The figure of the vampire has been present in literature for centuries and has gradually moved from Gothic or horror novels to romance novels. The introduction of this master’s thesis focuses on two key theoretical concepts which serve as a theoretical framework and are crucial for the understanding of the rest of the thesis. The first part of the thesis offers an overview of the vampire's evolution in literature through time and focuses on the change of his representation. One of the most modern works of vampire literature, a collection of novels called Twilight, and the influence which this collection had on modern society, are presented in the next part of the thesis. In the empirical part the thesis deals with Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, which is one of the basic works of vampire literature. It also deals with Stephenie Meyer’s four novels from the Twilight collection, which have been some of the most popular works of vampire literature lately. By means of textual or discursive analysis the thesis reveals that the representation of the literary vampire has definitely changed and that the modern vampire does not represent an object of horror anymore, as it did in the past, but an object of sexual desire.
|
