The Effects of Modern Vampires on Society

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Recommended: The history of the vampire

Introduction

Kresley Cole, Stephanie Meyer, J. R. Ward, Cassandra Clare, Lisa Jane Smith, Spirit Bliss, Claudia Gray, L.J. McDonald, Anne Bishop, Juliet Marillier. Only a few names of those authors, who constitute in a genre, which is one of the biggest phenomena of this decade, especially among young women. Romantic fantasy has become particularly popular with the Twilight books, which were released in 2005. Since then, the vampire-and other supernatural creature-themed fantasy romance novels have been extremely popular all over the world. According to statistics brought out by Romance Writers of America, in 2009, the paranormal subgenre made up 17.16% of the popular romance genre, which in itself 54% of all books sold by the publishing industry.(Bailie) Vampires have come a long way from the 19th century until nowadays. Not so long ago they were a sort of evil, but nowadays they are rather teenager’s fantasy heroes. How could such a big change happen? How do these books affect young people’s minds? Are they dangerous for teenagers’ ideas about life? I try to solve the mystery and find answers to the vampire craze in teen literature in this essay.

In the past two years I read almost thirty romantic fantasy books. I bought the first book because I was wondering why this genre is so famous. I was surprised and I continued reading. Then I researched further. I was a kind of skeptical, but also addicted reader. Finally, I made a conclusion that Bram Stoker, the author of the novel “Dracula” is certainly turning over in his grave. After I got used to the fact that in this century vampires in literature are vegetarians, spark in the sunlight, all of them are attractive creatures with a 17-year-old body, but with a 104 year-old sou...

... middle of paper ...

...enormous popularity since the Twilight movies arrived in cinemas. The movies made the whole vampire-theme popular again, although in a slightly different and unusual version which is often strongly controversial.

Works Cited

Bailie, H. T. Blood Ties: The Vampire Lover in the Popular Romance. The Journal of American Culture, 34: 141 (2011)

Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight, Little, Brown and Company: New York (2005)

Tori E. Gibbs, (2010) Vampires: The Ever-Changing Face of Fear

http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/247/vampires-the-ever-changing-face-of-fear

22.05.2014.

Amanda M. Podonsky (2010) Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Reflection and Rebuke of Victorian Society

http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/184/bram-stokers-dracula-a-reflection-and-rebuke-of-victorian-society

22.05.2014.

Leonóra, Mörk (2011) A vámpír vonzásában- Miért szeretjük a sötét lényeket?

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