Fascination with or fear of contagion?

• Position: Cultural issues of vampire movies and television programs - YOUR LIFE - Brief article

From the "Twilight" series of motion pictures to cable television's "True Blood," the vampire has become a pop culture phenomenon nearly everyone wants to sink their teeth into. A faculty member from Duke University, Durham, N.C., contends that much of the interest in vampires reflects anxieties about viral contagion. Carlos Rojas, who is teaching the course "Vampire Chronicles: Fantasies of Vampirism in a Cross-cultural Perspective," argues that many contemporary vampiric works are informed by a fascination with and fear of the power of infection.

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From HIV to H1N1, the specter of an infectious pandemic is this generation's version of the nuclear holocaust nightmares of the Cold War era, he maintains, and vampires give form to the threat of these viral elements with their ability to infect our most intimate personal spaces and social rituals. "The perception that someone may be infected leads to a rethinking of social boundaries and the limits of personal...