Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms

Essays on Gender, Race and Culture

Edited by John Edgar Browning, Caroline Joan "Kay" S. Picart

Not available to order

Publication date:

08 April 2009

Length of book:

338 pages

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

ISBN-13: 9780810869233

Since the publication of Dracula in 1897, Bram Stoker's original creation has been a source of inspiration for artists, writers, and filmmakers. From Universal's early black-and-white films and Hammer's Technicolor representations that followed, iterations of Dracula have been cemented in mainstream cinema. This anthology investigates and explores the far larger body of work coming from sources beyond mainstream cinema reinventing Dracula. Draculas, Vampires and Other Undead Forms assembles provocative essays that examine Dracula films and their movement across borders of nationality, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, and genre since the 1920s. The essays analyze the complexity Dracula embodies outside the conventional landscape of films with which the vampire is typically associated. Focusing on Dracula and Dracula-type characters in film, anime, and literature from predominantly non-Anglo markets, this anthology offers unique perspectives that seek to ground depictions and experiences of Dracula within a larger political, historical, and cultural framework.
The variety and richness of the essays collected here certainly offer many intriguing pages for both fans and scholars of the undead creatures. With such a large scope, minute research, fresh perspectives and well-argued writing, Draculas, Vampires,and Other Undead Forms guarantees more than 300 pages of an interesting and inspiring read which finds a perfect balance between the academic and popular writing. It is accessible, but not light; interesting, but not shallow; clever, but not self-indulgent; serious, but never boring. And most importantly, it may make you think differently about the various vampire texts that you thought you knew well, and will certainly reveal many new ones...