Vampirism In Wuthering Heights

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One reason Wuthering Heights has become interesting to scholars in the context of vampirism is its connection to the latest literary vampire phenomenon, Stephenie Meyer 's Twilight saga (2005-2008). The main character Bella reads the novel, relating her situation to the events in it, and thereby invites the reader to do the same. This reference has been used by the publishing company HarperCollins to republish Emily Brontë 's novel with a Twilight themed cover design, advertising it as “Bella & Edward 's Favourite Book” (Murnane 159). There are some remarkable parallels between both novels, and the comparison illustrated the changes vampire narratives have undergone since they were introduced to the literary world by Polidori.
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After having attained great success as a theatre play, Universal Studio shot the first movie version of Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, who had been part of the stage adaptation as well. The native Hungarian Lugosi added the long, black cape to the Dracula iconography, as well as his strong Easter European accent. Recognizing the potential of the vampire subject matter, the Hammer Horror corporation released a number of movies based on Stoker 's novel and titular character. Their success was short-lived as the audience soon grew bored with the repetitive movie concept (ibid.). Again, a reinvention of the vampire was necessary. This time it was brought about by a wave of vampire narratives most famously represented by Anne Rice 's Vampire Chronicles. It is a narrative difference which characterizes these books, rather than a different depiction of the vampire and its traits: vampires were introduced as protagonists. Scholars have explained this new desire to identify with the vampire as an identification with the outsider, asserting that “[t]he vampire offers a way of inhabiting difference with pride, for embracing defiantly an identity that the world at large sees as 'other '” (Williamson qtd. in Murnane, 154). Meyer 's novel follows this new tradition of the 'modern vampire ' to some extent, but the following analysis will show that in some ways, she pushes the development of the vampire further into postmodern