[close] Insatiable bloodlust, dangerous sexualities, the horror of the undead, uncharted Transylvanian wildernesses and a morbid fascination with the "other:" the legend of the vampire continues to haunt the popular imagination.

Reading the Vampire examines the creature in all its various manifestations and cultural meanings. Ken Gelder investigates vampire narratives in literature and in film--from early vampire stories such as Polidori's The Vampire, J. Sheridan Le Fanu's "lesbian vampire" tale Carmilla and Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most famous vampire narrative of all, to contemporary American vampire blockbusters by Stephen King, the vampire chronicles of Anne Rice, "post-Ceausescu" vampire narratives, and films such as F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Reading the Vampire embeds vampires in their cultural contexts, showing how vampire narratives reproduce the anxieties and fascinations of their times--from nineteenth century investmets in travel and tourism, issues of colonialism and national identity and obsessions with sex, to queer identity of the vampire, the association of the vampire with the "global exotic" and current concerns about wayward youth and the family. [close]