Research On The Vampire Image In Anne Rice's Novels

Anne Rice (1941—), an American contemporary writer, is famous for her writing vampire novels. Her masterpieces are Interview with The Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, which overthrow the traditional rigid figure of the vampire, showing the truth of realistic world by describing unrealistic world, digs arcanum of the deep human nature from vampire's inner being, and then reflects certain lays of the existent state and the mental difficulty of the human being. Anne Rice's novels leave from the features of traditional vampires like evil and horrible but give the new meaning to the vampire's figure.The vampire image has entered into the field of literature since the 18th century, and has been confined to the direct diversion and simple transformation to the ancient legend, mainly in term of the vampire's appearance and behavior. In the creative attitude, it has not extricated from the era and the established social ethics. The vampires have been an incarnation of evil which opposed to the moral order of the Christian-led western society. This phenomenon has not been improved until 19th century. Since the 20th century, the general trend of the vampire image is more and more plump and enriched. Anne Rice had not only given up the direct diversion to the vampire image, but also broke the simple binary opposition of good and evil situation, and denied the simple link of the vampire and religion at the origination and replaced by the proposition of the social, realistic and human being. It has expanded the meaning of the vampire and deepened the spiritual meaning of the vampire works.The purpose of my thesis is to give a comprehensive interpretation to the vampire image in. Anne Rice's vampire novels from the perspective of the aesthetic vision and cultural study. It will start from the origin of the vampire image to reveal the inheritance and the development to the elements of the gothic novel in Anne Rice's vampire image, and evaluate the role of the vampire image as a kind of aesthetic vision in the literature and cultural implication, then try to make a accurate position to Rice's vampire novels and to explore its academic value and practical significance.This thesis is divided into three chapters:Introduction:The thesis states the attention to the vampire image in the European culture and point out the value of Anne Rice's works, and then reveal the motive of this thesis and the main directions of research by examining the concern and research at home and abroad. Chapter one:Overview of the story and the characteristics of Anne Rice's vampire novels in order to grasp the text further, probing into the three originations from traditional vampire: legends of religion, superstition and disease, the reality of the prototype. And then after the research of the historic origination and evolution of the vampire image, it trace back to the process of the vampire image from the folk to the field of literature. In the era of Rice, the vampire image have had more meaning and creative items than the traditional vampire images.Chapter two:First study of the vampire images from the point of aesthetic vision and the standpoint of the theory of aesthetic vision is stripped of the illusory modern state of existence and achieve the most realistic social perception. The experience of life and death by vampire constantly in pursuit of the meaning of life exists, showing the puzzle to people who live in the society for the life. Secondly, to discuss the cultural implication of the vampire image in the works from the view of homosexuality, the excluded and the faith pursuit in the perspective of cultural studies.Chapter three:Analysis the significance of the vampire image dialectically and affirm the innovative significance in shaping and the cultural concepts in Anne Rice's novels.Epilogue:Summing up the theme and point out the purpose of the thesis. Overview the development trend of plump and stereo of the vampire image from 18th century, and affirm the significance of the innovation of the vampire image by Anne Rice. Summarizing the innovation of the vampire image, especially in changing the traditional fixed cognitive aspects to the vampire image. In addition, Rice also made the vampire image with more human nature by the unique creative approach ease of understanding the meaning of the readers to the writer. Pointing out the purpose of the thesis is to provide a unique entry point for people to think the significance of the human exists and the life meaning more deeply in a diversity of social and cultural environment.