 Throughout history the legend of the Vampire has grown and changed, until it has become nearly impossible to meet up with someone who is unaware of what a vampire essentially is. As time has passed, the original folkloric vampires have been re-examined, and these previously evil beings have become the protagonists of their own stories. Practically every tradition has a variation on the vampire, although no two legends are alike. These historic vampires vary from corpses improperly buried to the Filipino vampires who were "women who traveled as birds." When the Victorian time period rolled around, vampires took on another role, and in her text Not Your Mother's Vampire: Vampires in Young Adult Fiction, Deborah Wilson Overstreet indicates that vampires might have been indicative of the aristocracy draining the life out of the lower classes. Also in Victorian times, vampires "became more outwardly human and could usually pass unnoticed in human society. They also became more urbane and were able to attract humans to them." (Overstreet 3) When Anne Rice came onto the scene, the vampire narrative changed drastically. Previously minor characters, vampires began to take center stage in the novels written about them. Unlike in the previous vampire novels (ie. Dracula, the Vampyre), the vampire is the main character, often times the protagonist, and sometimes even the hero. Now, vampires have a strong voice in the novel, which allows them to express their own feelings about their existence, rather than being lumped into the singular category of "monster". Interestingly, as Overstreet points out, vampires are the only mythical beings that are affected by religious objects, but that however, has changed in the Young Adult genre of fiction, and in many of the samples of texts I reference in this site, the main difference between vampires and humans are their need to drink blood. Like Overstreet mentioned, vampires are completely able to fit into human society, and instead of being looked upon as dangerous or frightening, they are now an object of affection or obsession by many people (usually young women/girls). Throughout the texts I discuss, the main vampires are all male, inhumanly good looking, and while not all are good, none are outright evil. The reluctant vampire is introduced in the Twilight series, while in Buffy and Angel we get the repentant vampire, and the vampire who loves being a vampire, but uses his powers more for good than evil because he is in love. All the Young Adult Novels discussed deal with a human female falling in love with a vampire, who although looks to be about the same age, is in fact much much older (hundreds of years older), and several of them express the human's interest in becoming a vampire herself, mostly because she wants to live and love forever. The vampire of this century no longer wears the long black cape or pendant as is pictured in the above illustration, and, just like the historic vampires of folklore and myth, individual vampires vary immensley from text to text. Overstreet states "Vampires were always seductive, smart, powerful, immortal predators. Now they are usually young, beautiful, intellectual, angst-driven beings who have evolved from their folkloric revenant roots to an ultrahuman status." (1) As I will get into more in other secitions, the vampire is a highly sexual being, that often engages in violent, pasionate sex. Vampire men, although incredibly strong and powerful, are described in highly effiminate terms--many of them write poetry, are thin, pale and willowey, and overall challange the idea of the ideal man, while simultaneously demonstrating it exactly. Vampires are from another time period, and the majority of them are complete gentlemen, aware of how to treat a lady, and often times buy their way into her heart with flowers (more specifically, roses), protection, and a sense of barely controlled power. Vampires have the world at their fingertips, have access to unlimited money, power and women, and it seems that YA vampire texts hold the same power over their readers. |