The Vampire : An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh Companions to the Gothic)

The Vampire: An Edinburgh Companion examines the recurrent figure of the vampire from its folkloric origins, through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic literature, to those twentieth- and twenty-first century innovations that have disseminated the un-dead across global popular culture. Through a systematically commissioned range of original essays, this volume offers an unequalled overview of both the textual and critical fields, advancing a challenging reassessment of the canonical and uncanonical un-dead in fiction, poetry, reportage, cinema and comic art. Interdisciplinary and international in conception, it interrogates not merely the enduring literary presence of the vampire but also the physical and spiritual implications of vampirism, tracing its conventions beyond Europe and the United States into Asia. This volume is an essential summary of representations of the vampire and how they help us contemplate victimhood, morality, mortality and human identity.