost completely inherited by that most prominent of all vampires: Count Dracula. When Robert Moran wrote an opera about vampires in 1994, he chose not to name it after the vampires that appear in his play, but he rather named it The Dracula Diary, despite the fact that Dracula himself never emerges. At least, "Vlad Tepes, Count Dracul" is mentioned once throughout the opera. This reveals the immense popularity Dracula enjoys today as the mere mentioning of his name can be used to attract a wider audience.

After having studied documents and legends from all over Europe, Stoker found a person suitable for the role of the monster: the above-mentioned Vlad III Tepes (1431-1476), Prince of Wallachia. Vlad is even referred to at one point in the novel: The vampire expert Professor Van Helsing explains: "He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk [...] The Draculas [...] had dealings with the Evil One. [...] and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as ”wampyr” which we all understand too well."

There has been considerable debate among scholars concerning the meaning of the name 'Dracula'. Some claim that Vlad III was the son of Vlad II Dracul, 'Drac' meaning devil and 'ul' being the definite article. The nickname Draculea which is attributed to Vlad III therefore means 'the son of the devil' ('ulea' = 'the son of'). But there is a second, more widely accepted interpretation of the name. In 1431 Vlad II was invested with the Order of the Dragon by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. In the Romanian language, 'Drac' can have the meaning 'dragon' as well. This would make Vlad III 'the son of the dragon'.

There is less confusion concerning his life. Vlad earned his nickname Tepes which means 'the Impaler' by arranging his dead or dying enemies on high stakes, creating a "forest of the impaled, which lined the roads to welcome invading troops", while dining below them. Other accounts of Vlad's life include his way of solving the problem of beggars in his country. He invited them to a banquet and then ordered to burn down the banquet hall. A lot of similar stories about his cruelty exist, but in Romania itself, Vlad III is still a national hero and his cruelty is rather taken for bravery, a bravery that he needed to defend his country against the Turks.

Be it cruelty or bravery, Stoker, in any case, used this powerful yet fierce ruler as a blueprint for his novel.

7) Vampire depiction in Bram Stoker's Dracula

The novel Dracula itself is told through journals and fragments of letters, a method which were to look as if the events had really happened. Throughout the centuries, a lot of famous books were written in this style, amongst them satirical, philosophical as well as gothic novels. According to Henry Ludlam (Stoker's biographer), Dracula is the last of the gothic novels, as the traditional gothic imagery lost its luminosity when a more direct and precise language entered its realm.

Stoker's book starts with Jonathan Harker's Journal in which he tells about the reason for his travel to Transylvania, already invoking an enthralling atmosphere: "I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting." And interesting it became indeed. In the course of the following pages it becomes more and more obvious that something terrifying lies ahead for Jonathan. When he rests at a local hotel, the first signs of the future horrors become visible: "When I asked him [his landlord] if he knew Count Dracula, and could tell me anything of his castle, both he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing at all, simply refused to speak further."

When leaving the landlord's home, Harker's coach was surrounded by a crowd of people, who started to talk about him and his journey. They gazed pityingly at Harker, so that he looked up the words they murmured:"[...] amongst them were 'Ordog' - Satan, 'pokol' - hell, 'stregoica' - witch, 'vrolok' and 'vlkoslak' - both of which mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either were-wolf or vampire." This is the first time the word 'vampire' is actually mentioned in this novel. The words connected with it - 'Satan' or 'hell' - all have a negative connotation, and the reader therefore associates the word 'vampire' with something bad or evil right from the beginning of the book. Stoker intends to make it undeniably clear that this creature is not human at all, that it is something terrifyingly inhuman.

Although Harker does not know it yet, the first encounter with 'that creature' is made when Count Dracula picks him up at the agreed meeting place (Jonathan thinks the coachman is just a servant of Dracula; but it is in fact the Count himself). In spite of being one hour early, Dracula's calèche races right up to Harker's carriage and Jonathan just hears a whisper from his fellow travelers indicating the reason for the Count's expeditious arrival: "Denn die Todten reiten schnell." Again we have a connection to the unreal, mystique. Vampires are not from this world, at least they are not living beings. During Harker's trip to the Count's castle various strange things happen, creating an even more unreal (or better: not of this world) and intense atmosphere. Compared to all this, the first introduction of the Count himself is rather unspectacular. "[...] A tall old man, clean-shaven save for a long white moustache, [...]" opened the door for Jonathan, but the sentence continues telling us that Dracula was "[...] clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere." Bearing in mind that this color or - as Stoker did put it - the non-existence of color is commonly associated with darkness and evil things in general, the true character of the vampire is revealed. The ambiguous portrayal of the Count (on the one hand he is a normal old man, on the other hand he is dressed all in black) seems a bit strange after all the things that had happened so far. But it shows only the vampire's ability to deceive others by changing its form. In the course of the novel, Dracula transforms into the shape of a wolf, a bat or simply into fog. Nowadays most people do immediately associate the vampire with the image of the bat, a connection that was established by Stoker's novel.

