term paper topics for vampires

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A List Of Easy Essay Topics About Vampires: 15 Fresh Ideas

The character and mythology of vampires is full of charisma. When the term “vampire” comes into notice, we imagine an individual in black walking through the lonely ways of towering castles? After all who builds such imaginations? Are these creatures always associated with grim, darkness, tortures and horrors? Are essays form the basis of such myths.

Check out some gruesome topics on vampires-

• Why Vampires catches the spotlight by most of the fiction story books, television programs, novels and movies? Why they are seen to quench their thirst by drinking blood of innocents?
• How vampires are formed? How modern vampires differ from the traditional ones? Why they capture people during nights or when walking in isolation?
• Do vampires really exist or are just the imagination of a common man? Do they attack people who are physically or emotionally weak or can command any group of people?
• Why vampires are presented as seductive creatures with hypnotic stare and dangerous fangs? Are these creatures nocturnal only or wander during day time too?
• Why vampires are considered as the ugliest ones even though most attractive celebrity stars act in them?
• Why society is fascinated to watch vampire movies? Why any vampire’s presence is incomplete in absence of white, strong and canine teeth? How their large, sturdy and pointed nails are related with immortality? How these a re the basis of any successful movie?
• Discuss the history of vampires? Why they are considered as most notorious and mysterious creatures?
• Is it fine to produce horrific films on vampires while challenging people to watch them alone in the cinema hall getting the prize money?
• Discuss the vampires in gothic context? Throw light on their motifs. How they are more related with a supernatural and melodramatic fiction stories that operates on tension and realism based.
• Who all can become vampire? Are all vampires bad? What is the relation and difference between ghosts and vampires?
• How vampires are created? How they target people? How cultures and religions are deeply influenced by their beliefs?
• Why vampires generally portray great health and abundant of wealth? Is drinking human’s blood is the chief reason of their strength?
• What do you think- Do all vampires have a unique story? Do you think that becoming a vampire is in the hands of the soul?
• Based on your imagination, draw a sketch of the vampires world. Discuss the natural world, their architectural world, the gender, physical appearance and their mindset? Is harming an innocent is always there motive?
• Write an essay on vampire marrying a beautiful princess? Discuss the arrangements done by them?

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Vampire History

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 16, 2023 | Original: September 13, 2017

Vampires are evil mythological beings who roam the world at night searching for people whose blood they feed upon. They may be the best-known classic monsters of all. Most people associate vampires with Count Dracula, the legendary, blood-sucking subject of Bram Stoker’s epic novel, Dracula, which was published in 1897. But the history of vampires began long before Stoker was born.

What Is a Vampire?

There are almost as many different characteristics of vampires as there are vampire legends. But the main characteristic of vampires (or vampyres) is they drink human blood. They typically drain their victim’s blood using their sharp fangs, killing them and turning them into vampires.

In general, vampires hunt at night since sunlight weakens their powers. Some may have the ability to morph into a bat or a wolf. Vampires have super strength and often have a hypnotic, sensual effect on their victims. They can’t see their image in a mirror and cast no shadows.

Vlad the Impaler

It’s thought Bram Stoker named Count Dracula after Vlad Drăculea, also known as Vlad the Impaler . Vlad Drăculea was born in Transylvania, Romania. He ruled Walachia, Romania, off and on between 1448 and 1477.

Some historians describe him as a just—yet brutally cruel—ruler who valiantly fought off the Ottoman Empire . He earned his nickname because his favorite way to kill his enemies was to impale them on a wooden stake.

According to legend, Vlad Drăculea enjoyed dining amidst his dying victims and dipping his bread in their blood. Whether those gory tales are true is unknown. Many people believe these stories sparked Stoker’s imagination to create Count Dracula, who was also from Transylvania, sucked his victim’s blood and could be killed by driving a stake through his heart.

But, according to Dracula expert Elizabeth Miller, Stoker didn’t base Count Dracula’s life on Vlad Drăculea. Nonetheless, the similarities between the two are intriguing.

Are Vampires Real?

Vampire superstition thrived in the Middle Ages , especially as the plague decimated entire towns. The disease often left behind bleeding mouth lesions on its victims, which to the uneducated was a sure sign of vampirism.

It wasn’t uncommon for anyone with an unfamiliar physical or emotional illness to be labeled a vampire. Many researchers have pointed to porphyria, a blood disorder that can cause severe blisters on skin that’s exposed to sunlight, as a disease that may have been linked to the vampire legend.

Some symptoms of porphyria can be temporarily relieved by ingesting blood. Other diseases blamed for promoting the vampire myth include rabies or goiter.

When a suspected vampire died, their bodies were often disinterred to search for signs of vampirism. In some cases, a stake was thrust through the corpse’s heart to make sure they stayed dead. Other accounts describe the decapitation and burning of the corpses of suspected vampires well into the nineteenth century.

Mercy Brown

Mercy Brown may rival Count Dracula as the most notorious vampire. Unlike Count Dracula, however, Mercy was a real person. She lived in Exeter, Rhode Island and was the daughter of George Brown, a farmer.

After George lost many family members, including Mercy, in the late 1800s to tuberculosis, his community used Mercy as a scapegoat to explain their deaths. It was common at that time to blame several deaths in one family on the “undead.” The bodies of each dead family member were often exhumed and searched for signs of vampirism.

When Mercy’s body was exhumed and didn’t display severe decay (not surprising, since her body was placed in an above-ground vault during a New England winter), the townspeople accused her of being a vampire and making her family sick from her icy grave. They cut out her heart, burned it, then fed the ashes to her sick brother. Perhaps not surprisingly, he died shortly thereafter.

Real Vampires

Although modern science has silenced the vampire fears of the past, people who call themselves vampires do exist. They’re normal-seeming people who drink small amounts of blood in a (perhaps misguided) effort to stay healthy.

