Making Monsters: Vampirism and Intersectionality in the Haunted Summer of 1816

In my teaching of canonical nineteenth century British literature, I strive to educate students not only about the background of and context for a literary work, but also to foster in them the ability to read critically and argue persuasively, not to mention to write effectively. However, an important component is a nuanced attention to diversity and difference. In a British Romanticism class with units devoted to otherness such as gender and socioeconomic disparity I incorporate a unit dedicated to the Haunted Summer and monstrosity. Critically discussing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and John Polidori’s “The Vampyre” (1819) provides an avenue to explore less frequently taught texts that examine horror, race, and slavery: Uriah Derick D’Arcy’s “The Black Vampyre” (1819) and Matthew “Monk” Lewis’ Journal of a West-India Proprietor (1834). By including the vampire in this unit, I am able to entice the students into their learning as active citizens. This chapter demonstrates the ways in which the vampire image, embedded in a course focused on a literary time period, offers the perfect doorway through which to teach difference, marginalization, and a host of core identity issues.