Hallab, Mary Y.: Vampire God: The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture
2012; Volume: 23; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0897-0521
Autores Tópico(s)Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez
ResumoHallab, Mary Y. Vampire God: The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009. 169 pp. Paperback. ISBN 978-1-4384-2860-4. $24.95. Mary Hallab pushes her way into the already crowded shelves of vampire criticism with Vampire God: The Allure of the Undead in Western Culture, an academic examination of the appeal of vampires in Western culture. Vampire Gods is a fairly short work--only 136 pages, excluding endnotes--but it covers a lot of ground as she examines folkloric and literary vampires. Rather than relying on definitions that reduce vampires to symbolic manifestations of desires or political ideologies, Hallab focuses on the vampire's liminal status as creature both human and supernatural (4). This status, Hallab argues, is the very definition of the vampire: it is the one thing all vampires--comic or terrifying, sexy or revolting--have in common. It is also central to the vampire's role as a focus for universal concerns about death [and life] that allows the mind to dwell on possibilities beyond those offered by conventional religion or rational empiricism (6-7). Hallab organizes the text into four main sections: (1) the relation between vampires and science; (2) the social implications of vampires; (3) the psychological implications of vampires; and (4) the religious implications of vampires. The bulk of the text (as implied by the title Vampire Gods) focuses on the last section: religion. However, the vampire's god-like ability to give structure and meaning to life ties all of the sections together. Chapter 1, and Science, illustrates Hallab's strengths as a writer and researcher. Here, as elsewhere in the study, Hallab combines a brief, but compelling review of academic studies with historical and literary examples. Where Hallab excels is in relating a broad, widely accepted concept (i.e., folklore often constitutes a kind of pre-scientific attempt to explain natural occurrences) and then, after noting the myriad variations of that concept, offering her own position (vampires [if accepted as real] offer ... irrefutable proof that the dead are still in some way alive) (17-18). Though there is much new in her analysis, she manages to stake subtle claims on some well-established ideas. She is even more successful at using a broad range of vampire stories to illustrate her point. In chapter 1, for instance, she traces links from the Catholic Church's scientific investigations into eighteenth-century Hungarian vampires to classic literary vampires such as Varney and Dracula, modern vampire dramas such as Forever Knight and Dark Shadows, and at least seven other lesser-known literary manifestations. It is a lot to cover in fifteen pages, but Hallab manages it without eliding too many complexities. Chapter 2, and Society, extends the commonplace concept that folkloric vampires reinforce communally shared beliefs [and] ... provide ties with the family and community past (33) into an analysis of literary vampires serving similar functions. Whether inspired by historical figures or other vampires from the literary tradition, literary vampires, like their folkloric counterparts, present a sort of shared social history that even modern societies crave. These histories, no matter how fictionalized, assure readers that a real history actually exists. As she explains, the undead teach us that are all trapped in the flow, or cycle, of history, tumbling along with others--dead and undead-whether we like it or not (48). In chapter 3, and Psychology: Body, Soul, and Self, Hallab argues that vampires have too often been reduced to a simple symbol of our unconscious sexual desires and fears (54). This reading, she claims, unnecessarily limits the vampire's appeal and ignores its broader, more universal function as a symbol of an immortal self. Vampires are defined by their undying sense of self. …
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