Communities of self-identified vampires can be found on the Internet and in cities and towns around the world.To avoid rekindling vampire superstitions, most modern vampires keep to themselves and typically conduct their “feeding” rituals—which include drinking the blood of willing donors—in private.

Some vampires don’t ingest human blood but claim to feed off the energy of others. Many state that if they don’t feed regularly, they become agitated or depressed.

Vampires became mainstream after Dracula was published. Since then, Count Dracula’s legendary persona has been the topic of many films, books and television shows. Given the fascination people have with all things horror, vampires—real or imagined—are likely to continue to inhabit the earth for years to come.

HISTORY Vault: Ancient Mysteries

From the Lost Ark to the quest for the Holy Grail, explore videos about ancient mysteries.

A Brief History of the Immortals of Non-Hindu Civilizations. Shri Bhagavatananda Guru. A Natural History of Vampires. Scientific American. Dracula’s Homepage. Elizabeth Miller. Meet the Real-Life Vampires of New England and Beyond. Smithsonian.com . Real-Life Vampires Exist and Researchers Are Studying Them. Discover. Where Do Vampires Come From? National Geographic. The real-life diseases that spread the vampire myth. BBC Future . Born to the Purple: the Story of Porphyria. Scientific American .

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A History of Vampires and Their Transformation From Solely Monsters to Monstrous, Tragic, and Romantic Figures

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Throughout the history of vampire stories—from folklore to literary fiction—the portrayal of these inhuman creatures has metamorphosed from Carl Jung’s myth, born of the Shadow archetype, into three distinct vampiric archetypes, none of which have completely left their mythic origins behind. These archetypes present themselves as the monster vampire, the tragic vampire, and the romantic vampire. By examining the etymology of the word vampire, ancient vampire folklore, early to modern vampire literature, and early to contemporary vampire cinema, this paper will show that the vampire is no longer relegated to the role of antagonist to the story’s protagonist. The vampire could be the tragic anti-hero or the protagonist of a story. Many early folklores about vampires are represented by stories humankind told to explain evil and misfortune visited upon their family. However, when the vampire entered early literary fiction, authors began to exercise their power to manipulate the vampire narrative, creating new vampire constructs. This shift in vampire characterizations is an allegorical commentary on man’s fight to overcome his sinful nature by seeking salvation through redemption.

While some researchers note the existence of a vampire archetype, Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, believed that monsters, such as the vampire, are not archetypes themselves, but rather myths, born of archetypes. While Carl Jung’s beliefs would classify a vampire as a myth, I intend to show that early to modern stories of vampires show a gradual shift from the monster myth to three separate vampire portrayals/archetypes. One portrayal of vampires remaining that of the terrifying creature of origin, as is characterized by Carl Jung’s Shadow archetype; another portrayal being the tragic and tortured Byronic hero—or antihero; and the last progresses through the first two stages into the modern, beguiling, often-romanticized, literary figures of fantasy, the heroic vampire. I intend to show that these three distinct portrayals, though never fully leaving their mythic origins behind, have become their own archetypes, and the development of these archetypes mirrors humankind’s path to finding redemption from their own sinful natures, or dark desires, whether based in Judeo-Christian beliefs, other religious beliefs, or a secular moralistic belief system.

Carl Jung believes there are four main archetypes: The Self, the Persona, the Shadow, and the Anima/Animus. These archetypes are primordial images—archaic remnants imprinted on the unconscious mind, the part of the mind where automatic processing occurs. These primordial images are passed down from our ancestors. Jung states:

The term “archetype” is often misunderstood as meaning a certain definite mythological image or motif. But this would be no more than a conscious representation…The archetype is, on the contrary, an inherited tendency of the human mind to form representations of mythological motifs—representations that vary a great deal without losing their basic pattern. (Jung , 1968 , p. 120)

Jung claims that every personality has a dark side that is the gateway to the unconscious mind and dreams. Through this gateway, the archetypal Shadow figure enters our dreams. Myths are not themselves archetypes. They are created by archetypes. The Shadow archetype is the hidden part of the human psyche—the part we fear for its obscurity. This fear causes our mind to create myths to represent this hidden part of our psyche (Jung , 1968 , p. 38) . Following Jung’s logic, a vampire cannot be an archetype in itself; instead, it is a myth born of the Shadow archetype.

So, what makes the vampire, or any other creature of myth, the embodiment of Carl Jung’s Shadow archetype? Tales of evil creatures abound in the time before Christianity. They are the representation of early humankind’s darker side; the images Jung claims are passed down to their descendants through their DNA, just as according to Lamentations 5:7 in the Bible, the child bears the iniquities of their father ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Lamentations 5:7). These iniquities are our sin, and Jung’s Shadow archetype might very well be itself a representation of this sin and the vampire myth its manifestation.

In his book The Power of Myth , a manuscript of a conversation between Joseph Campbell, best known for his theory of the archetypal hero’s journey, and journalist Bill Moyers, Campbell claims:

These bits of information from ancient times, which have to do with the themes that have supported human life, built civilizations, and informed religions over the millennia, have to do with deep inner problems, inner mysteries, inner thresholds of passage, and if you don’t know what the guide signs are along the way, you have to work it out for yourself. (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 4)

To this, Moyer interprets Campbell’s meaning to be, “[W]e tell stories to try to come to terms with the world, to harmonize our lives with reality” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 4) . It is in humankind’s nature to ask, “Why is this happening?” In that desire to reconcile the cognitive dissonance felt when we cannot unite what we see to what we understand, our mind searches for new comprehension through the creation of myths.

Early Vampire Folklore

Many countries and cultures have some form of vampire folklore in their history. These stories, as Campbell and Moyers suggest, have origins in the fears of those who are just trying to make sense of the world around them. Here are just a few examples.