The outward appearance of the Count is examined more closely when Jonathan sees him in the light of the fireplace. This description will prove to be a prototype for hundreds of novels and films to come: "[He had] peculiarly sharp white teeth; [...] [and] the general effect was one of extraordinary pallor." Furthermore, Dracula's image doesn't show in a mirror, he isn't able to touch crucifixes, despises garlic and has an insatiable hunger for blood.

But despite all the power Dracula has, there are certain rules he has to obey. Taken as an example, he can only enter new territory when invited and he has to sleep in the earth of his homeland. These strict regulations make it easy - or at least possible - for his pursuers to find and finally destroy him.

8) Early vampire movies

From the beginning of the 20th century onwards, vampires started to enter the newly invented cinemas. In the course of the years to come, the vampire myth provided more material for horror films than any other specific genre and it can be said that "Wohl kaum eine andere übernatürliche und religiöse Konzeption entspricht mehr der zweiten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts als der Vampir. [...] Gespenster, Werwölfe, Poltergeister und sonstige überwirkliche Erscheinungen sind auf der Leinwand häufig unbefriedigend und zuweilen lächerlich. Der Vampir lebt jedoch geradezu von dem Stoff, aus dem sich Wunschdenken und Träume, die Urbestandteile des Filmerlebnisses, zusammensetzen."

But not only our dreams and wishes are applied to the vampires, but also (and foremost) our fears. Vampires are in a position to bring the mysterious, threatening and disastrous into our intimate world. They love to appear in cosy yet eerie places that clarify their hermaphrodite nature and that let them be human (light) as well as immortal (dark).

The overall apparition of the vampire with its long black cape and stand-up collar was first dreamed up by Hamilton Deane who adapted Stoker's novel for the stage. This attire allowed the actor to turn his back to the audience, hiding not only body but head, before slipping through a trapdoor in the stage floor. This created the illusion of the vampire's physical disappearance, with only the empty cape falling to the ground. This garment remained the most popular one for vampires until this day and it was used in most vampire movies.

The first full-length vampire movie was Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's silent film Nosferatu - Eine Symphonie des Grauens, dating back to 1921. Due to legal problems, the storyline (which was supposed to follow Stoker's Dracula) had to be changed, resulting in a main figure being named Graf Orlok instead of Dracula and the principal part of the story taking place in Germany instead of England. Nevertheless the film was an immediate success and it stands out as one of the great classics of German expressionistic cinema, still worth a look according to Anne Rice: "Absolutely the most terrifying vampire I've glimpsed on the screen."

Since Nosferatu a lot of vampire movies have been unearthed. Worth mentioning are Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) introducing Bela Lugosi as the Count. It was Browning's gentleman-vampire which imprinted itself on the audience's mind, not the strange lord of the castle Murnau created. The success of Browning's movie made the Hungarian Lugosi the most well-known vampire actor to date, and he is said to have played Count Dracula and other vampires about 550 times.

After World War II, Christopher Lee, the second great vampire actor (and the one starring in the most Dracula movies), started his career in Terence Fisher's Horror of Dracula (1958). His acting was similar to Lugosi's and although Lee portrayed "the Count as a more horrific version of Lugosi's suave gentleman", the image of the tall and thin, cruel and sensual vampire with the beaky nose, pointed ears and the sharp white teeth was further solidified.

Due to the immense number of vampire movies released since the beginning of the century, "Dracula is best-known to the public as a quintessential Hollywood icon, and only secondarily as the fictional creation of Bram Stoker [...]". The copies have - in the meantime - outdated the original.

A perfect example of this original/copy-relationship is Dracula's relation to the light of the day. Stoker's Dracula is able to walk in sunlight, although his powers diminish with the arrival of the day. But in my survey only one person realized it (although all had either seen the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula or read Stoker's novel). All the others only remembered the image constantly reproduced in the media: vampires die when exposed to sunlight, an idea that began with Nosferatu being destroyed by the sun at the end of Murnau's movie of the same name.

Something equally astounding happened to the country Stoker's novel partly plays in. Almost all vampire films describe Transylvania (meaning: land beyond the woods/forest/mountains), a province of Hungary for almost a thousand years and today a part of modern Romania, as the native country of vampires. One of the peculiarities of vampire fiction is that it has managed to turn this real place into a fantasy. When someone speaks of Transylvania today it is almost impossible not to think of vampires, "[...]the very word invokes an image of something unbelievable, something which inhabits an imaginary space rather than a real one." Interestingly, Bram Stoker's Dracula wasn't known in the country it played in for almost a hundred years. It was published in Romania for the first time in 1991 (the same with vampire movies), and it is only from that year onwards that the Count has been used to attract tourists to Transylvania.

