In this blog post, we’ll explore the evolution of the vampire in fantasy literature—from its Balkan folkloric origins to the literary reinterpretations by Alexei Tolstoy and Bram Stoker, and on to its reevaluation since the 1970s.

About Fantasy Literature

Any literary genre that deals with supernatural beings or phenomena can generally be classified as fantasy literature (littérature fantastique). However, myths, scriptures, and the lives and miracles of saints—which deal with gods or their intermediaries regarded as objects of faith and worship—are excluded from the category of fantasy literature. Myths, creation myths, and hagiographies, which clearly contain supernatural elements, are treated as categories distinct from fantasy literature.
Furthermore, fables in which animals speak and allegories based on the personification of good and evil are also excluded from the realm of fantasy literature. In short, fantasy literature occupies a space between mythology and fables, and traditionally, fairy tales and ghost stories have been regarded as its core genres. In modern times, science fiction has been newly added to this category.
In an era when people had not yet acquired the scientific and technological means to control nature, impossible desires were often fulfilled in the imagination through the power of spirits. Such desires included appearing in different places at the same time, remaining invisible to others, exerting power from a distance, transforming into any desired form, and having animals or supernatural forces perform one’s tasks.
Other desires people harbored included commanding demons to do their bidding, possessing weapons of immense power, magical potions, enchanted jars, and love potions, as well as achieving immortality or eternal youth. These supernatural imaginings directly reflect a naive hope to transcend human frailty.
However, such imaginings were not entirely without basis. As the era of airplanes took to the skies, daydreams of magic carpets and winged horses faded, and the use of steam engines and electricity turned dreams of immense power into reality. While scientific progress caused some fantasies to wither, it simultaneously laid bare the limitations of the human condition more clearly, making people realize they could not cross those boundaries.
Amid these changes, human confidence grew, but the darkness of the afterlife and the shadow of death also deepened, amplifying our fears. From that darkness and shadow, ghosts and spirits emerged, hovering close to us as if ready to pounce on the living at the most unexpected moments of daily life. When visions of evil forces suddenly arise in the world of ordinary daily life, fantasy literature takes on a horror-like quality.
Ghosts are a reflection of the desire for eternal life and the result of fantasies about “another world.” A wide variety of themes appear in fantasy literature: deals with the devil, the vengeance of the dead, vampires craving fresh blood, and statues, dolls, and mechanical devices that suddenly come to life to torment the living. These cursed beings follow in the shadow of death and darkness, hiding in unseen places and waiting for the moment to suddenly intrude upon our peaceful daily lives.
Although the fundamental laws governing humans and the material world are becoming clearer, gradually narrowing the realm of the impossible, the intervention of fantasy remains inevitable as long as obvious impossibilities exist. Therefore, the themes of fantasy literature are determined precisely by the nature of that impossibility.