Abhartach (Celtic)

Abhartach, a jealous dwarfish, cruel chieftain, and sorcerer, from the Irish town of Slaghtaverty in Londonberry, ruled during the 5 th and 6 th -centuries. Some stories say he fell to his death when he climbed a ledge outside his wife’s bedroom window to catch her cheating on him. Other versions of his tale say that a neighboring chieftain slew him. Abhartach was buried in an upright, rather than the typical prone position, as were many rulers of that time. The next day, the sorcerer returned from the grave and demanded that his subjects slit their wrists and fill a bowl with their blood for his consumption. The blood was necessary to sustain his life. Abhartach was then, once again, slain by either another chieftain or an assassin and buried upright. He rose from the dead, once more, the next night, to continue his reign of terror. The chieftain or assassin killed Abhartach one last time. This time, at the suggestion of a druid, they buried him upside down, trapping him in his grave (Bane , 2020 , p. 13; Gallagher , 2017 , p. 26) . As is the case with most modern vampire stories, Abhartach began as a human, returns from the dead, and drinks blood.

Baital (Indian)

An eleventh-century Sanskrit story, Baital Pachisi , or Vetala Panchevimshati , translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton in the mid-nineteenth century and renamed to Vikram and the Vampire, is the account of a baital and a king named Vikram. The baital is an evil spirit that can possess the dead, is half-man half-bat with a short stumpy tail. It drinks human blood and devours sacrifices of human flesh. Its gruesome countenance causes those who look upon it to grow weak and faint with fear. When at rest, baitals spend their time hanging from trees near cemeteries (Bane , 2020 , p. 28-29) . This ancient creature’s penchant for hanging from trees and its part-bat form was likely inspiration for literary vampires with the ability to turn into bats.

Berwick (English/Scottish)

In England’s northernmost area, abutting the river Tweed, there was a village named Berwick, or Berwick-Upon-Tweed. Though the town was in England, it came under Scottish rule during the twelfth century. In 1196, there was a prosperous but morally bankrupt merchant who died of the plague. After his burial, written accounts say that he would roam the streets at night, spreading disease as he went and announcing that there would be no peace for the villagers unless his body was set aflame and burned to ashes. The Berwick vampire only left his grave in the evening and returned to it every day before dawn. By the time the villagers exhumed his body and burned it, roughly half of the villagers had perished from the plague (Bane , 2020 , p. 33; Summers , 1996 , p. 82-83) . The Berwick vampire is an early example of the undead rising from the grave only at night to terrorize the living, much like many literary fiction vampires.

Upyr (Slavic)

The upyr is an ancient Slavic vampire thought to be created in one of two ways. When a heretic, someone whose beliefs lie outside a religion’s dictates, dies, that person might become an upyr. Alternatively, the spawn of a witch and a werewolf would be born an upyr. The methods of killing one bears a striking resemblance to the practices of extinguishing many vampires found in modern literature. The grave of an upyr must be soaked in holy water and a stake driven through its chest. The upyr could also meet its end by decapitation or incineration (Bane , 2020 , p. 137-138; Melton , 1994 , p. 525) .

Vrykolakas (Greek)

The Greek stories of vrykolakas vary throughout their early history. Initially, they were more spirit in nature than actual physical beings, eventually transforming into the more traditional depictions of the reanimated dead. Vrykolakas were thought to rise from the grave and seek out family members, attacking them and sucking their blood. Burning a vrykolakas is the only foolproof way of destroying it (Bane , 2020 , p. 149-150) .

Our takeaway from these early stories of vampiric creatures is that no matter what you call them, they have yet to move from humankind’s subconscious to conscious mind—from the realm of myth to archetype. They are representative of Jung’s monster myth, and as Campbell claims, born to explain away the unexplainable.

Looking at the vampire myths of early folklore, the question is: What purpose did the creation of the vampire myth serve? Campbell says, “When the story is in your mind, then you see its relevance to something happening in your own life. It gives you perspective on what’s happening to you” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 4) . Many folklore tales start with death and humankind’s desire to explain what they did not have the scientific understanding to explain. Suppose a plague or other virus wiped out an entire family or most of a village, with limited knowledge of science and God’s wrath having previously taken the form of plagues. In that case, humans might consider it to be God’s wrath reigning down on them, that they have done something to earn his displeasure, and they might assume that their place in heaven is in jeopardy. In Jung’s book The Undiscovered Self , he states,

It would be an insufferable thought that we had to take personal responsibility for so much guiltiness. We therefore prefer to localize the evil with individual criminals…while washing our hands in innocence…the evil, as experience shows, lies in man—unless, in accordance with the Christian view, one is willing to postulate a metaphysical principle of evil. The great advantage of this view is that it exonerates man’s conscience of too heavy a responsibility and fobs it off on the devil, in correct psychological appreciation of the fact that man is much more the victim of his psychic constitution that its inventor. (Jung , 2006 , p. 96-97)

In other words, if humans create a monster—a myth—which is the perpetrator of their misfortune, they are no longer responsible. This monster is doing the evil bidding of its master, presumably Satan himself. Then humans are not the ones out of favor with God. In fact, by actively setting out to destroy the monster (e.g. through beheading, staking, burning, etc.), they are doing God’s bidding and possibly gaining his favor.

From Myth to Archetype

So how did the vampire move from the realms of myth to archetypes? The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the word archetype, derived from some of the earliest known uses of the word, “The original pattern or model from which copies are made; a prototype” (“Archetype , n. , ” 2020) , shows that early folklore and literary fiction examples of vampires can give birth to what modern readers would consider a vampire archetype, an original pattern or model. This happens by moving the vampire from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind.

