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Postmodern Vampires: Film, Fiction, and Popular Culture
Postmodern Film, Fiction, and Popular Culture is the first major study to focus on American cultural history from the vampire’s point of view. Beginning in 1968, Ní Fhlainn argues that vampires move from the margins to the centre of popular culture as representatives of the anxieties and aspirations of their age. Mapping their literary and screen evolution on to the American Presidency, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump, this essential critical study chronicles the vampire’s blood-ties to distinct socio-political movements and cultural decades in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Through case studies of key texts, including Interview with the Vampire , The Lost Boys , Blade , Twilight , Let Me In , True Blood and numerous adaptations of Dracula , this book reveals how vampires continue to be exemplary barometers of political and historical change in the American imagination. It is essential reading for scholars and students in Gothic and Horror Studies, Film Studies, and American Studies, and for anyone interested in the articulate undead.
- GenresNonfictionHorrorVampires
273 pages, Hardcover
Published May 9, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 6, 2026
I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but man… this one is just excellent, isn’t it?
really enjoyed how Ní Fhlainn maps the evolution of vampiric subjectivities onto the American project. and you best believe I have Thoughts about how the postmodern vampire has re-emerged post-Trump.
one day I’d like someone to turn to me and say “Nadira, please tell me everything you know about vampires” so I can finally put all this knowledge to use
really enjoyed how Ní Fhlainn maps the evolution of vampiric subjectivities onto the American project. and you best believe I have Thoughts about how the postmodern vampire has re-emerged post-Trump.
one day I’d like someone to turn to me and say “Nadira, please tell me everything you know about vampires” so I can finally put all this knowledge to use
November 30, 2020
Well researched and well written this book provides a comprehensive overview of postmodern vampires in American literature, film, and TV, rooting the various vampire narratives in their political history.
May 18, 2023
I don’t buy all the arguments here, but it’s really well researched and is an excellent primer on a huge variety of vampire fiction
Want to Read
August 12, 2024791.436 Fhl
May 29, 2026
This review is an introduction to a review on The Western Vampire Scholar Blog originally posted on 07/05/2026
Vampire film -and the larger vampire fiction- have an extended history that has only recently been focused on in academia. One of the main reasons for this is a perceived lack of importance in such a topic in the first place. For how can a niche fictional archetype be relevant to academic culture or even the everyday layman? The recent push of vampire fiction literature has come from largely literary efforts, albeit using a historical framework to create a narrative about how vampires have changed in fiction over time. As the discussion is largely focused on by literary academics, much of their analysis has less emphasis on the historical impact of these works on broader society. This is where Sorcha Ní Fhlainn's 2019 monograph titled Postmodern Vampires: Film, Fiction & Popular Culture attempts to bridge this gap. What makes this particular analysis different from many others of it's kind is that the author followed the postmodernist literary doctrine, hence the term 'postmodern' in the title. Nevertheless, Ní Fhlainn asserts that, “Within the parameters of this study on Postmodern vampires, it must be noted that I am being led by history” (Ní Fhlainn, 2019, p. 13)". This work is as much a historical analysis as it is a literary critique of the subject texts being examined. which is where we situate Ní Fhlainn into the ever-expanding vampirology canon.
Ní Fhlainn's investigation into vampire fiction during the later twentieth century and early twenty-first century has much to glean on a sub-textual level, highlighting themes and broader social and political issues going on in American society through the 'vampiric lens.' However, the author's own framework ultimately loses sight of what a vampire even is in it's later chapters and engages in death of the author to such a degree that it no longer becomes a historical work and shifts into pure literary critique. This imbalance is not a fault of the author, more so the nature of a postmodernist lens that makes it limiting within historical analysis.
Read the rest of my thoughts here.
Vampire film -and the larger vampire fiction- have an extended history that has only recently been focused on in academia. One of the main reasons for this is a perceived lack of importance in such a topic in the first place. For how can a niche fictional archetype be relevant to academic culture or even the everyday layman? The recent push of vampire fiction literature has come from largely literary efforts, albeit using a historical framework to create a narrative about how vampires have changed in fiction over time. As the discussion is largely focused on by literary academics, much of their analysis has less emphasis on the historical impact of these works on broader society. This is where Sorcha Ní Fhlainn's 2019 monograph titled Postmodern Vampires: Film, Fiction & Popular Culture attempts to bridge this gap. What makes this particular analysis different from many others of it's kind is that the author followed the postmodernist literary doctrine, hence the term 'postmodern' in the title. Nevertheless, Ní Fhlainn asserts that, “Within the parameters of this study on Postmodern vampires, it must be noted that I am being led by history” (Ní Fhlainn, 2019, p. 13)". This work is as much a historical analysis as it is a literary critique of the subject texts being examined. which is where we situate Ní Fhlainn into the ever-expanding vampirology canon.
Ní Fhlainn's investigation into vampire fiction during the later twentieth century and early twenty-first century has much to glean on a sub-textual level, highlighting themes and broader social and political issues going on in American society through the 'vampiric lens.' However, the author's own framework ultimately loses sight of what a vampire even is in it's later chapters and engages in death of the author to such a degree that it no longer becomes a historical work and shifts into pure literary critique. This imbalance is not a fault of the author, more so the nature of a postmodernist lens that makes it limiting within historical analysis.
Read the rest of my thoughts here.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews