Vampire: a foul, stinking, undead creature from the grave or a suave victim in need of nurturing?
The first of what may be many post concerning the creatures of the night!
Over the last one hundred years, the image of the vampire has shifted from a nosferatu, "a plague carrier," to the doomed aristocrat, the goth rocker, the deadly and beautiful temptress, or a "perpetually troubled teen." Of course, earlier censorship restrictions and the demure tone of traveling companies soften the image of the vampire on stage.
I must admit that I am in the generation that was too young to remember the original Dark Shadows, just old enough to see Love at First Bite and greatly appreciated Bram Stoker's Dracula.
The vampire in some traditions is a noted shape shifter, and not just in an animal form. It is not too far a stretch to think that if a vampire can turn into a mist, a dreaded walking cadaver can appear to be or be perceived as beautiful being. Something, if not to be loved, to be desired.
Have you read Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla? 1872--well before Dracula and VERY interesting gender/sexuality-wise.
ReplyDeleteAh, good Doctor, thanks for commenting. I have read Carmilla, and you are correct. It is not the "heterosexual" pairing of Dracula and Lucy, Dracula and Minna, or Jonathan and the Vampire Brides.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note--isn't it interesting that Maturin, LeFanu , Stoker and Wilde were all Anglo-Irish Dubliners?