The History of Vampire Literature and ‘Dracula’ as Its Culmination

Vampires originally stemmed from Slavic folk beliefs in the Balkan region. There was a superstition unique to the Balkans that the dead, for whatever reason unable to find rest for their souls, would rise from their graves at night to drink the blood of the living.
This custom became widely known in Western Europe in the early 18th century, triggered by the Habsburg dynasty’s expansion into the Balkans, which brought news from the Slavic regions to the capital, Vienna. The first attempt to systematically organize and analyze such information in order to provide a scientific explanation for the vampire phenomenon was Don Calmet’s book, ‘Treatise on Spiritism and on Vampires and Ghosts in Hungary and Moravia’ (Paris, 1746).
The Slavic world adopted Christianity several hundred years later than Western Europe, and during the rapid conversion process in the mid-Middle Ages, Christian cathedrals and monasteries were often built on the sites of shrines and temples that had once been dedicated to the deities of indigenous beliefs. As a result, unique phenomena such as the blending of Christianity and indigenous beliefs—or “dual faith”—emerged.
In particular, the region of Transylvania, which serves as the setting for ‘Dracula’, is known to have retained significant traces of this syncretism. As Christianity took root, indigenous beliefs remained latent within folk culture in various forms, occasionally surfacing in distorted ways; vampire folklore can be viewed as an example of such repressed dreams of indigenous beliefs bursting into the everyday world.
Based on Kalme’s research, several authors have given literary form to vampire legends. Beginning with Goethe’s 1797 lyrical narrative poem ‘The Bride of Corinth’ (‘Die Braut von Korinth’), authors such as E. T. A. Hoffmann, Alexei Tolstoy (1817–1875), Balzac, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Bram Stoker produced works centered on the vampire theme.
While most writers limited themselves to adding a touch of imagination to the basic framework of the legend, Alexei Tolstoy and Bram Stoker reinterpreted the vampire legend in ways that reflected the sensibilities of their respective eras, producing works that can be considered classics of fantasy literature.
Half a century after Goethe wrote ‘The Bride of Corinth’, the young Russian author Alexei Tolstoy published the novel ‘The Vampire’; around the same time, he also published ‘The Family of the Vampire’ and ‘A Meeting Three Hundred Years Later’ in French. These works from the 1840s—a period when Russian literature was shifting from Romanticism to Realism—did not gain recognition in their own time, but were rediscovered and reevaluated as true works of fantasy in the 1890s as Realism began to wane.
A generation after Alexei Tolstoy’s works, Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ was published in England in 1897. Stoker interpreted vampire folklore from a Victorian perspective, bringing the Slavic vampire to London—then the center of the world—and thereby firmly establishing Count Dracula as the quintessential vampire.
If vampire folklore is a distorted manifestation of Slavic folk beliefs suppressed by Christian culture, then Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ can be interpreted as reflecting a state in which Christianity has completely subjugated those folk beliefs. Alexei Tolstoy’s vampire is depicted as able to be destroyed only by his own offspring—significantly, the protagonist, who is an illegitimate child—thus reflecting a fusion of Christianity and indigenous beliefs.
In contrast, in Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, the vampire must have sacred soil from the land where his blood relatives are buried transported to London to establish a dwelling place; furthermore, the soil must be mixed with the Eucharist—symbolizing Jesus—before it transforms into barren soil where the vampire cannot rest. various tools used to subdue the vampire appear as Christian relics. These devices symbolically illustrate the triumph of the Christian faith over Slavic folk beliefs.
Viewed from this perspective, the 100-year history of vampire literature—beginning with Goethe and ending with Bram Stoker—appears to be closely tied to the currents of world history during that period.

A Reevaluation of ‘Dracula’

Since the 1970s, a new perspective has emerged that seeks to view this work as more than just a horror novel. As a result, various interpretations of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ have been attempted, primarily from a Freudian perspective.
The central interpretation was to read Dracula as a phantom of sexual desire, and attempts emerged to interpret the entire work as a manifestation of some sensual longing. Based on this reevaluation, ‘Dracula’ was republished in the United States in the 1980s, gaining a new readership and thereby further solidifying the work’s status as a classic of fantasy literature.
In this article, to illustrate examples of these new interpretations, I will present an excerpt from George Stead’s foreword, which appeared in the 1981 Bantam Books edition.

Physical Description and Instinctive Power

Dracula’s palms are hairy, and his ears are long and pointed. Thick eyebrows meet just above the bridge of his nose, and the eyes beneath them, bloodshot, emit a piercing glow. His complexion is unusually pale, and his long, white mustache and crooked teeth stand out, making his red, full lips appear even more vivid. His breathing is ragged, and though he is hundreds of years old, he is, strangely enough, incredibly strong. Possessing “hands of steel” like Beowulf, it is difficult to escape once caught in his grip. Although he is highly intelligent, his “childlike mind” is completely controlled by his desires—a primal hunger incompatible with civilization.

A Being Not Reflected in Mirrors

Despite how Dracula appears to others, he cannot see his own reflection in a mirror. No mirror can capture his image, for Dracula is already more like an image, a shadow, or a phantom existing within the mind. Whenever we try to find his reflection in a mirror, our own faces block the view first. Even the bright light of day cannot dispel his darkness, for he remains hidden in his coffin until night falls. He says of himself, “I love shadows and darkness.” Dr. Van Helsing points out that Dracula’s power “vanishes at daybreak.”

