FROM THE ROMANTICS TO STOKER: CULTURE, APPEAL AND LONGEVITY OF THE MYTH

Abstract

This paper explores the literary presence of the vampire figure in the
works of two Romantics, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
and The Giaour by Lord Gordon Byron by performing a contrastive analysis of the
application of the undead and its specific usages in these poems. Further development
of this character is examined in the most supreme representation of fin-de-siѐcle
novel on vampirism—Dracula by Bram Stoker. We dwell upon the endurance of the
folkloric myth and probe into the qualities that these works bestow on the character.
The aim of the paper is to draw a parallel between these dissimilar works, focusing
on their disparities and commonalities in order to uncover the transformation of this
mythical figure into the literature and film in the 21 st century.