Calmet, los enterrados vivos y los falsos muertos: aportaciones a la creación del mito literario del vampiro = Calmet, the buried alive and the false dead: Contributions to the birth of the literary myth of the vampire

Abstract

The relevance of the Treatise written by Calmet, in his time, is undeniable for many reasons; first, because of the popularity and the controversy it caused amongst intellectual and general people; second, because of the large amount of information it provides on the subject of this research: the fake dead and the buried alive; and third, because with his writings, Calmet contributes to the establishment of the characteristics of the literary myth of the vampire. His detailed descriptions of the dead on their graves will later strengthen his influence in vampire literature of the nineteenth century. Anthropology and literature will converge in Calmet’s Treatise given that, by tracking his stories of the false dead, valuable information will be provided for the creation of one of the most important creatures in global literature: the vampire.