If primitive humans create the monster-vampire myth, from the Shadow archetype, to understand that in which they cannot explain, then what happens to this myth when human intellect evolves? Jung states, “The archetype is essentially an unconscious content that is altered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes its colour from the individual consciousness in which it happens to appear” (Jung , 1968 , p. 20) . While the vampire-myth started as an unconscious representation of the Shadow archetype, the numerous accounts in both literary folklore and literary fiction have moved the vampire from our subconscious to our conscious, forming a pattern or a model that forms the basis of three basic vampire archetypes—the vampire monster, the tragic vampire, and the romantic/heroic vampire.

While there are many examples of each of these archetypes in literary and cinematic vampires, for the purpose of this paper, I will give a few examples of each, but I will give most of my focus to one from each archetype.

Defining the Vampire

To understand the paradigm shift in vampire portrayals, it is necessary to first understand what constitutes a vampire. The origins of the word “vampire” differ from the origins of the lore. The origins of the word are debatable, and accounts of vampirism predate the word itself. In her article “The History of the Word’ Vampire,'” Katharina M. Wilson indicates there are four popular theories as to the word’s origins; however, she suggests that the more widely accepted roots are Slavic (Wilson , 1985 , p. 577) .

The first of these four popular theories come from the late nineteenth-century Austrian linguist Franz Miklosich. In his book Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Slavischen Sprachen , Miklosich suggests, “[T]he word"vampire” and its Slavic synonyms “upior,” “uper,” and “upyr” are all derivatives of the Turkish “uber,”—witch" (Wilson , 1985 , p. 577) .

The second theory favors the idea that a potential source for the word “vampire” is from the root word “pi” or “πίνω,” from the Greek verb to drink, combined with the prefix va or av. In his book The Vampire – His Kith and Kin Montague Summers suggests that while this is a possible source for the word, it is an improbable source and that the Greek superstition of the vrykolakas is steeped in Slavic origin ( Summers , 1928, 1929, p. 18). Depending on the source, some believe that the Slavic myth of the vyrdolak has Greek origins, while others insist that the Greek vrykolakas has Slavic origins.

The third belief is that the origin of the word is the Hungarian word vampir. This is a popular theory among the English and Americans; however, it is unlikely, given that the first use of the Hungarian word post-dates the use of the term in many Western languages (Wilson , 1985 , p. 578) .

The most universally accepted source is Slavic in origin. The well-known Grimm Brothers are among the many who favor this theory (Wilson , 1985 , p. 577) . Though most researchers agree that the word vampire is Slavic in origin, according to Brian Cooper, in his article “The Word Vampire: Its Slavonic Form and Origin,” the spellings of the various forms of vampires that begin with “vam” came from the Slavs appropriating the adulterated word back from the Greeks (Cooper , 2005 , p. 262) .

The Oxford English Dictionary has the earliest English usage of the word vampire from the 1741 text by Charles Forman, called Some queries and observations upon the Revolution in 1688. Their entry on vampires also included the printing of “The Travels of Three English Gentlemen” in The Harleian Miscellany (“Vampire , n. , ” 2020) . While this story was printed in 1745, it relates the travels of three English gentlemen in 1734. From this text:

The Vampyres, which come out of the Graves at Night time, rush upon People sleeping in their Beds, suck out all their Blood, and destroy them…Those who are destroyed by them, after their Death, become Vampyres; so that, to prevent so spreading an Evil, it is found requisite to drive a Stake through the dead Body, from whence, on this Occasion, the Blood flows as if the Person was alive. (Johnson & Oldys , 1745 , p. 358)

While the Oxford English Dictionary gives 1741 as the date of the first use of the word vampire, as its name suggests, this is the first English use of the word, making it entirely possible that one of the four possible origins Wilson notes is the actual origin of the word.

What is important to note is that whatever origin of the word “vampire” that the various linguists believe, none of the origins, as they relate to vampires, predate the late eighteenth century. Yet, stories of vampire lore, stories of those with vampiric traits, do. For this reason, the evolution of the vampire, as is discussed in this paper, is referring not only to the creature that is so named but also the creature that is depicted.

The characterization of a vampire is subjective and by no means homogenous. If one were to base their understanding of a vampire on nineteenth-century literature (e.g. Dracula ) and select current pop culture (e.g. John Carpenter’s Vampires ), they might consider a vampire a soulless undead creature who cannot see its own reflection, has two long fangs on the top of its mouth, which it uses to puncture the artery of its victims, and who can mesmerize its human prey. Its weaknesses are garlic, sunlight, staking, beheading, fire, and holy water. However, a look at ancient vampire folklore nets a broader definition of a vampire. Plagues that leave blisters; rabies that causes foaming at the mouth; coma patients thought to be dead but wake up; and possibly sufferers of porphyria, which causes the skin to rash and blister in the sunlight, were all considered evidence of some form of demonic or vampiric possession. This evidence provoked scared villagers to unearth the deceased, stake, and decapitate them–adding more credence to accounts of vampirism. Some of these early reports include exhumed corpses with fingernails and hair that continued to grow what appeared to be new healthy skin, and some stories report evidence of a devoured shroud in the coffin of the perceived vampire. If several family members died in a short time, the townspeople believed that the first to die had awoken from the dead as a vampire and cursed the other members of their families. Causing many people to believe plague victims were vampires (Barber , 1988 , p. 34-35) . While these early accounts predate the word “vampire,” there is a discernable resemblance to nineteenth century and later literary vampire renderings.

