Friday 19 September 2008

Internet resources

In a recent comment to one of my posts, Edward asks :

'Hello Niels,

do you remember the names of the books you referenced? Also, do you know where I could order them on line? I do read German therefore that would be no problem.

Here in the US we have difficulties finding decent European material for vampyre research because everything is oriented toward entertainment and serious research is relatively limited. I would appreciate if you could provide me with some websites or resources to find European texts.'


Edward, if you go through the contents of this blog you will find a number of links to resources and material that will be useful. However, I think it's time to make some sort of compilation of these resources, so although not an exhaustive list, here you will find links to a number of books, videos, audio files, web sites and more that is available online.

There are a few other web sites dedicated to the subject of vampires that do contain material of interest, see e.g. Dunkle Kulturgeschichte and Shroudeater. A relatively recent addition is the blog Diary of an Amateur Vampirologist.

The German Wikipedia contains some useful entries, including links to a collection of source material. This is actually a really good place to start, so I will refrain from listing these texts here. Other sources can be found at various library resources like the French Gallica, which includes Calmet's book on revenants and vampires. Zedler's Universal-Lexicon is a favourite, see e.g. the entry about Vampyren oder Blutsauger.

The Kakanien Revisited web site contains a comprehensive bibliography: Forschungsliteratur: Vampirismus. Kommentierte interdisziplinäre Auswahlbibliografie, and a number of papers (Sexualität Macht Tod: Prolegomena zu einer Literaturgeschichte des Vampirismus by Clemens Ruthner, Der Vampir, ein Fremder? Ethnische Minderheiten im Vampirglauben Südosteuropas by Peter Mario Kreuter, "Trag mich nach Südamerika". Schauplätze der osteuropäischen Vampirliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts und ihre Konnotationen by Christoph Augustynowicz, and Süd/Osteuropäer als Vampire: Draculas Karriere vom blutrünstigen Tyrannen zum mythischen Blutsauger. Prolegomena zu einer Literaturgeschichte des Vampirismus II by Clemens Ruthner).

The Historicum web pages on the witch hunt also contain some useful resources, including a paper by Sabine Seidel on Hexen(vorstellungen) und Magie in Südosteuropa.

A couple of other papers available online that are worth reading are Jutta Nowosadtko's Der „Vampyrus Serviensis“ und sein Habitat: Impressionen von der österreichischen Militärgrenze and Constantin Rauer's Von der Aufklärung des Vampirismus zum Vampirismus der Aufklärung: Eine West-Östliche Debatte zwischen Einst und Heute.

I have also referred to some videos and audio files where a few people talk about vampires, including the above mentioned Jutta Nowosadtko on Vampire! Ein südosteuropäischer Beitrag zur internationalen Kulturgeschichte, the German historian Peter Mario Kreuter and Christian Reiter from the University of Vienna.

Most of the important books in German can be a bit hard to find, but you should be able to easily find a copy of Dieter Sturm and Klaus Völker's anthology Von denen Vampiren oder Menschensaugern on German Amazon or Ebay at a reasonable price.

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