Animalistic Transformation and Limitations

While ordinary people rest in their beds, dreaming, he comes alive among his favorite nocturnal predators and intruders—wolves, bats, owls, field mice, and voles. If he wishes, he can take the form of these animals, suddenly appearing amid the mist, dust, or moonlight, and materializing wherever a spellbound imagination seeks him. However, to enter a house, he requires the intervention of someone inside—that is, an act of inviting him in. The person who draws him in becomes hypnotized, craving his commands, and carries out his orders as easily as if they had always followed his directives.

Madmen and the Defenses of Faith

Dracula is clearly the master of madmen, for madmen are those who have bowed to his bottomless craving. On the other hand, people of faith know that the symbols of Christianity protect them from Dracula’s greedy and highly contagious spell. A vampire can only remain in the presence of holy earth, and Van Helsing states, “Since evil is deeply rooted in all that is good, that demon cannot rest comfortably without earth imbued with sacred memories.” Dracula brought fifty coffins to England to secure the coffin containing that holy earth.

Christ Parody and the Symbolism of Blood

The vampire portrayed by Stoker is an extension of the Puritan image of the devil and its negative connotations; Dracula is interpreted as a kind of parody of Christ. The work quotes Christ’s words: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” The proposition that “blood is life” is emphasized. Dracula’s teeth are not needle-like incisors but large fangs; when he bites a person, he leaves two small holes in the skin, as if from a viper’s bite.

The Illusion of Repressed Desire and Sensuality

Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be summarized as an illusion of something we suppress—particularly sexual desire. Being bitten by Dracula means surrendering to an unjustified hunger and becoming a slave to sensual desire; it is also the result of the spectator’s desires and fears being projected onto the character. Dracula himself is a symbol of the sensual desires we hope not to possess.
Repression transforms desire into fear. As seen in dreams and literature, the image of repressed desire subtly stirs the longing lurking at the bottom of fear and manifests as an ominous figure. Dracula, the “immortal,” is a being in which life and death are fused—a figure embodying both the desire that must remain hidden and the moral punishment for revealing it. For some in the late Victorian era, sexuality was viewed as corrupting and debilitating—an evil that gnaws at life—and was perceived as the heat in the blood, the subject of dreams, a motif of madness, and a threat hidden in the shadows of the stage.

Scenes of Female Sensuality and Horror

This novel is imbued with a spine-chilling horror of female sensuality. Horror is intertwined with ecstasy and revulsion. Early in the novel, when Jonathan Harker is lying on a sofa inside Dracula’s castle, he is approached—even as he pretends to be asleep—by three of Dracula’s women, who are both repulsive and exquisitely beautiful. As one woman kneels, bends over, and gazes at him with satisfaction, he “swollen with delightful anticipation” watches her through half-closed eyes.
Harker senses a “repulsive and spine-chilling sensuality” in her movements. As she bows her head, she licks her lips like a beast, and her red tongue—visible as she licks her crimson lips and white teeth—glistens in the moonlight. As the woman slowly approached, Harker heard “the sound of her tongue licking her teeth and tongue,” and felt her hot breath on his neck. Her breath was sweet, but underlying that scent was a bitterness and the unpleasantness one feels when smelling blood.

Lucy and Mina: Two Female Characters

The tone of this novel strikes a balance as it shifts between two long episodes. One is the story of the beautiful and innocent Lucy Westenra—whose name means “Light of the West”—who falls under Dracula’s spell and becomes a vampire; the other is the story of Mina Harker, whom Stoker regarded as the epitome of womanhood, who is narrowly rescued from a fate worse than death.
There are several reasons why Mina Harker was able to avoid the same fate as Lucy, one of which is that she possessed “a man’s brain and a woman’s heart.” This combination proved crucial, and, as Stoker describes, this ordinary woman was less resistant than Lucy. It is also noted that, like madmen, children, and Dracula, all she had to protect herself from the devil was an “childlike mind”—one that was unreliable and less alert.

