Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Vampiric Buildings: Life Soaked into Mortar and Blood into Earth

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire

  • 45 Accesses

Abstract

The vampire has long been associated with Gothic buildings. This study charts, through key texts, the vampire becoming the unheimlich element that infects the castle in La Fanu’s 1872 story Carmilla and then becoming intimately associated with the castle in Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula. As the vampire megatext developed, the building itself became vampiric, so, rather than the vampire supporting the building, the building supported the vampires in Foy’s Citadel (2012) and was the vampiric agent in Dan Curtis’ 1976 film Burnt Offerings. Along with other texts, the unheimlich and vampiric building is explored.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • American Horror Story: Hotel. 2015–2016. Directed by various. Produced by Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision. Performed by Lady Gaga, Kathy Bates and Denis O’Hare.

    Google Scholar 

  • Angel. 1999–2004. Directed by various. Produced by Mutant Enemy. Performed by David Boreanaz, Alexis Denisof and J August Richards.

    Google Scholar 

  • Auerbach, Nina. 1995. Our vampires, ourselves. London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bacon, Simon. 2018. Introduction. In The Gothic: A reader, ed. Simon Bacon, 1–6. Oxford: Peter Lang.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2019. Dracula as absolute other: The troubling and distracting spectre of Stoker’s vampire on screen. Jefferson: McFarland & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacon, Simon, and Katarzyna Bronk. 2013. Introduction. In Undead memory: Vampires and human memory in popular culture, ed. Simon Bacon and Katarzyna Bronk, 1–17. Oxford: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, J.O. 1964. What happens in “the fall of the house of usher”? American Literature 35 (4): 445–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boylan, Andrew M. 2013. Classic literature: Wuthering heights. December 27. https://taliesinttlg.blogspot.com/2013/12/classic-literature-wuthering-heights.html. Accessed 13 Aug 2021.

  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 1992. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Produced by American Zoetrope. Performed by Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brîndaş, Ecaterina Oana. 2014. The literary icon of the Byronic hero and its reincarnation in Emily Brontë’s wuthering. Journal of Humanistic and Social Studies 1: 25–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brontë, Emily. 1996. Wuthering heights. N.p.: Project Gutenberg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Simon. 2017. Stephen King’s vampire kingdom: Supernatural EVIL and human evil in TV adaptations of Salem’s lot (1979, 2004). Horror Studies 8: 223–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnt Offerings. 1976. Directed by Dan Curtis. Produced by Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA). Performed by Karen Black, Oliver Reed and Bette Davis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carmilla. 2019. Directed by Emily Harris. Produced by Tilly Films. Performed by Hannah Rae and Devrim Lingnau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, Mark. n.d. Claire Denis’ trouble every day: Re-conceptualising the Uncanny vampire. Accessed 10 Aug 2021. http://www.mark-chapman.co.uk/re-conceptualising-the-uncanny.

  • Chetwynd-Hayes, R. 2014 [1974]. The labyrinth. In Looking for something to suck: The vampire stories of R. Chetwynd-Hayes, ed. Stephen Jones, 51–76. Richmond: Valancourt Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Citadel. 2012. Directed by Ciarán Foy. Produced by Blinder Films. Performed by Aneurin Barnard, Wunmi Mosaku and James Cosmo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coke, Edward. 1809. “Google books.” The third part of the institutes of the Laws of England: Concerning high treason, and other please of the crown. and criminal causes. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Edward_Coke%2C_The_Third_Part_of_the_Institutes_of_the_Laws_of_England_%281797%29.pdf. Accessed 22 Aug 2021.

  • Collis, Colin. 2019. Stephen King says doctor sleep film ‘redeems’ Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. November 5. https://ew.com/movies/2019/11/05/stephen-king-doctor-sleep-redeems-the-shining-stanley-kubrick/. Accessed 15 Aug 2021.

  • d’Hont, Coco. 2018. Boundary crossing and cultural creation: Transgressive horror and politics of the 1990s. In The Palgrave handbook to horror literature, ed. Kevin Corstorphine and Laura R. Kremmel, 377–389. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dark Shadows. 1966–1971. Directed by various. Produced by Dan Curtis Productions. Performed by Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall and Alexandra Isles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doctor Sleep. 2019. Directed by Mike Flanagan. Produced by Warner Bros. Performed by Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson and Kyliegh Curran.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dracula. 1974. Directed by Dan Curtis. Produced by Latglen Ltd. Performed by Jack Palance, Fiona Lewis and Simon Ward.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2020. Directed by Jonny Campbell, Paul McGuigan and Damon Thomas. Produced by Hartswood Films. Performed by Claes Bang and Dolly Wells.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edward Scissorhands. 1990. Directed by Tim Burton. Produced by Twentieth Century Fox. Performed by Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Dianne Wiest.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erensoy, Şirin Fulya. 2020. The uncanniness of the shining. Journal of Art, Design and Science 24: 37–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, Jules. 2017. Twin Peaks, the uncanny, and the re-enchanted West. May 23. https://www.philosophyforlife.org/blog/twin-peaks-the-uncanny-and-the-re-enchanted. Accessed 25 Aug 2021.

