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A Vampire Bonanza: Recommended Reading and Viewing ahead of ‘Dracula: Bloodlines’

By Chris Tangeman

More than 2,700 University of Dayton students will attend the Dayton Ballet performances of Dracula: Bloodlines Oct. 25-28 at the Victoria Theatre in downtown Dayton; it’s the main event of UD’s 2018 first-year arts immersion.

Choreographed by Dayton Ballet artistic director Karen Russo Burke with inspiration from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Lilith figure from Jewish folklore, the ballet explores the transformation of a 15th-century prince into the legendary vampire. Since the beginning of the semester, students in the English, history, philosophy, and religious studies courses that make up the Humanities Commons have been engaging the Dracula myth and the theme of power and vulnerability. Speaker events and film screenings have brought faculty, staff, and the community into the conversation, too.

To assist and inspire the University of Dayton community in its cross-disciplinary approach to studying the story — the fiction, the nonfiction, and the theme of power and vulnerability — the University Libraries offer many ways to discover relevant, informative, and entertaining resources.

Interested in the First-Year Arts Immersion or the Humanities Commons? Find out more on the College Newsroom blog.

Books from our Collection

Vlad III Dracula: The Life and Times of the Historical Dracula

Fourth floor: DR240.5.V553 T76 2000. The 15th-century Romanian Prince Vlad III Dracula, known as Vlad the Impaler, is one of the most fascinating personalities of medieval history. Vlad has been depicted as a national and Christian hero; he also has been portrayed as a bloody tyrant.

Count Dracula Goes to the Movies: Stoker's Novel Adapted, 1922-2003

Fifth floor: PR6037.T617 D784 2006. Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been adapted for the screen over and over with widely varying interpretations and degrees of accuracy and success.

Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of ‘Dracula’ from Novel to Stage to Screen

Fifth floor: PR6037.T617 D787 2004. In this critically acclaimed excursion through the life of a cultural icon, David Skal maps out the archetypal vampire's relentless trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to movie idol to cultural commodity.

Books in Leisure Reading

The leisure reading shelves are now in the north corridor of the renovated space on the second floor. From the elevators, hang a left, then another left. From the north stairwell, hang a right. From the west stairwell, bring a compass or walk toward the opposite corner of the floor and start looking around until a) you see the leisure reading collection; b) someone notices you are looking for something and offers to help; c) you see the “hello” desk or the services desk and ask the friendly library student employee or staff member for help.

Dracula's Wars: Vlad the Impaler and His Rivals

Second-floor leisure reading: DR240.5.V553 W38 2016. The real Dracula, better known as Vlad the Impaler, was far from Bram Stoker’s well-mannered aristocrat. Yet to Romanians and the pope, he was a hero and liberator, fighting against the Ottoman war machine.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Second-floor leisure reading: PR6037.T617 D7875 2018. The graphic novel Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of the greatest works for Mike Mignola, known for such important works as Batman: Gotham by Gaslight; Cosmic Odyssey; and Hellboy.

Movies streaming from Kanopy

Kanopy is the Libraries' subscription streaming service. All you need to tap into this artery of art films, documentaries, and popular movies are your UD login and password.

Nosferatu

Stream on Kanopy. Considered one of the greatest horror films of all time, F.W. Murnau's classic is mastered from original German material and is the most complete version available. This expressionist retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula is so faithful to the original tale of vampirism that Stoker's widow sued.

What We Do in the Shadows

Stream on Kanopy. Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are three vampires trying to get by in modern society, from paying rent and doing housework to trying to get invited into nightclubs.

E-Books though our Databases

Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Letting the Wrong One In

Online resource. This unique study explores the vampire as host and guest; captor and hostage; perfect lover and force of seductive predation; and embodying taboos and desires about hospitality, rape, and consent.

The Postmillennial Vampire: Power, Sacrifice and Simulation in ‘True Blood,’ ‘Twilight’ and Other Contemporary Narratives

Online resource. The vampire has in many ways changed beyond recognition over recent decades due to radically shifting formations of the sacred in contemporary culture. The figure of the vampire has captured the popular imagination to an unprecedented extent since the turn of the millennium (this one).

Gender in the Vampire Narrative

Online resource. Addressing issues of masculinity and femininity and unpacking cultural norms of gender, this collection demonstrates the way representations of gender in the vampire narrative traverse a large scope of expectations and tropes.

Books available through OhioLINK

OhioLINK delivers resources to UD from 120 academic libraries at 92 institutions statewide.

Lilith, the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine

OhioLINK record. In a fascinating excursion through the history of her myth, Siegmund Hurwitz presents and interprets the ancient dark-winged goddess Lilith, also known as “the first Eve.”

The Book of Lilith

OhioLINK record. Lilith is the mythological seductress who has been repressed since Biblical times. She is the representative of the essentially motherless form of the feminine self that arose as an embodiment of the neglected and rejected aspects of the great goddess.

In Search of Dracula: A True History of Dracula and Vampire Legends

OhioLINK record. The true story behind the legend of Dracula: biography, folklore, and fiction.

Books available on request through SearchOhio

SearchOhio is a partner with OhioLINK; it gives users access to items in participating public libraries across Ohio.

Vampires in Mythology

SearchOhio. Long ago, vampires were sometimes used to explain what science could not. Since then, the power of the vampire myth has reached a thrilling realism through the magic of film, television, literature, and popular culture.

Unholy Hungers: Encountering the Psychic Vampire in Ourselves and Others

SearchOhio. Vampires are not just imaginary creatures; they are the people who settle for power and become experts at robbing others of their vital energy. In her fascinating study of this dark psychological archetype, Barbara Hort looks to traditional myths as well as to their modern equivalents in literature, theater, and film.

— Chris Tangeman is the interlibrary loan borrowing specialist in Roesch Library and may or may not be a vampire.

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