V. Vampires in the New World

With the first pilgrims coming to the New World, the legends and tales of their native countries entered the American realm as well. Here, "wo sich rituelle Vampirtötungen bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts nachweisen lassen," vampires were able to survive better than anywhere else. "Der Vampir der >Alten Welt<, die Kreatur aus Blut und Schmutz und Verwesung, ist literarisch kaum verwandlungsfähig." And therefore it had to move on. Nowadays not only Hollywood directors or American authors pay tribute to the creature of the night, but the vampire itself seems to have left the Old World in large numbers to occupy this new hunting ground.

1) Connection to New Orleans

The city that is rumored to inhabit the most bloodsuckers is New Orleans. It was founded in 1699 with a cross staked on a bend along the Mississippi river, although the official settlement was accomplished by a Canadian-born Frenchman in 1718. The cultural history and population of this city is unique among American cities.

The French government had considerable difficulties in persuading people to come to this virtually uninhabitable swamp in Louisiana which offered "flooding, mosquito swarms, hurricanes, venemous reptiles, and tropical fevers in abundance." Therefore the first residents of the city were misfits from French prisons, along with whores and the so-called 'casket girls' - women the Ursuline nuns brought over, who carried their belongings in caskets. Legend has it that within these caskets vampires came over from France. Those caskets "were "just a way for the vampires themselves to hitch a ride to the New World. Those were caskets for bodies, not caskets for the belongings of these girls, so they could stow away and then hide themselves into the ship." So the vampires were amongst the first to enter this newly erected city.

Then came aristocrats, merchants and farmers, followed by Acadians from New Scotia, who became the people later known as Cajuns, and who are still famous for their Cajun dishes. In 1762, King Louis XIV gave the city to Spain, and the Spanish-French descendants became known as Creoles. After being handed back to France in 1800, the city finally came under American rule in 1803. Americans settled in the Garden district, and Irish and German immigrants began to pour in, along with people from the Carribbean, some of whom were slaves and some of whom were free people of color.

For much of its history, New Orleans had a reputation as a city of open vice. It was easy to access gambling, brothels, and lots of saloons. Despite the strong presence of the Catholic Church, crime was rampant. The citizens were, paradoxically, fun-loving yet repentant, imparting an atmosphere of ambiguity and contradiction. They favored stability and tradition as well as change, loved both religion and corruption, and honored their dead in high style.

The deference to the dead is obvious all over the city. Unlike everywhere else in the United States, the dead are buried above ground. The reason for this is that New Orleans itself is situated below sea level. "One problem that they had was with the cemeteries and you can imagine: you put a body into the ground; you're basically also gonna put it into water [...] and then you get caskets floating around [...], so they were forced to build these cemeteries above ground." Those unusual graveyards have often been called "cities of the dead", for they resemble actual cities. Vampires, who are often claimed to be already dead, are naturally attracted by places in which the dead are honored so fairly. Therefore, they choose New Orleans as their favorite dwelling place.

And this still hasn't changed. "New Orleans, the vampire and voodoo Mecca of America, [...] [is still] a city with more hauntings and more murders than any other [in the United States]." Comparing the city's crime rate to other American metropolitan areas, one can say that, "Sometimes it's number one, but it's always at the top." This and the fact that the city "[...] prides itself on its remembrance of the dead" makes it the perfect place to be for a creature of the night. And this it is indeed, as Louis, one of Rice's vampires remarks: "This was New Orleans, a magical and magnificent place to live. In which a vampire, richly dressed and gracefully walking through the pools of light of one gas lamp after another might attract no more notice in the evening than hundreds of other exotic creatures [...]". In one of the later volumes of The Vampire Chronicles the vampire Lestat notes that as well: "How different were the citizens of New Orleans from all the rest of the American world." The mixture of the different cultures, races as well as styles seems to have turned the city into a world of its own, excluding the rest of America from participation. As the survey as well as the interview showed, New Orleans has become - due to writers of vampire literature as Anne Rice or Poppy Z. Brite of course - almost inseparably connected to the image of the vampire nowadays. As much as 75% of the persons asked think the association of vampires to New Orleans is one of the four predominant ones.