Though those early, mostly European, reports of the dead rising from the grave have made their way into many written accounts of vampire sightings, not all vampire researchers believe early vampire folklore are tales of “true” vampires. In his book The Vampire A New History , Nick Groom asserts:

Vampires are not demons, ghosts, wraiths, revenants or witches – although their stories are sometimes entwined. Vampires occupy their own distinctive category among bloodsuckers, and likewise they should not be too closely tied to a bundle of generalized fears about the dead, the undead, contagion or death. (Groom , 2018 , p. 12)

While stories of vampires predating the vampire’s ingress into literature encompass expansive characteristics, Groom’s suggestions assert that the character traits one might assign to a “true” vampire could be narrower than early folklore suggests. He is not alone in this belief.

Montague Summers, in his book The Vampire in Europe, compares what he considers the “true” vampire to early folklore:

I would emphasize that the vampiric idea was present among well-nigh all ancient peoples, the one great difference, important enough but not wholly essential, being that whereas the true vampire is a dead body, the vampires of the older superstitions were generally ghosts or spectres, but ghosts were sometimes tangible and spectres who could do very material harm to living people by exhausting their vitality and draining their blood. (Summers , 1996 , p. 64)

Though both Groom and Summers denounce vampiric folklore as stories of true vampires, both men include many such stories in their written works on vampires. Therefore, it appears they instinctually understand that taking the irrational fears of primitive humans, born of ignorance of the effects of illness on the human body into account, one could consider a vampire to be any person or creature–more often than not, undead–who steals the life force, in the form of energy, blood, or spiritual essence of a human. At the very least, both men recognize that many modern vampire traits have roots in these archaic vampire renderings. Thus, discounting the idea that these older superstitions are also vampires, as Summers and Groom would have us do, would be a mistake.

One example of an archaic vampire-like story illustrates the epitome of what many would consider vampiric traits. An ancient demon in an Assyrian cuneiform incantation about seven spirits, translated by R. Campbell Thompson in his book Semitic Magic: Its Origins and Development , reads:

Knowing no mercy, they rage against mankind, They spill their blood like rain, Devouring their flesh…sucking their veins. (Thompson , 1908 , p. 48-49)

Thompson’s book includes translations of other texts also describing demons with similar characteristics to vampires. One such verse reads, “Whether thou art an evil Spirit or Evil Demon…Or Phantom of the night, or Wraith of the night…” (Thompson , 1908 , p. 98) . While these spirits might not fit Groom’s or Summer’s definition of a true vampire, their influence on the modern vampire construct is evident. Therefore, these early stories of vampire-like creatures should not be overlooked as vampires when trying to understand the nature of vampires.

The Birth of Vampire Literary Fiction and Cinema

When stories of vampires began to show up in literary fiction, they followed the same pattern of early folklore vampires, in that they were monstrous creatures, lacking a moral compass. However, these vampires often had the ability to mimic humanity; their monstrous side could be hidden. This human-like vampire is the beginning of the evolution of vampires that ultimately ends in them reaching romantic or heroic status. This is where they start to pull away from the Shadow archetype and the mythical representation of vampires that Jung and Campbell speak of. They move from the subconscious to the conscious, becoming their own archetypes.

Vampire literature came into vogue in Europe during the nineteenth century. From folklore and fairytales to Gothic literature, stories of vampires were all the rage. In Fairy Tales of the Russians and Other Slavs , Ace and Olga Pilkington devote an entire section to early nineteenth-century tales of the Undead, translated from their original Slavic languages. These stories mostly lend authority to the idea that vampires are evil creatures – some bearing a remarkable resemblance to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Some of these fairytales could very well have laid the foundation for popular mid to late-nineteenth-century vampire stories such as “Giaour,” The Vampyre, Varney the Vampire, and Dracula . These stories were the start of a new paradigm in vampire representation, where these evil creatures were no longer historical stories of purportedly real creatures one should fear, but fictional stories meant to entertain, thrill, and scare the reader.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the quintessential literary vampire solidified in the form of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, the progeny of Giaour, Lord Ruthven, Varney, and the like. While some cinematic versions, to some extent, portray him as a romantic seducer, he is still undeniably evil. Yet his tragic story has entranced readers for centuries.

Vlad the Impaler, touted as Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula, bears little resemblance to him, other than sharing a name. In Stoker’s personal notes for Dracula, there is only a short mention of the name Dracula in reference to Vlad the Impaler. However, in the novel itself, Van Helsing mentions that a scholar friend of his believes “He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land” (Stoker , 2003 , p. 285) . Yet, other than a thirst for blood—Dracula’s being literal and Vlad’s being figurative—Dracula shares no characteristics with Vlad the Impaler. In fact, Stoker was initially considering the name Count Wampyr. Stoker notes that the name Dracula means “devil” in the Wallachian language, which is likely the reason for the name change (Eighteen-Bisang , 2008 , p. 244-245) . His name lends credence to the idea that the fight against vampires is the fight against evil in its purest form. What better name to portray the evil of Count Dracula than a name that claims him to be the devil himself?

Assistant Professor Ani Kokobobo, from the University of Kansas, believes that rather than Vlad the Impaler being the inspiration for Dracula, it is more likely that Elizabeth Bathory, known as the Blood Countess, was his true inspiration (“The Bleeding Truth about Vampires,” 2020). While Dracula does have more in common with the blood-draining Countess than Vlad the Impaler, he bears a much closer resemblance to the earlier literary folklore and fiction vampires.

Dracula was the fulcrum of generations of vampires to come. Stoker’s genius was in his ability to combine the most interesting vampiric traits derived from his nineteenth-century contemporaries, as well as earlier folklore, to create a frightening yet fantastical creature whose darkness appeals to humankind’s deep-seated dark nature. From his name to his physical and supernatural characteristics, Stoker meant to affect the very picture of a monster when one heard or read the name Dracula. Van Helsing speaks of Dracula’s cunning, just as the Bible speaks of the serpent in the Garden of Eden as “more crafty than any other beast of the field…” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Genesis 3:1).

