On of the things we do in history is group certain events or people into eras or periods. This is called periodisation, and it is to help the part of our brain that needs pattern recognition to better process the information we are receiving. Overall, periodisation is good for those getting into a topic in order to get the general “vibe” of the event or person they are focusing on. There is; however, a negative aspect of periodisation which oversimplifies a given length of time into “the age of x.” What I am going to attempt to do here is provide a basic way to conceptualise vampires in a nuanced yet intuitive manner. As we are talking about periods and eras with certain trends, it is important to recognise two things about periodisation. First, there is no clear cut start and end date for these things. Silent film did not stop the moment sound was made. There was a transitional period when silent film and talkies co-existed; before the predominant amount of films being produced had sound as a mainstay. Second, to practice periodisation is to simplify all the information available by looking at trends in a topic. Due to this being a discussion of media and portrayals of vampires, it is important to remind ourselves that not every vampire film is going to align with the given period. When looking at specific vampire stories or accounts, it is best to not make assumptions and look at it on it’s own merits first.
Based on the many ways one can view vampires, there is a great many ways you can create these epochs. And to be honest, there is no true answer or one true way to do so. I will provide my framework (this is my blog after all) and hopefully give some context as to why I think this way. Some instances will span centuries while others will hold only a few years. I will not make the mistake of giving specific dates, in exception to one, as I think that periodisation should be more fluid than it is often talked about.
To begin, I argue there are three major eras of vampire fiction: The folkloric, the literary, and the film vampire. The folkloric vampire would be from the beginning of history up until the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This era is the largest and the most significant because this is where we get our vampire stories and archetypes. During this time, people are not just telling stories of vampires but believe that they walk the earth as bloodthirsty revenants. Though some argue that vampire belief goes as far back as ancient Greece and Biblical times, with the Lamia and Lilith respectively, the most popular beliefs of vampire may have been recorded (once again, I’d have to read more into this period) from the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The most common of these being the Eastern European Slavic Vourdalak/Strigoi, it is the basis for Western, European vampire fiction.
The second form of vampire comes from the literary exploration and fascination of vampires by the rest of Europe, seated roughly from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century and even today. What differentiates the literary vampire from it’s folkloric cohort is that it no longer has a direct connection to local myth. Much like the werewolf or the witch, the vampire became something that writers used to represent greater social ideas. This is also when I will give the only important date in vampire fiction history, and that is Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. While there are plenty of other important vampire stories that came from this time, Dracula‘s publishing is historic in it’s synthetization of vampirological tropes in the modern age. If we were to look at vampire fiction from a Dracula lens, it would be in terms of pre and post publishing of the novel.
Finally, we have the film vampire. Much like the literary vampire, the film vampire changes the way that vampires are portrayed and understood. As literature has it’s own language and way of interpretation, so too does film require new way of interpretation. No longer is it about pure authorial intent, but it is the examination of actors, directors and studios in order to best understand the vampire film. In other words, vampire fiction has gone full circle from communal folk tales and superstitions to independent writers and back to collaborative pieces of media.
But why look at vampires in these ways? This wide overview of western vampires is not the definitive nor the most concrete way to examine vampires. But based on the corpus of literature in vampirology, this periodisation allows one to focus on what type of vampire they are examining without having the mistake of blending styles of analysis. We can look at vampires both in their three epochs as well as a pre/post Stoker vampire and be able to delve further into what vampirism is, and what it means to people.
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