2) Anne Rice - the creator of Interview with the Vampire

Howard Allen O'Brien, who later uses the pseudonyms A. N. Roquelaure and Anne Rampling to publish her books, was born on October 4th 1941 in New Orleans. In 1947 she changed her name from Howard Allen to Anne. At age 16, her family moved to Richardson, Texas. In 1961 she married the poet and painter Stan Rice and together they moved to San Francisco, where their first child, Michele was born. At age 6 Michele died of leukemia, an incident which caused Anne to write her first novel Interview with the Vampire (first published in 1976) to come to terms with her child's death. Michele was even integrated in the novel in the form of the 6-year-old vampire Claudia.

During the following years, Rice wrote other novels under different pen names, some erotic, some historic in character, but it was only in 1985 that she took up the vampire topic once more, creating The Vampire Lestat. Three years later, the Rices moved to New Orleans and from then onwards she wrote five more books about vampires. Up to the present, her productivity hasn't come to an end, and in New Orleans people are busy making money out of her fame, organizing tours or selling memorabilia.

3) Vampire portrayal in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire

Anne Rice began her popular series, The Vampire Chronicles, out of a desire to know what it was like to be a vampire. In an interview she stated her motives: "When vampires search for their past trying to figure out who they are, where they come from, if they have a purpose, that's me asking the same questions about human beings." Her curiosity led her to approach the vampiric subject matter from a completely different point of view. Almost all of her predecessors in popular fiction represented vampires as evil creatures that should be destroyed. As exceptions to this pattern one should mention the vampires in Alexej Tolstoi's or Charles Nodier's stories, in which the vampire is "un homme de bien".

In Interview with the Vampire, however, an entirely different bloodsucker can be found in Louis de Pointe du Lac (the vampire protagonist), a humanized vampire who resists his dark nature. Therefore, vampires have a multifaceted appeal: they are seductive, sensual, hypnotic, and immortal - the epitome of what many humans would like to be. Unfortunately, vampires have to drink blood in order to survive and thus, they exhibit a dark, dangerous side as well and their allure, coupled with their destructive potential, makes for a complex psychology. Louis feels guilty, he offers compassion, he wants love, and he fears isolation. "He was an intricate blend of good and evil, body and spirit." The second protagonist of the novel, Lestat de Lioncourt plays the part of the diabolical free-thinker in contrast to Louis, who is the good and virtuous vampire. But the vampire itself is neither holy nor demonic. The killing of humans, which turned Dracula into a complete monster, is - for Rice's creatures of the night - only a way to sustain their existence.

And there's another tradition Rice's novel broke. Her book starts with the words: "'I see...' said the vampire thoughtfully [...]". For the first time in the history of vampire novels, we have an author who narrates her stories "in the first person from the vampire's point of view". So the very beginning of the book already shows that Rice didn't plan to write just another vampire novel, but that she intended to change the whole genre. As her biographer put it: "Vampire fiction has never been the same since."

As the title of the book already suggests, a vampire (Louis) is being interviewed by a mortal reporter (Daniel). "This narrative strategy emphasis disclosure (through confession or revelation) and publicity [...]". The reader hears the vampire speaking first-hand, experiencing 'the real story' about vampires. Moreover, the interviewer is the perfect listener; he gets involved with Louis' story to such an extent that, at the end, he wants to become a vampire. Interestingly, in the first German translation, the book was called Schule der Vampire, a rather odd paraphrase of the original title. But perhaps the German translator wanted to emphasize the detailed description of the life of a vampire that is offered in the book. The reader 'learns' how a vampire lives and feels.

Although Rice works with supernatural imagery, she weaves them into actual settings and includes historical facts and literature that make the vampires seem more real.

4) Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula

Francis Ford Coppola released his film entitled Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992. Although his movie kept close to Stoker's original novel, the film would have been better named Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. Coppola changes the whole story by providing a different background. His film starts with the historic Vlad Tepes, who breaks with God after Princess Elisabeth (Vlad's wife, who committed suicide due to a false report of Vlad's death) is denied a Christian burial. Vlad turns into Dracula and Mina (Harker's fiancée) is interpreted as a reincarnation of Vlad's dead wife. That gives the whole story a new twist, turning it into "a 'New Age' love story". The posters for the movie already hinted in that direction, showing not terror and fear but a loving couple (Vlad and Elisabeth or Dracula and Mina respectively) with the words 'Love never dies' above them. This complete change of the story from a gothic tale to a romantic love story can be ascribed to the different way the public sees vampires nowadays and it has definitely been influenced by the romantic elements in Interview with the Vampire.

5) Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire

An even better example of the new role vampires play today is the 1994 Interview with the Vampire by director Neil Jordan. Although some of the scenes differ from the book, the film mostly follows the original. The vampires in the movie are elegant, charming and enchanting. Nobody dares to touch them. As Ulrich Krüger remarked: "Die Vampirjäger hatten gegen den erotischen Charme der nächtlichen Blutsauger schon immer einen schweren Stand und traten häufig als Spielverderber weiblicher Phantasien auf. In diesem [...][Film] wäre es geradezu hoffnungslos gewesen."

