Nosferatu

Nosferatu comes from the Greek word nosophoros (which means “plague-carrier”) that evolved into the Old Slavonic word nosufur-atu. The name used to qualify a Romanian undead vampire  became popular in fictional literature due to an article written by Emily Gerard titled Transylvanian Superstitions which was published in the the July, 1885 issue of the magazine … Read more

Strigoi

Strigoi is based on the ancient Greek term strix for screech owl, which also came to mean demon or witch. Before the popularization of vampire, it was the name most frequently used for the kind of undead vampire that periodically returns to its grave. Another use of the term is a living person with certain … Read more

Vampire Regents

With centuries of experience behind them, they are the most cunning, intelligent, and elusive of all adversaries – testing the most skillful and practiced of monster and vampire hunters alike. These creatures are known to establish intricate and widespread networks comprised of numerous vampire minions and human thralls alike; making them nearly impossible to track … Read more

Vampirism and posthumanism in Octavia Butler’s “Fledgling”.

Pramod K. Nayar, University of Hyderabad, India Octavia Butler’s Fledgling (NY: Grand Central, 2005), according to one critic, shows how vampiric and human agency can induce change (Ali Brox, “‘Every Age has the Vampire it Needs‘: Octavia Butler’s Vampiric Vision in Fledgling“, Utopian Studies 19.3 [2008]: 391-409). This vision of change, the present essay argues, … Read more

The Animistic Vampire in New England

From The American Anthropologist,  Vol. IX, No. 1, January, 1896 The belief in the vampire and the whole family of demons has its origin in the animism, spiritism, or personification of the barbarian, who, unable to distinguish the objective from the subjective, ascribes good and evil influences and all natural phenomena to good and evil … Read more