Other characteristics of Dracula meant to strike fear in the hearts of mortals are his powers over storms and the dead. He is able to disappear from one location and reappear in another, become mist or dust, traveling on rays of moonlight, and enter a room through the tiniest of crevasses—making escape from him nearly impossible. He can hypnotize humans to do his bidding, as well as command rats, owls, bats, moths, foxes, and wolves, and even transform himself into a wolf or a bat. Perhaps, even scarier for its implications for humans is his ability to become younger when he is well-fed—blood being the only sustenance he needs (Stoker , 2003 , p. 281-284) .

For all his powers, Dracula is not without his limitations. Though he has the ability to enter a room through tiny cracks, he is unable to enter a place he has not been invited into, but need only be invited once. Then he may continue to enter any time he wishes. Yet another of his limitations is his ability to change form only at noon, sunset, or sunrise. This leaves him more vulnerable if caught in an animal state. He also needs to be near his home soil, which he keeps in coffins in various locations, in order to remain at full strength. Van Helsing informs his fellow hunters of other weaknesses of Dracula. He states:

Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of; and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix… The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead; and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace; or the cut-off head that giveth rest. We have seen it with our eyes. (Stoker , 2003 , p. 284)

From the earliest to present-day vampire stories, these monsters are never completely invincible. If they were, there would be no hope for the human race. If vampires started as a myth that our subconscious mind created as the embodiment of our dark nature, then having the ability to overcome the vampire means that we also have the means to overcome our dark nature.

When vampires moved into film, like the early literary vampire stories, the early cinema starts off with completely monstrous vampires, and slowly, endearing qualities are introduced, showing the evolution of vampires from monstrous to romantic continues on in cinema. The silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror , produced by Prana Films, and directed by F.W. Murnau , was the first cinematic depiction of Dracula. Though the vampire character, played by Max Schreck, was named Count Orlok, the similarities between the film and the book were close enough that Stoker’s widow, Florence Stoker, successfully sued Prana Film for copyright infringement. Like Count Dracula, Count Orlok had no redeeming qualities.

One of the most famous twentieth-century cinematic versions of Dracula , and the first to include sound, was the 1931 version staring Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi. Not caring to repeat Prana Film’s blunder, Universal Pictures secured the rights to produce their adaption of Stoker’s story. Dracula may be a monster in deeds in this adaption, but unlike Count Orlok, Lugosi’s character is no monster in appearance. This cinematic version is one of the first to incorporate a sexual element into Dracula’s visage. Lugosi’s character was a handsome man, aristocratic in appearance. His posture remained straight, and his speech clear and concise. His clothes were never rumpled, and he moved with grace and dignity. His focused stare and slow movements towards Mina’s neck gave the appearance of a suitor moving in for a kiss, thus cultivating the idea that a vampire’s nature might be multifaceted. This perversion of the original Dracula story—that removes some of the sinister traits of Dracula and replaces them with characteristics that viewers can relate to paves the way for the tragic vampire, the tortured antihero.

The Tragedy of Mid to Late Twentieth-Century Vampires

Early folklore, nineteenth-century, and early twentieth-century stories and cinema introduced the world to the monstrous vampire. However, in the mid-twentieth century, a new kind of vampire began to emerge, the tragic vampire. Though they were on the precipice of good and evil, they were worthy of our pity. These creatures were only doing what it is in their nature to do. Most of them never asked for their monstrous fate. They cannot help what they are, and like the Byronic hero, they scorn their very nature and lament their fate. In her article “Rehabilitating Revenants, or Sympathetic Vampires in Recent Fiction,” Joan Gordon refers to these vampires as the sympathetic vampires (Gordon , 2011 , p. 227-233) . Referring to these creatures as sympathetic is a misnomer, though. It insinuates that they feel sympathy for others; however, they are generally self-centered creatures. They bemoan the fact that they are “monsters,” that they lack in love, that they have killed to survive. Melancholy would be a better word to describe these tragic creatures who cannot see past their own pain. Literature and cinematic stories such as Dark Shadows , Interview with the Vampire , and Dracula Untold are the bridge between the monstrous and the romantic vampire. For a change from monstrous to romantic to occur, the vampire must first learn to hate its very nature, just as in the bible humankind are told to “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Romans 12:9b). One television show, in particular, illustrates vampire self-hatred— Forever Knight .

Forever Knight

The 1992-1996 television show Forever Knight follows the story of Nick Knight, a vampire cop living and working in Toronto, Canada. Eight-hundred-year-old Knight was the embodiment of the tragic vampire. His distaste for his state and the atrocities he perpetrated on humans throughout hundreds of years was so overwhelming that he was in a constant battle to fight his nature. Knight did his best to avoid drinking human blood by consuming the blood of animals. He no longer killed indiscriminately, choosing to use his vampiric powers only when necessary—generally in the line of duty. Natalie Lambert, Knight’s friend, who is secretly in love with him, is the only human who knows that Knight is a vampire. At the end of the last season, she begs Knight to make her a vampire. He gives in and starts the transformation, but before he completes it, he realizes he cannot subject Lambert to the same fate he has been fighting for so long and allows her to die rather than turning her into what he perceives as his monstrous state. Then in a fit of remorse, he begs another vampire to help him end his life. This Romeo and Juliet -like ending cements the story’s place among cinematic tragedies.

What makes vampires like Nick Knight so tragic is that though they despise their very nature, they cannot overcome it no matter how hard they try, just as the apostle Paul says in Romans 7:15, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , Romans 7:15). As this scripture illustrates, humans are no strangers to the fight against their own nature.

