Modern American Culture

Vampires in Contemporary Culture Vampires originally arose when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was expanding in the eighteenth century. They came from Slavic folklore to help with anxiety. Vampires change throughout cultures, but have been used in many top-selling or top-viewed books, movies, and television shows. (Bradshaw, Lindsay) The authors and directors portray these vampires very differently. Have you ever thought about which belief is correct? Vampires tend to reflect on the values and social structures of the culture. Concepts of gender and sexuality also changed the vampire. (Fountain, Jennifer) For example, Erin Collopy, teacher at Texas Tech University, believed that men and women looked at the vampires differently. The women
Most movies are made based on a book. For example, Dracula and Twilight both have movies made to follow along with the book. In the book and movie, of Twilight, the Cullen’s(vampires of the story) have no similar characteristics with Dracula. The reason these two stories are compared, is because Dracula was publish in May of 1897 and Twilight was published in October of 2005. These are generations apart and the uniqueness of Dracula is not a part of Twilight. Dracula drank human blood and his mannerisms towards life were completely different than Edward Cullen. Edward wouldn’t dare drink the blood of a human being, nor did he let the people around him be scared of him. Stephenie Meyers, author of Twilight, said “These are vampires. They are these creatures who exist to hunt humans. They are evil and they choose something different. They find another way. And I think kids respond to the idea that it doesn’t matter where I am in life, I always have a choice.” Although other people have different opinions and express them in other ways like television shows, Stephenie makes a great point. (Neary and