After the movie had been released in the United States, it immediately entered the top five of the movies which earned the most money in the shortest amount of time. The real sensation with this placement is that among those five top movies, Interview with the Vampire is the only one rated R. Obviously, the vampire thematic is again able to draw a mass audience. And not only that, to be more precise it even influences or inspires people: "Following the release of the film Interview with the Vampire starring Tom Cruise, it was estimated that some 700 Americans were claiming to be vampires. There are apparently thirty-six registered human blood drinkers in Los Angeles alone."

VI. The image of the vampire today compared to the ancient one

The first description of the vampire in Interview with the Vampire is - in its overall impression - similar to the one that can be found in Dracula. But, compared to the gothic style used in Dracula, the later book is written in an overwhelmingly romantic tone: "The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was seemingly inanimate as a statue, except for two brilliant green eyes that looked down at the boy intently like flames in a skull." Rice's imagery is much more vivid than Stoker's and although the outward appearance of the vampire is one of exquisite paleness in both cases, the reader gets the impression of looking at a beautiful though morbid statue in Rice's work whereas Stoker leaves no doubt that Dracula is a monster.

The difference between the two vampires becomes more evident when their feelings are described. In Stoker's novel only very few passages deal with this topic. And even if they do, they are mainly vampiric feelings. When the sound of wolves howling outside the castle can be heard, the Count's eyes gleamed and he remarked to Jonathan: "Listen to them - the children of the night. What music they make! ". This doesn't make the Count more likeable for the general readership. And even more human feelings like his admission: "Yes, I too can love [...]" don't turn him into a nice character, for his dark side is too predominant. Nevertheless he has a certain seductive power and Harker's fiancée Mina as well as Mina's friend Lucy Westenra all fall under his spell during the novel.

Rice, on the other hand wanted to "[...] look at the vampire as a tragic figure, a human who had made the mistake of choosing such an existence to his deep regret." Therefore her hero Louis has become the most human of all the immortals, the least godlike. Half a page is used to describe his feelings of the last sunrise he saw the night before he became a vampire and he still despises death: "Lestat was laughing, telling me callously that I would feel so different once I was a vampire that I would laugh, too. He was wrong about that. I never laughed at death, no matter how often and regularly I am the cause of it." Although Louis has to kill humans in order to survive, he feels pity for them. When he is told that he has to sleep in a coffin the first day of his vampire life, he is completely repelled by that idea. "The coffin struck such a chord of terror in me I think it absorbed all the capacity for terror I had left."

Some of the attributes or habits of Rice's vampires are similar to Stoker's, others have undergone slight modifications. The paleness of the skin or the sharp teeth are the same in both novels. But whereas Dracula had to sleep in the earth of his homeland, Rice's vampires are able to sleep anywhere. They just need a dark room or something similar (i.e. they can sleep in the earth) so that the sunlight doesn't come through. In Interview with the Vampire, a coffin is needed, but the later books of The Vampire Chronicles explain that vampires can sleep in any place where they are not hit by the sun. Rice admits that she hadn't clearly developed her vampire's motivations for resorting to coffins when she wrote her first book. The use of coffins can be ascribed to the romantic nature of Rice's books and in a sense, the use of them is also metaphorical. Vampires sleep in coffins because they're dead. "Lestat [...] simply preferred the romance of rising from the grave and continued to use a coffin [...]". My survey, however, produced a vast majority claiming that both Dracula (100%) and Rice's vampires (95%) have to sleep in coffins. This can doubtlessly be taken back to all the vampire movies depicting Dracula or others opening their coffins at sunset.

One of the most common misunderstandings of Stoker's novel is that Dracula isn't able to stand sunlight. In the survey, 95% of the people asked said that the Count will crumble to dust at the mere sight of the sun. This, in fact, isn't true, as only "His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day." But the Count himself is able to walk in sunlight and he even does so from time to time, just like the vampires in traditional folklore. The result of my survey was probably heavily influenced by vampire movies where sunlight destroys the vampires completely, for "[...]seit Vampire auf Film gebannt werden, ist das Tageslicht für sie absolut verhängnisvoll. [...] Und in der symbolischen Bedeutung der Vampirwaffen steht natürlich die finstere Nacht für das Böse und der helle Tag für das Gute."

The ability to take different forms that Dracula had, is not given to Rice's vampires. Dracula was presented as the embodiment of supernatural Evil, and he therefore had supernatural powers. Being - for Stoker and his readers - the impersonation of the Anti-Christ, Dracula could only be halted by Christian symbols and therefore a cross was sufficient to keep him away, for Evil cannot exist in the presence of God. This metaphysical level doesn't exist in The Vampire Chronicles. Here the protagonists are able to touch crosses or enter churches, but they have lost their mutability, the essence of all magic. They have become more human, having good as well as bad characteristics. But despite their loss of these powers, they are still more powerful than human beings, which leads them to describe themselves as both angels and gods.