Campbell says, “Myths inspire the realization of the possibility of your perfection, the fullness of your strength, and the bringing of solar light into the world. Slaying monsters is slaying the dark things” (148). To which, Moyers asks Campbell, “How do I slay that dragon in me” (148)? In response, Campbell says, “My general formula…is ‘Follow your bliss. Find where it is, and don’t be afraid to follow it’” (p. 148). Nick’s inability to achieve happiness was rooted in his inability to realize the possibility of his perfection.

From Tragedy Comes Romanticism

While the monstrous vampire archetype dominates early folklore literature and nineteenth-century literature, and the lost and lonely tragic vampire archetype emerges in twentieth-century literature, twenty-first-century literature and cinema gives its audience what the evil turned tragic vampire wants, redemption in the form of the romantic vampire archetype. These vampires were the heroes who overcame their tarnished pasts, which makes this new era of vampires so seductive. Much like man, the modern vampire seeks salvation. In the book The Power of Myth , Bill Moyer calls heaven “[T]hat desired goal of most people” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 39) . For the vampire to attain this goal, it must become something more than an evil or tragic creature. It must become the hero.

When the romantic hero-like vampire reached its prominence in the literary world during the twenty-first century, writers capitalized on the new craze in vampire stories. This new model of vampires sometimes dedicated themselves to the destruction of evil vampires. Campbell states, “Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 127) . The focus of the twenty-first-century consciousness was on the need for a hero. Writers exploited this need and seduced the readers into believing that vampires are not evil. These authors mesmerize readers with tales of good versus evil, where good triumphs over evil in the end.

Not only are modern authors creating vampires that are no longer as frightening as their nineteenth-century predecessors, but they are also making completely new rules for what defines a vampire and sometimes how they come into being. Vampires having an aversion to garlic is not guaranteed. Many are not soulless. To name just a few modern romantic vampire series, there are Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga, and Lynsay Sand’s Argeneau series—a tale of vampires with unusual origins that perfectly fits with the post-demonic, romantic representation of the heroic vampire.

Argeneau Series

Lynsay Sands has a unique take on her vampires. The first vampires were Atlanteans, an advanced race of humans whose doctors created tiny nanobots to enter the bloodstream of those with serious illnesses to attack and destroy those illnesses. These nanobots were meant to die off when they finished healing the patient. For all their advanced intelligence, the Atlantean doctors failed to predict that because the human body was always under attack from illness and disease, the nanobots would never die. These nanobots even considered aging to be a disease that needs curing. Any human could become a vampire by the introduction of nanobots into their bloodstream. Once they became a vampire, the nanobots would change the makeup of their genes until they became their perfect age, and their body was in its perfect condition. If an overweight senior citizen became a vampire, they would suddenly find themselves looking and feeling like a healthy 25-year-old. They became the perfect versions of themselves. These vampire traits appeal to human ideals of physical perfection.

When Atlantis fell, only the Atlanteans with the nanobots inside them survived. However, because the rest of the world was not nearly as advanced as the Atlanteans and didn’t have blood banks, the nanobots evolved their hosts to be able to extract blood through their straw-like teeth to get what they needed from other humans. They also evolved their host to be able to read the thoughts of humans, and even other Atlanteans, for the purpose of calming and controlling those they were feeding on.

Just like humans, among her stories, there are virtuous vampires and unscrupulous vampires. Some of these noble and moral vampires take it upon themselves to protect humanity from the wicked ones’ intent on committing evil deeds, setting the good vampires up as heroic or romantic figures. While these vampires have super strength, exceptional hearing, enhanced vision, and must drink blood to survive, they by no means resemble the monsters of earlier tales. They are no more evil than any other human being. Once civilization advanced to the point of having blood banks, the immortals even created laws against drinking blood directly from humans, rather than bagged blood, except in an emergency, as well as other laws meant to keep them in check and protect humans.

Enhancing the romantic impact of her vampires, Sands gave them each one true love, called a lifemate, for whom they are always on the search. When a vampire met their possible lifemate, they would know them by certain traits. They could not read their lifemate’s mind or control them. In Sands’s book Vampire Interrupted , the vampire Julius says to his lifemate, “Marguerite, we are lifemates. I can’t read or control you” (Sands , 2009 , p. 230) . This was not the only trait Marguerite and Julius shared that labeled them as lifemates. Lifemates would have shared dreams if they were in close proximity and sleeping at the same time. Unmated vampires, after about a hundred or two years of existence, would lose interest in things like eating and sex. However, if both, or just one of a pair of lifemates, were vampires when they met, they would suddenly find themselves having a renewed interest in both food and copulation. Lifemates were soulmates, and this perfect love was sought-after by most vampires.

These romantic vampires have reached a state that the tragic vampire covets—a state where they are more than just monsters. In becoming worthy of love, the vampire transcends from the monster vampire to the tragic vampire to the romantic vampire. Though the vampire’s journey from the monster myth to the romantic archetype parallels humankind’s journey from sinner to redeemed, neither vampires nor humans have completely rid themselves of their dark nature. They have suppressed it and allowed the good within themselves to outshine the bad. The New Testament, 1 John 1:8 describes how all people have this darker side, or sin, as it reads, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” ( English Standard Version Bible , 2001 , 1 John 1:8). Though it has a suppressed dark side, the modern romantic vampire has overcome the stigma of the monstrous vampire and despair of the tragic vampire and has metamorphosed from the villain to the hero. When Moyers asks Campbell, “So the hero evolves over time like most other concepts?”

Campbell replies, “He evolves as culture evolves” (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 135) . Like the age-old hero archetype, the vampire has evolved to meet the needs of today’s society. It has evolved into the hero.

Conclusion: Out of the Shadow

Jung’s Shadow archetype is the dark side of the human psyche. This dark side gives birth to the subconscious monster myth, with the vampire myth being one manifestation of that monster myth. By moving from humankind’s subconscious to conscious mind—going from stories born of generalized fears to fictional literature meant to entertain—vampires moved from myth to archetype. In the same way, humans’ dark nature moved from unknown to known, or subconscious to conscious, or as Jung says, from the unconscious to the conscious.

