Our Vampires, Ourselves

Download or read book Our Vampires, Ourselves written by Nina Auerbach and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “vigorous, witty look at the undead as cultural icons in 19th- and 20th-century England and America” examines the many meanings of the vampire myth (Kirkus Reviews). From Byron’s Lord Ruthven to Anne Rice’s Lestat to the black bisexual heroine of Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories, vampires have taken many forms, capturing and recapturing our imaginations for centuries. In Our Vampires, Ourselves, Nina Auerbach explores the rich history of this literary and cultural phenomenon to illuminate how every age embraces the vampire it needs—and gets the vampire it deserves. Working with a wide range of texts, as well as movies and television, Auerbach follows the evolution of the vampire from 19th century England to 20th century America. Using the mercurial figure as a lens for viewing the last two hundred years of Anglo-American cultural history, “this seductive work offers profound insights into many of the urgent concerns of our time” (Wendy Doniger, The Nation).