Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 355 - Poe and Vampires
While Edgar Allan Poe didn't write about traditional vampires, his exploration of vampiric themes places his work within a broader context of vampiric literature, showcasing the versatility of the concept beyond just blood-drinking monsters. And hopefully within the next few minutes, Mr. Poe will make an appearance to address that very subject.
To begin with, Poe’s story "The Fall of the House of Usher," the relationship between Roderick and Madeline Usher has vampiric qualities, with their lives seemingly intertwined in a way that drains both.
"The Oval Portrait" - also by Poe - features an artist who seems to transfer his wife's life force into his painting, a vampiric act of creation.
Poe’s story "Morella" explores themes of identity transfer and rebirth, which can be interpreted as a form of vampiric continuation of life. And those are just three of Poe’s vampiric stories.
But before this podcast delves into those stories, Celebrate Poe will have several episodes dealing with Bram Stoker’s Dracula - and before we tackle the most well-known of all works of vampire literature - I thought it would be appropriate to talk with Mr. Edgar Allan Poe himself about the subject of vampires and briefly touch on their use in his work - and I do want to emphasize the word briefly - because after Easter I intend to - among other things - delve into the use of vampiric elements in more detail in Poe’s stories. By the way, I think I hear the ghost of Mr. Poe now . . .
Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
