Symbolism and Phantasms of Vampirism: From Folklore to the Present Day

Abstract

In the first part of my article, I focus on presenting the traditional profile of a vampire. Based on ethnographic sources, I explain the outline of this figure which has appeared in folk tales since the Middle Ages in Slavic and Balkan areas. I also describe the image of the first vampires that are mentioned in poems, ballads, and novels during the Gothic period, as well as those that were presented on the cinema screen for the first time in the twentieth century. In the second part, I compare the features of traditional and modern vampires. I analyze the modification of vampire phantasms while paying attention to the metamorphosis of the image, vampires’ “lifestyle”, the consumption (or cessation of consumption) of blood, and, above all, the moral reevaluation of this character. This “metamorphosis” also leads me to raise subjects such as the paranormal relationship between vampires and humans, and the presentation of vampires as anti-heroes.