  • Franck, Kaja. 2020. The wilderness. In The Palgrave handbook of contemporary gothic, ed. Clive Bloom, 243–258. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Freud, Sigmund. 1919. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The “Uncanny”. https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/freud1.pdf. Accessed 9 Aug 2021.

  • Gelder, Ken. 1994. Reading the vampire. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gomel, Elana. 2018. Koji Suzuki’s edge. In The gothic: A reader, ed. Simon Bacon, 217–223. Oxford: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennelly, Mark M., Jr. 2005. “Betwixt sunset and sunrise”: Liminality in Dracula. Journal of Dracula Studies 7 (1): 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchison, Lorna. 2020. A monstrous showing: Movement and deformed discourse in guy Maddin’s vampire ballet film Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s diary. In Vampire films around the world: Essays on the cinematic undead of sixteen cultures, ed. James Aubrey, 28–44. Jefferson: McFarland & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • IMDb. n.d. Burnt offerings (1976) Trivia. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074258/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv. Accessed 15 Aug 2021.

  • Kendall, Lyle H., Jr. 1963. The vampire motif in “the fall of the house of usher”. College English 24 (6): 450–453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, Stephen. 2005 [1975]. ‘Salem’s lot: Illustrated edition. 1st ed. London: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan. 2013 [1872]. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: A critical edition, ed. Kathleen Costello-Sullivan. New York: Syracuse University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marasco, Robert. 2015 [1973]. Burnt offerings. Richmond: Valancourt Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAvoy, Catriona. 2015. The uncanny, the gothic and the loner: Intertextuality in the adaptation process of the shining. Adaptation 8 (3): 345–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nolan, William F. 2015. From the ashes: William F. Nolan on ‘Burnt Offerings’. Burnt Offerings Blu-Ray. Arrow Video.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poe, Edgar Allan. n.d. [1839]. The fall of the house of usher, ed. José Menéndez. N.p.: Elegant Ebooks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, Nancy F. 2000. Desire and loathing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Journal of Dracula Studies 2: 8–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salem’s Lot. 1979. Directed by Tobe Hooper. Produced by Warner Brothers Television. Performed by David Soul, James Mason and Bonnie Bedelia.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2004. Directed by Mikael Salomon. Produced by Coote Hayes Productions. Performed by Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland and Rutger Hauer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, Keith. 2013. Blood, bodies, books: Kim Newman and the vampire as cultural text. In The modern vampire and human identity, ed. Deborah Mutch, 18–36. Basingstoke: Palgrave Nacmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Senf, Carol A. 1988. The vampire in nineteenth century english literature. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephenson, Lauren. 2020. British ‘hoodie’ horror. In The Palgrave handbook of contemporary gothic, ed. Clive Bloom, 193–210. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stoker, Bram. 2008. In Bram Stoker’s notes for Dracula; a facsimile edition, ed. Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Elizabeth Miller. London: McFarland.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2012 [1897]. Dracula. New York: Harper Design.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoker, Bram, and A–E. 2022 [1899–1900]. Powers of darkness: The unique version of Dracula, ed and Trans. Rickard Berghorn. Sweden: Timaios Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Summers, Montague. 1991 [1928]. The vampire. New York: Dorset Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Shining. 1980. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Produced by Warner Bros. Performed by Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Scatman Crothers.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1997. Directed by Mick Garris. Produced by Lakeside Productions. Performed by Rebecca De Mornay and Steven Weber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tôkyô vanpaia hoteru: Eiga-ban {Tokyo Vampire Hotel}. 2017. Directed by Sion Sono. Produced by Nikkatsu. Performed by Ami Tomite, Kaho and Shinnosuke Mitsushima.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vine, Steven. 1994. The Wuther of the other in Wuthering Heights. Nineteenth-Century Literature 49 (3): 339–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warchol, Tomasz. 2003. How Coppola killed Dracula. In Vampires: Myths and metaphors of enduring evil, ed. Carla T. Kungl, 7–10. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew. 2021. We are Dracula: Penny dreadful and the Dracula Megatext. In The transmedia vampire: Essays on technological convergence and the undead, ed. Simon Bacon, 20–34. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, Manly Wade. 2018 [1946]. Sin’s doorway. In Worse things waiting: Tales of fantasy and horror, by Manly Wade Wellman, 59–74. N.p.: Shadowridge Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Blackpool, UK

    Andrew M. Boylan

Authors
  1. Andrew M. Boylan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Poznań, Poland

    Simon Bacon

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 Crown

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Boylan, A.M. (2023). Vampiric Buildings: Life Soaked into Mortar and Blood into Earth. In: Bacon, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82301-6_75-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82301-6_75-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-82301-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-82301-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation