Robert Pattinson has a lot to answer for. Ever since his lanky frame immortalised Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight character, Edward Cullen, with an American twang, all the vampires of the world seem to have lost their British passports. Those populating Bon Temps, the fictional town in Louisiana that is the setting for TV drama True Blood, have a southern American drawl.
Meanwhile Mystic Falls, Virginia, where The Vampire Diaries is set, is a long way from the London and Whitby homes of the most famous vampire of all: Count Dracula.
But watch out, bloodsuckers: the Brits want to bring you home. In a bid to make the most of that interest, Dr Sam George, a lecturer in English literature at the University of Hertfordshire, is launching what seems to be the world’s first master’s degree in vampire literature.
“When I teach my students 18th-century and Renaissance literature, they sometimes struggle to connect to it,” she says.
“But they’re always talking to me about Twilight and its ilk, and I thought the wealth of subject matter in vampire lit made it a perfect way to study popular literature on an academic platform.”
George expects the course to become an annual staple that will outlast the current TV craze for all things vamp, because “vampires themselves change so much and reflect contemporary society”.
She says today’s vampires are glamorous and sexy and have an emotional side.
“Vampires used to be rooted in the past, representing something primitive; now they are about modern culture, living in cities, listening to punk music, embracing technology. Some are even female and vegetarian.”
George claims that change reflects the fact that vampire stories mirror the anxieties embedded in modern-day culture. “Vampires teach us to come to terms with our desires and the fact we have a darker side,” she says. “In the 1980s a lot of vampire films and books tackled disease and corruption — it was a way of talking about Aids. Vampires are used to bring up things we don’t want to talk about.”
The topic du jour of our modern vampires, George believes, is the sexualisation of teens. “In earlier fantasy narratives, such as CS Lewis’s Narnia stories, sexuality is outlawed. Susan is prevented from returning to Narnia once she becomes interested in ‘nylons, lipstick and invitations’.”
But the new vampire stories represent a sexual awakening. Our modern vampires are a metaphor for teenagers’ wider anxieties about their bodies and their first stirrings of desire. They provide a safe way to acknowledge these desires.”
George claims that vampire fiction also tackles fears of technology.
“Science is starting to let us think seriously about living a lot longer and that’s fascinating in the vampire context, since they obviously live for eternity,” she says.
“Current vampires — like the eternally teenage Edward of Twilight — reflect the scientific debate about preserving youth and living forever”.
George says it’s no surprise that vampires tend to become prominent during times of social change — like last year’s recession — because “they are escapist and let you think about society in a very different setting.”
George says it’s the ideas behind the otherworldly beings that she is interested in, not their physical reality. “I know some people think vampires exist, but I don’t.” —