Breaking with a lot of traditional beliefs on vampires, Louis explains that he can't be destroyed by a stake through the heart. The more powerful of them even have the talent to fly across continents (as long as they stay in the dark half), an ability that even Dracula did not possess. The only way to kill them is to expose their bodies to sunlight. But even that doesn't work on the older and more powerful vampires. To them, sunlight just causes a darkening of their skin. As a result there are a few almost indestructible immortals; their only real enemy being time itself. Louis soon begins to view immortality as an endless series of lonely nights, a trap that seems immutable. When Louis meets Armand (the oldest vampire to appear in Interview with the Vampire; he was made in the fifteenth century) he discovers that "The world would be choked with vampires if they survived it [the course of time]." Armand explains that most vampires fail to possess the stamina necessary for appreciating their immortality and living through the centuries because they are limited by their human psychological baggage. Many of them have minds too inflexible to endure the constant changes that inevitably sweep one century into another and therefore they deliberately end their lives.

In contrast to Dracula, who is a solitary figure only rarely coming into contact with his own kind, the Ricean vampires often cohabit with one another in familial relationships. But even together most of them aren't strong enough to survive. Their rather unusual lifestyle makes them "[...] the prototypical outsiders, pried loose from their natural human habitat, shunned by human society, alienated from God, and contaminated by the blood of their victims." They seek protection and companionship with their own kind, just as ethnic groups, alcoholics or other possible social outcasts. Louis even travels to Europe to find more of his own species. But when he finally meets some of them in Transylvania he is repelled by their appearance, for they are only mindless corpses. In Paris, on the other hand, the vampires have formed a conformist club, which didn't fulfil Louis' needs and desires either. They even killed Claudia, his child-lover. In the end Louis is on his own again, just like Dracula. For Dracula it is sufficient to have servants like Renfield who accept him as their "[...] Master [...]". Louis, on the contrary, needs others similar to him, who he can talk to. He doesn't want to be alone, for he has more human needs and desires than Dracula has. The whole plot of Interview with the Vampire is based on that idea. Louis needs somebody to talk to, to recount the story of his life and hence he finds a reporter whom he can tell his story to.

The fact that in Interview with the Vampire mainly male vampires interact and that Louis and Lestat establish a kind of family of their own together with their child Claudia, lead many to believe that they are homosexual. Rice actually "flaunts the gayness of her male vampires; they cohabit together as 'queer' parents, with vampire children [...]" Even Dracula was - by some critics - accused of homosexuality, and Mina and Lucy were said to have male characteristics. The best explanation for this is probably given by Anne Rice herself: "Vampires transcend gender", they are neither male nor female, "[...] they are definitely androgynous." This element of androgyny was borrowed by Rice "[...] from 1970s discourses of gender mutability and bodily transformation". As there are only very few vampires living on earth, they can't afford the luxury of being selective when it comes to gender issues, they should have a certain "[...] sexual convertibility."

The way a vampire reproduces is different as well. Dracula just has to bite someone to turn him into one of the undead, while in Rice's book only those who drink the blood of other creatures of the night are turned into vampires. In later volumes of The Vampire Chronicles even the origin of the first vampire is discussed, a problem never addressed in Dracula.

This leads us to the most popular misconception of Stoker's novel. All of the people asked in the survey said that Dracula needs to drink blood in order to survive. Dracula, however, only drinks blood to increase his power and improve his looks. By drinking blood, he transforms from an old man into a dark-haired, attractive, young man. He doesn't need to drink regularly, his blood-sucking habits are rather comparable to that of an alcoholic or drug addict, and he wouldn't die without them, but he feels better with them. Interestingly, 20% of the surveyed people said that Ricean vampires don't need to drink blood to survive. They might either have read more books of The Vampire Chronicles, where indeed some vampires appear who don't need to drink blood (i.e. Akasha and Enkil, the ancestors of all vampires in Queen of the Damned) or they thought Rice's vampires too beautiful to be connected with such an unsanitary act as drinking blood. Once more, the idea of drinking blood in order to continue living has been so closely connected to vampires by books and especially movies that almost no one would think otherwise.

