History of the Vampire: the body and the blood in metaphor and society

Continuing our series exploring the vampire, the ever-popular figure and symbol against which we can define our own humanity. Looking today at the myriad of religious, social and political associations around blood and the body in the Age of Enlightenment. As our views of our interior world changed, own body and how it functioned, they interacted with our view of our exterior world of society and faith. All of which fed into the enduring symbols of the body and blood at the centre of the Vampire canon. In coming weeks we will take a detailed look at the vampire in literature, before moving on to talk about more modern vampire 'panics' and vampires on film.