Vampirism and magia posthuma

So the papers from the conference on vampirism and magia posthuma arranged by Christoph Augustynowicz and Ursula Reber at the University of Vienna in the Summer of 2009 have finally been published. I received the book yesterday, Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie published by Lit Verlag. As little information on the book is mentioned on various web sites, I will list the contents:

• Vorwort by Augustynowicz and Reber
• Hans Richard Brittnacher: Blut. Grundsätzliche Bemerkungen zur Erfolgsgeschichte des Vampirs
• Hagen Schaub: Beweist ein archäologischer Fund den Wiedergängerglauben? Kamen Südosteurops Vampire über österreichische Berichte bis nach Nordhessen?
• Marco Frenchowski: Die Unverweslichkeit der Heiligen und Vampire: Eine Studie über Kulturelle Ambivalenz
• Vlado Vlacic: Militärberichte und Vampirmythos
• Bernhard Unterholzner: Vampire im Habsburgerreich, Schlagzeilen in Preußen. Wie Mythen zu politischen Druckmitteln werden
• Oliver Hepp: Vom Aberglauben hin zur "magischen Würckung" der Einbildung. Michael Ranffts Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern
• Christian Reiter: Der Vampyr-Aberglaube und die Militärärzte
• Thomas M. Bohn: Das Gespenst von Lublau. Michael Kaspereks/Kaspareks Verwandlung vom Wiedergänger zum Blutsauger
• Clemens Ruthner: Ärzte am offenen (Text-)Grab. Zur Literarisierung von Flückingers Vampirismus-Protokoll (1732) bei Mayo (1846) und Kock (1998)
• Christoph Augustynowicz: Von Branntweinmaßen, Klöstern und Waisenhäusern oder Galizien langes 19. Jahrhundert und Vampir-Motive
• Christa A. Tuczay: Alb- Buhlteufel - Vampirin und die Geschlechter- und Traumtheorien des 19. Jahrhunderts
• Peter Mario Kreuter: Er steht sogar im MERIAN. Zum vampiresken Verwaltungsschriftgut des 18. Jahrhunderts aus dem Hofkammerarchiv
• Ursula Reber: Vampirmaschinen | Engelscharen. Diskursive Reihen und Knoten
• Niels K. Petersen: Magia Posthuma. A Weblog Approach to the History of Central and Eastern European Vampire Cases of the 18th Century
• Anhang: Farbabbildungen
• Biographien

I am looking forward to reading it, and I expect to write a bit about this and some other books that have been published this year. I am sorry to say that - as usual - the most important books published this year  are not written in English. At least as far as I am aware of.

Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie is available at just € 19.90 from the publisher and various online booksellers like e.g. German Amazon. Do note that it is also listed under the alternative title Vampirglaube und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie.

Happy New Year

Another year is coming to an end, and looking back through the numerous blog posts from this year it's obvious that a few things have happened in 2008.

Personally I have had the opportunity to visit a couple of cities that play important roles in the history of magia posthuma: Leipzig and Vienna. I have also had opportunity to meet a few people who share an interest in the subject and to correspond with others.

A couple of other blogs have surfaced. Most notably the blog of Nicolaus Equiamicus whose web site has become an important internet resource for material on vampires and werewolves.

A few books have been published on vampires: Blutspuren by Hagen Schaub and Vampire! Vampire! by Markus Heitz are two of the most important in German, and to my knowledge only one really relevant book has been published in English: From Demons to Dracula by Matthew Beresford. On the subject of (the fictional) Dracula Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula finally provided us with the full insight into the genesis of this novel, and Leslie Fiedler was able to shed more light on the genesis, as he was able to peruse the original manuscript for his New Annotated Dracula.

On a more disappointing note, I looked at a number of documentaries on vampires, including the curious Der Vampir Prinzessin. For some reason, all these documentaries tend to mix fact and fiction, consequently blurring the boundaries between the historical and the fictional vampires.

Hopefully, 2009 will see a new edition of Peter Kremer's book on revenants, Draculas Vettern, but otherwise I'm not sure what to expect of new books. A conference on vampirism, however, is planned for July in Vienna!

I am unable to say if I will be able to post as frequently in 2009 as I have done throughout a number of months this year. Other parts of my life will definitely require some more time in the new year, but despite the recent decline in blog activity, I intend to keep the blog alive with news and general information on magia posthuma throughout the new year.

So I will just end the long list of 2008 blog entries by wishing you all a happy new year!

Conference in Vienna

Shortly after posting my proposal to meet next year, I was contacted by the good people af Kakanien Revisited who were interested in arranging a meeting. They have now discussed the matter and sent this initial invitation to a conference on the theme of vampire belief and vampirology at the University of Vienna on July 3-4 2009:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, liebe VampirologInnen,

anschließend an einen der Themenschwerpunkte bei kakanien.ac.at zum Themenkomplex „Vampirglaube und Vampirologie“ würden wir gerne eine Konferenz zum Thema

„Vampirismus und magia posthuma im Diskurs der Habsburgermonarchie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert“

veranstalten und Sie/Dich dazu einladen.

Die thematische Ausgestaltung der Konferenz sollte zwischen solider Geisteswissenschaft und innovativer Kulturolgie, zwischen historischen und philologischen Ansätzen oszillieren. In diesem Sinne bitten wir bis 30. September um Themenvorschläge an usha.reber@kakanien.ac.at und christoph.augustynowicz@univie.ac.at.

Ort: Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte der Universität Wien, Spitalg. 2, 1090 Wien

Zeit: 3./4. Juli 2009

Anreise und Aufenthalt werden bezahlt, eine Publikation der Konferenz-Beiträge ist geplant.

Beste Grüße

Usha Reber
Christoph Augustynowicz

Update on meeting in 2009

Just a quick note to say that I have received some very positive feedback from a few people. It's too early to say anything definite, but it looks like there really is an interest in attending a meeting, seminar or whatever it could be called on the subject of vampires and magia posthuma.

A proposal to meet in 2009

In my new year post, I wrote that

it is my sincere wish that we can build some kind of network of people interested in this strange and morbid, yet somehow very giving subject.

Although I do get some communication via this blog and by private e-mail, it's really much too early to call it a network. But I would like to propose that a meeting is arranged somewhere in Europe sometime next year, either in the spring or autumn of 2009. It could be in some city that is related to the history of vampirism and magia posthuma: Vienna, Belgrade, Leipzig, Olomouc or some other place, and it would be best to keep it simple and cheap. The important thing would be to meet, discuss whatever aspects of this topic we find relevant, and see a couple of sights that are related to the history of vampires and revenants. So I'm not proposing a big seminar here, but a very low key meeting where every participant takes care of his or her travelling, hotel, food etc.

So here is my plan: Now that I have proposed the basic idea, I'll put a box on the right hand side of the blog so the proposal should be noticed by new readers. If I get some positive feedback on the idea, I will settle on some appropriate time and place. Those who are interested can then say yes, no or maybe to the time and location, and if enough people say yes before, say, the end of the year, I will commence with the planning.

So, if this sounds like something for you, send me an e-mail, and I will get back to you. Of course, if you think this is a dumb idea or if you doubt that you will be able to attend a meeting, and if you have any other thoughts on my proposal, feel free to tell me what you think! :-)