VII. The contemporary vampire

As we have seen, the image of the vampire has undergone considerable change during the centuries, the most radical ones just recently. In the last two decades, vampires have appeared in countless books, comic strips (i.e. Vampirella), television serials (i.e. Dark Shadows), films, rock songs (i.e. Bloodletting - the Vampire song by Concrete Blonde), ballets (i.e. Dracula by George Feeney) or operas, they even starred in children's programs like Count Duckula or Sesame Street, they were used for advertising (i.e. for Kellog's cereals) and served as a model for Halloween costumes. This demystification of the once famed and feared vampire clearly reflects the blurring of boundaries between good and evil in our increasingly secularized world. The vampire has "been demythologized and it's just not dangerous anymore. It's not dark." Vampires have now attracted a whole new audience, varying in their levels of literacy and education as well as in their age.

The modern vampire is no longer the silent and mysterious bloodsucker of the night, it has become an everyday entertainment figure. Nevertheless, its allure may still be ascribed to its more evil side as well. The vampire is the epitome of the dark desires in us all. At least we are living in a time where ruthlessness, energy and might are adored. So the vampire figure is "appealing because it is horrifying. [...] [It] is a focus of fascination for forbidden, proscribed feelings [...], a focus for venting one's secret desires to surfeit."

Most of the time, however, vampires are appealing because of their "[...]eroticism, immortality, power, victimization, beauty, elegance, romanticism, the supernatural, mystery and the unknown." Vampires today are described just like glamorous Hollywood actors or pop stars: "[...]Vampire sind nicht entsetzenerregend oder monströs, sondern schick, glamourhaft und verführerisch schön. Da sie nicht altern, sondern für immer so bleiben, wie sie im Augenblick ihrer Verwandlung waren, schwebt um sie - bei aller naturgegebenen Blässe - eine Aura ewiger Jugend." Isn't that what most humans wish for? At least 55% of the surveyed people think so. They would like to become vampires if they were given the chance. As we can see, the modern vampire seems to represent mankind's utmost dreams and wishes.

Portrayed in such a way, the vampire has lost most of its original repellent allure, leaving it demythologized. The new vampire possesses very little of that metaphysical, anti-Christian dimension. Its evil acts no longer represent a cosmic conflict between the forces of Good and Evil, they are merely expressions of individual personality and condition, which deprives the vampire of its evil nature, making it a damned soul.

In addition, Rice's creatures don't come from a land far away, but they are our (at least for the American population) next door neighbors. Dracula, due to his origin, aristocratic descent, speech and overall appearance could never have pretended to be one of them. "Vampire, bei Anne Rice wird es endlich klar, sind Leute wie du und ich, keine fremden Fabelwesen, sondern als moderne, konfliktbeladene Außenseiter reif für die Couch, die Dr. Freud der schreibenden Kollegin aus New Orleans vermacht hat."

Taking up the question raised at the beginning once more, whether the word 'vampire' nowadays serves more as a metaphor or a metonymy, we can now realize that the vampire's image has shifted considerably from supernatural monster to next door outsider. Seen almost as another human being (also one with special abilities and qualities), the vampire has entered the realm of us humans, blurring the border between the semantic fields of the natural and supernatural. As table 2 (next page) shows, the word 'vampire' no longer contains the element of fear, but it is more likely associated with qualities of entertainment.

Time / Place	Description of image event	Method of transmission	Motivation of transmission	Elements transmitted	Social role
Slavic Society	Unexplained calamity (deaths) are linked to presence of vampires	oral transmission	fear / anxiety	fear, anxiety, with image	scapegoat / anxiety reliever
US Today	The image of the vampire is seen on television and other media	media, especially television	entertainment / appeal	image alone	fulfillment of individual desires / needs

Table 2: The vampire image in the course of time

The vampire has become an everyday part of our lives, we are used to its presence. Rice's vampires are so close to us humans that 45% of those surveyed believe in their presence, while only 25% think Stoker's creature(s) may exist. But this new proximity bears dangers as well. Our attention is misdirected from the vampire's most salient characteristic as a murderer, making the once dominating connection between vampire and death almost insignificant.

In a way, the modern vampire can be compared to the old one like monotheism to pantheism. Dracula was like a single god, ruling over his kingdom, being feared by his subjects, but nevertheless relating to them. The new vampires, however, are similar to the old Greek or Roman pantheistic religions, where the gods relate to each other in rivalries, marriages, or else. Human beings play relatively minor roles in their god's lives. As a result, their roles as victims become increasingly trivialized and marginal. To recognize this, one must only compare the relative space used in Dracula to describe the Count and the other main characters like Van Helsing, Mina and Jonathan Harker, etc. to the space used for mortals in Rice's work. Here, almost all essential relationships are between vampire and vampire; humans only serve as victims.

But there's hope for the world's mortal population. In recent movies the vampire hunters are gathering again. Quentin Tarantino's From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) as well as John Carpenter's Vampires (1999) focus more on humans than on vampires. The latter are once more portrayed as evil and dangerous, leaving the heroic roles to humans again.