The Triumph of Masculinity, Reason, and Science

The courage of the men in this novel stems primarily from their self-control in resisting temptation, their strict moral fortitude, and the progressive values inherent in Victorian high culture. These men are defenders of the era’s desirable values.
The final third of the novel reads like an allegory of perception, reason, and science subduing a monster that has clung to irrationality to the very end.
Van Helsing declares, “We have sworn to set the world free,” while Dr. Seward’s remark—“Unconscious mental processes, you must yield the way to your brother, consciousness”—evokes Freud’s proposition. Through scientific collaboration, systematic investigation, and the use of advanced equipment such as phonographs and typewriters to gather evidence, they finally track down Dracula and his followers and eliminate them—like animal specimens—by driving stakes through their hearts.

Similarities to the Character of Van Helsing

Van Helsing, leader of the Stalker Order, is a figure dedicated to progress—a physician and lawyer described as “a philosopher, a metaphysician, and one of the most outstanding scientists of his generation.” As explained by the fact that he was born 75 years before Victor Frankenstein, he embodies the progressive ideas of his time.
Like his contemporaries Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud, he solves mysterious cases and understands and overcomes fears from within that others cannot comprehend. For example, Van Helsing has a history of saving lives through acts of compassionate bloodletting; there was an incident where Dr. Seward sucked the contaminated blood from a wound on his hand. He also suffers from nervous breakdowns such as depression, hysteria, and madness.
Like Dracula, Van Helsing lets out a sharp hiss when startled, and the description of his eyebrows meeting above the bridge of his nose is reminiscent of Dracula. The relationships between Frankenstein and his monster, Holmes and Moriarty, Dr. Jekyll and Hyde, and Freud’s ego and id are similar to that between Van Helsing and Dracula. Meanwhile, the story concludes with an implication that Van Helsing shares some connection with Bram Stoker, with whom he shares the same baptismal name…….

Stoker’s Puritanism and Obscenity

Although Stoker’s works contain many obscene elements, Stoker himself was a puritan who supported restrictions on obscenity. He wrote: “A careful analysis will reveal that the only emotion that is ultimately harmful is that which arises from sexual impulses. We have pointed out the elements that pose a real danger whenever such things come to light.”
According to Stoker’s argument, every work created through the imagination “may contain elements of evil.” He believed this was the reason why censorship of fiction was necessary. “A flood of books has been published that would be considered scandalous in countries less civilized than Britain. This is because authors and publishers have drawn upon the forces of evil lurking within human nature in pursuit of commercial success. This element of evil is so serious and dangerous that, even if it has not yet caused any problems, it may have a profoundly negative impact on the values and lives of this country’s youth.”
There is a contradiction between this solemnity and the obscenity of ‘Dracula’, but that does not mean Stoker was a hypocrite. It was simply that he did not understand his own heart. Had he truly understood his own novel, he might not have written a novel like ‘Dracula’.
Horror must be expressed directly, without embellishment. Otherwise, it becomes something else—the exaggerated gestures of a homosexual who mimics a woman even though he cannot be one. In art or in life, anyone who imitates another mocks the person they are imitating and, consequently, mocks themselves. They scoff at the form or manner they are imitating, but end up scoffing at themselves for doing so. He is like an actress playing a female role who caricatures, pretends to adopt, looks down upon, and envies the forms and manners of women—things she can never truly call her own.
As for whether ‘Dracula’ had a negative influence on the values and lives of young people in Stoker’s country or elsewhere, I suspect it might have, but I cannot know for certain. However, there is little doubt that the obscenity and puritanism of Stoker’s era influenced the creation of Count Dracula of Transylvania.
Furthermore, there is even less doubt that Stoker had embraced as his own the intimate issues of his time—particularly the vexing question of what constitutes masculinity and what constitutes femininity. Just as much as he feared, hated, and loved the femininity within women, what tormented Stoker above all else was the femininity within himself. The thought that he might not be entirely masculine was what tormented Stoker…….
The smooth and unprecedented success of ‘Dracula’ proves that the concerns of Stoker and his era still haunt us. They may have tormented us in the same form, or in different forms. For ‘Dracula’ is not a book that simply recounts events that occurred; rather, it is a classic that reveals something that happens wherever there are human beings.
The fear of death and the fear of the dead, and the dream of eternal life; the psychological and sexual dialectic that oscillates between two opposing poles—master and slave, sadism and masochism, the desire to hurt loved ones to satisfy one’s desires and the desire to be hurt; the conflict between the knowledge that governs the forces of nature and mysterious, savage powers; the lunar light that seeks to dominate us when fantasies arise in our slumbering souls to stoke our dark desires, and the power of sunlight that governs the principles of reality and awakens us from our illusions; the struggle to achieve, maintain, and define masculinity and femininity. These things have always been with us.
In ‘Dracula’, Stoker transformed what was merely personal—or relevant only to his own era—into something grander: something monstrous, yet ultimately human.

