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Before Dracula: Vampire Folklore, Stories, and Legends

Dracula is the vampire who has dominated our imaginations since his creation in 1897; when asked to picture a vampire, most think of a tall, dark haired aristocratic man wearing evening dress and a long black cape. But what of the vampires that came before him? Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, openly noted the influence of a vampire novella written by his fellow Irishman, Sheridan Le Fanu, called Carmilla. This course will explore various genres to examine vampires' origins in Eastern European Orthodox folklore to its Western Gothic transformations. Along the way, we’ll meet a couple of historical vampires: Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory.

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