Vampires that grew sick of Dracula

Abstract

Bram Stocker’s Dracula (1897) is considered a cornerstone when the subject is vampires. Although there were important works written before Stocker’s, such as “The Vampyre” (1819) by John Polidori and Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu, it was Dracula that established a vampiric genre and influenced countless works that came afterwards. Vampires in the contemporary, however, present some primordial differences when compared to the 19th century Count. Their relation with humans, who once were seen just as prey, evolves in the 20th and 21st century. It can be argued that these differences are due to the age those blood sucking monsters were created and “live” among society.