About Bram Stoker

Little is known about Bram Stoker’s childhood, other than that he was born in Dublin in 1847 as one of seven children and was the apple of his mother’s eye. In his own words, he was so sickly until the age of seven that he spent most of his time in bed, receiving his mother’s tender care.
To cheer him up, his mother would tell him stories—Irish ghost tales, stories of fairies, demons, and corpses, as well as accounts of the terrible cholera epidemic that raged in 1832. There is no doubt that such stories served as valuable nourishment for his imagination, which would later turn toward fantasy literature. A few years later, when Bram Stoker sought to learn more about vampires from his mother, she wrote to him about “the vampire’s bitter and strange kiss, the human desire to see and understand its form, the best ways to ward off its attacks, and, furthermore, the best ways to overcome the fear of it.”
Mrs. Stoker was an extraordinary woman. She possessed a strong character, was ambitious, and had a strong sense of self-worth. As a writer and social worker, she frequently visited reform schools that took in poor and wayward girls, but above all, she was a women’s rights activist. In that respect, she was much like the mother of her friend, Oscar Wilde. When asked how to cure the various social ills unfolding around her, she retorted, “Make the sexes equal.”
While attending Trinity College in Dublin, Bram Stoker lived his life with such intensity that it more than made up for his frail childhood. He became a champion and record-breaker in various sports, and while he later became famous as a relentless and inflexible worshipper of women, he was known at the time for pursuing an exaggerated and defiant brand of masculinity.
He discovered the poetry of Walt Whitman and was overwhelmed by it; he gave lectures on it and defended Whitman against the many who mocked him. He sent Whitman a serious, lengthy letter, to which Whitman replied, “You have truly sound thinking, having sent me such a progressive, fresh, and manly letter.” Although Stoker had already begun to shift his views around the time he was clearly portraying the “New Woman” in ‘Dracula’, he also gave lectures on feminism and discussed the women’s rights movement at philosophical societies.
As a teenager, he frequently visited the theater with his father, where he met Henry Irving—an actor and director who would become the living Dracula to dominate his life—and became completely captivated by him, eventually becoming his manager. He worked tirelessly and diligently for Irving.
Considering the effort he put in, his financial compensation over the course of 27 years was meager, and after Irving’s death, he was forced to borrow money from friends. Perhaps as a result, the cause of Stoker’s death, according to his death certificate, was “extreme exhaustion.” As O. H. Wells pointed out, the portrayal of “Dracula” contains much of Henry Irving as Stoker’s “bad father,” while the character of Van Helsing embodies, to some extent, Abraham Stoker as the “good father.”
Even while working tirelessly for Irving, Stoker continued to write. He authored a total of 17 novels; most of them, including his masterpiece ‘Dracula’ (1897), ‘The Woman in the Shroud’ (1909), and ‘The Burrow of the White Worm’ (1911), are works of fantasy literature centered on horror.