Bibliography:

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Interview:

Chaz, Vampire Tour Guide in New Orleans

Appendix A: survey

Bram Stoker's and Anne Rice's Creatures - A Vampire Survey

1. Do you believe in supernatural beings (including God)?

a Yes

a No

2. Which of the following movies have you attended?

a Nosferatu

a Horror of Dracula

a Bram Stoker's Dracula

a Interview with the Vampire

a other vampire movies

3. Which of the following books have you read?

a William Polidori - The Vampyre

a Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Carmilla

a Bram Stoker - Dracula

a Anne Rice - Interview with the Vampire

a other vampire literature

4. Some vampires are able to change their appearance. Which vampire is able to transform into what?

	bat	donkey	cat	fog	frog	snake	wolf		none
vampires of folklore	a	a	a	a	a	a	a		a
Count Dracula	a	a	a	a	a	a	a		a
Anne Rice's vampires	a	a	a	a	a	a	a		a

5. How can you kill a vampire?

behead it a

cremate it a

shoot it with a silver bullet a

put a stake through its heart a

6. Which of the following points do you associate most with vampires? Please mark seven of them.

a aristocratic	a death
a beautiful	a immortal
a coffin	a long black coat
a creature of the night	a New Orleans
a eroticism	a sharp canine teeth
a evil	a sucks blood
a damned soul	a Transylvania

7. The powers ascribed to vampires have changed. Which vampire is able to do what?

		Count Dracula			Anne Rice's vampires
	Yes		No	Yes		No
can eat garlic	a		a	a		a
can touch crosses	a		a	a		a
can walk in sunlight	a		a	a		a
needs to drink blood for survival	a		a	a		a
needs to sleep in a coffin	a		a	a		a
sees its reflection in the mirror	a		a	a		a

8. Would you yourself like to be a vampire?

a Yes

a No

9. Do you think the Dracula type vampire exists?

a Yes

a No

10. Do you think the Interview with the Vampire type vampire exists?

a Yes

a No

Thank you for answering!

Appendix B: Survey results

1. Do you believe in supernatural beings (including God)?

Yes 80% (16)^â

No 20% (4)

2. Which of the following movies have you attended?

Nosferatu 40% (8)

Horror of Dracula 20% (4)

Bram Stoker's Dracula 85% (17)

Interview with the Vampire 90% (18)

other vampire movies 100% (20)

3. Which of the following books have you read?

William Polidori - The Vampyre 5% (1)

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Carmilla 15% (3)

Bram Stoker - Dracula 45% (9)

Anne Rice - Interview with the Vampire 65% (13)

other vampire literature 80% (16)

4. Some vampires are able to change their appearance. Which vampire is able to transform into what?

	bat	donkey	cat	fog	frog	snake	wolf		none
vampires of folklore	90% (18)	-	-	50% (10)	-	-	55% (11)		10% (2)
Count Dracula	100% (20)	-	-	60% (12)	-	-	65% (13)		-
Anne Rice's vampires	70% (14)	-	-	15% (3)	-	-	25% (5)		30% (6)

5. How can you kill a vampire?

behead it 85% (17)

cremate it 65% (13)

shoot it with a silver bullet 25% (5)^ââ

put a stake through its heart 100% (20)

6. Which of the following points do you associate most with vampires? Please mark seven of them.

aristocratic 5% (1)	death 30% (6)
beautiful 60% (12)	immortal 30% (6)
coffin 60% (12)	long black coat 15% (3)
creature of the night 85% (17)	New Orleans 75% (15)
eroticism 55% (11)	sharp canine teeth 40% (8)
evil 10% (2)	sucks blood 100% (20)
damned soul 35% (7)	Transylvania 100% (20)

7. The powers ascribed to vampires have changed. Which vampire is able to do what?

		Count Dracula			Anne Rice's vampires
	Yes		No	Yes		No
can eat garlic	-		100% (20)	35% (7)		65% (13)
can touch crosses	-		100% (20)	80% (16)		20% (4)
can walk in sunlight	5% (1)		95% (19)	20% (4)		80% (16)
needs to drink blood for survival	100% (20)		-	80% (16)		20% (4)
needs to sleep in a coffin	100% (20)		-	95% (19)		5% (1)
sees its reflection in the mirror	-		100% (20)	30% (6)		70% (14)

8. Would you yourself like to be a vampire?

Yes 55% (11)

No 45% (9)

9. Do you think the Dracula type vampire exists?

Yes 25% (5)

No 75% (15)

10. Do you think the Interview with the Vampire type vampire exists?

Yes 45% (9)

No 55% (11)

Note: People were only taken for this survey under the condition that they had either read or watched both Dracula and Interview with the Vampire (see questions 2 and 3). The survey itself was carried out in New Orleans.

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