Vampires Portrayed in Movies, Books

Vampires come in many varieties, author Nina Auerbach told a crowd of 25 last night at the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies.

In her lecture, "A Vampire of Our Own," Auerbach said she wanted to dispel the myth surrounding vampires, including their most famous representative, Dracula.

"Stocker's Dracula was concerned at heart with neither blood, love, or sex, but with property rights," she said, offering an economic interpretation of the vampire figure.

The Victorian seminar centered around the significance and roots of Dracula, beginning with Bram Stoker's 1890s novel and continuing through Todd Browning's 1930s film creation.

According to Auerbach, Dracula was one of the later of the vampires in the literary tradition, and actually lacked many classical vampire traits.

"Dracula is not always the same. The Dracula of the movies, and the Dracula of the book are different," she said.

Auerbach, author and editor of such books as Private Theatricals and Forbidden Journeys, also provided some criticism of recent vampire authors, including best-selling author Anne Rice.