Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 62-10, Section: A, page: 3377.

Directors: Michael Holquist; David Quint.

The dissertation explores how the vampire gives form to fears connected with the rise of new media, the speed of modern life, the anonymous landscapes of the metropolis, and the impersonality of bureaucratic structures.

Chapter One performs a synthetic reading of Les chants de Maldoror and Poesies by Isidore Ducasse/Comte de Lautreamont. The vampire uses writing to change his identity, slip in where he does not belong, and denature victims from within; on this basis, I show how the pseudonymous, undead "Comte de Lautreamont" haunts Poesies and perverts the censorious and morally upright proclamations of "Isidore Ducasse."

Chapter Two examines Bram Stoker's Dracula and digs deeper into the vampire's connection to the written word. With the unwitting assistance of an English clerk, the Count sets up an array of surrogate selves on paper that allow him to move invisibly in Great Britain. Although Dracula's enemies manage to destroy him physically, the vampire's ability to translate himself into fictitious personae in documents guarantees his resurrection in perpetuity.

Chapter Three examines Denkwurdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken by Daniel Paul Schreber, who composed this text while institutionalized for acute psychosis. God, for Schreber, is a vampire who takes possession of mortals' bodies and souls by means of "nerve-rays." The patient describes the Creator's parasitic offshoots as a form of thaumaturgic writing, and he sets out to reverse their denaturing effect by means of a process he calls "drawing" (Zeichnen). Schreber tells an autobiographical vampire story; in the process of telling it, he redirects God's nerve-writing away from his body and onto a neutral surface of inscription, the page.

Chapter Four examines Fritz Lang's Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse . Mabuse succeeds in terrorizing society even after death because he writes his evil spirit into a document that possesses its readers and makes them unwitting agents of destruction. The textual substratum of Mabuse's being makes him a far shadier and more elusive villain than the countless other cinematic vampires with whom he is coeval.