I have never been intrigued by the vampire genre. Even as a child of the ‘80s, movies like the Lost Boys and later Buffy the Vampire Slayer were lost on me. With Twilight, I am especially nonplussed as to the genre’s current popularity in this latest incarnation. Still, like any element of popular culture, there is common ground for teacher and student here. Even if teachers have to brace themselves, they must continue to employ any element of mass culture in order to reach students. An investigation into their importance in mass culture and its possible application into the classroom follows below.The central question implies media messages about vampires are exceptionally prevalent these days. Yet, a cursory look at mass culture over the past 100 years reveals that the genre’s popularity is nothing new. From 1897’s Dracula to today’s Twilight, Western audiences have been infatuated by the undead—the latest being merely an extension of the genre into the teen demographic. What is it about the bloodsuckers that thrill us so? What appears to separate vampires from your customary monster is their charisma. Vampires in popular culture often go beyond the faceless and nameless, and may sometimes not necessarily be the central antagonist in novels, films, and music. In fact, many times they are portrayed in a sympathetic light as they exhibit human qualities and express
basic human desires. It’s almost as if there are three major subgenres within: the inherently evil, as reflected in works such as Nosferatu, and the tragic in Twilight’s Edward or Interview with a Vampire’s Lestat de Lioncourt, and even the endearing with Count Chocula or Count von Count! So, it seems that these “monsters” have more layers of sophistication than the mindless stalking of a Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. In those examples, we may be briefly sympathetic with them for whatever tragedy drove them to evil. Still, our contemporary vampires not only evoke sympathy, but also are often the protagonist! Further, the traits that make them a monster are merely a backdrop to typical human wants and fears. Examples of this include a recurring theme of innocent females’ physical and emotional attraction to “bad boys,” and vampires certainly underscore this. Humans also seek meaning to their lives, while today’s vampires seemingly would give up their immortality et al just to be human.
Another human desire is both truth and an easy way out of a supposed inextricable situation—stakes through the heart, daylight, and even garlic are all ways to at least keep them at bay. I suppose that another reason that makes Twilight and True Blood so popular is that humans (women in particular) can commiserate with feelings of helplessness in romantic love. Built into the male vampire character has a fundamental incongruity with a normal human female, this cultivates the “star-crossed” lovers archetype no one era can claim. Here, the male lead must give up much in order to be true to his female human counterpart. Whatever the context, increasingly we see these themes pervade in the vampire genre even as other "horror" movies become ostensibly more and more about sadomasochism.These themes lend much to the classroom. Certainly teacher of literature can prompt students to investigate what makes the vampire myth so different from other media of the horror genre. Can we even put many of these contemporary examples in this category? As a teacher of Social Studies, I have a particular interest in what
drives human obsession with these myths. Surely it would be reasonable to ask students to research the vampire archetype throughout a variety of cultures and eras. What does their view or portrayal say about their time and space? About ours? For example, the Nosferatu film, to this educator, tells us much about the fears of many in postwar Germany. As we study postwar disillusionment, what better way to underscore human suffering and trepidation than to analyze Schreck's haunting portrayal of the titular character? At the same time, what do our current representations say about us!?