The earliest vampire archetype is undeniably a monster. It drains the lifeforce or its victims, sucking their blood and devouring their flesh. It knows no other path than the road to damnation. This monster represents humankind’s dark nature, but unlike the vampire myth, this vampire, like some of its human contemporaries, knows its nature and has no desire to be anything other than what it is, a monster.

Like humans, some vampires, once becoming self-aware, became disgusted with who they were and longed to be more, to be made pure. These vampires are the tragic vampire archetype, the vampire who abhors its own existence. It lives a self-sacrificing life out of guilt and a need for redemption. Its repentance comes from a place of fear of damnation and a fear of the monster within.

The third vampire archetype to splinter from the vampire myth and evolve from the monster and tragic vampire is the romantic vampire. The romantic vampire is a protector, a lover, a paragon and has found its salvation in this existence. And though it still carries within a repressed dark nature, what makes the romantic vampire a hero is its ability to resist the temptation to give in to its dark nature, though like humans, it sometimes finds the temptation almost overwhelming. When the vampire evolves from the tragic vampire to the romantic vampire, it has reached its desired state. For Judeo-Christians and many other religions, this would be when they find their salvation. For those of certain other religions as well as those without religious beliefs, this could be when they have reached the pinnacle of who they wish to be.

Just as humans will always have their sinful nature or Shadow self, there will always exist within the three vampire archetypes, a kernel of the Shadow myth, a seed of that sinful nature. The vampire evolves as we evolve. And like humans, not all vampires evolve into this exalted state. Some never leave the monster archetype or the tragic archetype behind, just as literature and cinema have not left them behind.

Campbell states, "What we call monsters can be experienced as sublime… you’re climbing, until suddenly you break past a screen and an expanse of horizon opens out, and somehow, with this diminishment of your own ego, your consciousness expands to an experience of the sublime (Campbell & Moyer , 1998 , p. 222) . Whether we are talking about vampires or humans, those with the goal of salvation from their monstrous self and who work towards that goal will suddenly find they have reached their destination, and then they can truly experience their bliss.

Submitted : February 19, 2021 MDT

Accepted : April 13, 2021 MDT

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• Published: 24 March 2015

The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: a research note towards comparative ethnography

• John Edgar Browning 1  

Palgrave Communications volume  1 , Article number:  15006 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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• Cultural and media studies

This research note is an elaboration of my ethnographic work of the last 5 years and is here presented to raise careful discussion of the little-explored identity and phenomenon of “real vampirism”. An auxiliary purpose of these preliminary findings is to draw attention specifically to a yet unexplored dimension of the real vampire identity: geographical specificity. This line of enquiry is informed by the intensive ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in 2009–2011 in the New Orleans metropolitan area, and by supplementary ethnographic work in 2011–2013 in Buffalo, New York. Also explored is what I term “defiant culture”, through which, I posit, vampire self-identification is able to achieve a measure of empowerment by resisting “normalcy” while critiquing and challenging the power structures that re/produce it.

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Introduction

I offer the following research note, not as a complete report, but as an elaboration of my work over the last 5 years with the aim of raising careful discussion and consideration of what has come to be known, critically, as the “real vampire community”, which boasts of members in several countries, from the United States and England to Russia and South Africa. With this general thematic in mind, an auxiliary purpose of my preliminary findings is to draw attention specifically to a yet unexplored dimension of the real vampire identity: geographical specificity. This line of enquiry is informed by the intensive ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in 2009–2011 in the New Orleans metropolitan area, and by supplementary ethnographic work in 2011–2013 in Buffalo, New York. In the end, however, I generate what are seemingly more questions than answers, answers which I hope to remediate through further analysis with the help of current and future scholars engaged in this research.

I will begin first by outlining a brief history of the real vampire community and the literature treating it. Then, after addressing my study methodology, tools and documents, I will situate real vampirism in tandem with film, fiction and other categories in which popular culture traditionally situates monstrous figures and consider afterwards the various ways in which the figure of the vampire has been appropriated by and adapted to the real vampire community. I will then attempt to elucidate what insights vampire self-identification in particular sites like New Orleans and Buffalo yield about identity construction. Finally, after examining particular constructions like “subculture”, “deviance”, and my term, “defiant culture”, I will address whether the participants at these sites can aid in making visible normative ideological structures while creating for themselves new and complex opportunities for agency in a world in which they are routinely outcast.

Community history and literature

The umbrella term “real vampire community” is used to describe “modern vampires” or “real vampires”, Footnote 1 terms that refer interchangeably to people who consume human and/or animal blood (sanguinarian), absorb psychic energy (psychic vampire or psi-vamp) or both (hybrid), and do so out of a need that, according to my study participants, begins to manifest around puberty and derives from the lack of subtle energies their bodies produce. This self-described nature is a condition for which they claim to be given neither a choice nor the freedom to change. Moreover, should they refrain from feeding on blood or energy, they attest to feeling weak and experiencing an overall diminished health. What real vampirism is not , however, is the sole adoption of Gothic dress and prosthetic fangs for aesthetic purposes, as though real vampirism were merely a practice or fad that one might adopt one day and discard the next. Such a description denotes an entirely different class of people, which the real vampire community has termed “lifestylers”. To real vampires, Gothic or dark clothing and fangs are, as I will explain in more detail later, merely supplementary identificatory markers of, or hegemonic modes of group expression for, their inherent condition (much in the same way that same-sex desire, for example, is categorically distinct from, and in no way dependent on, the myriad cultural practices of the gay community).

So when did the real vampire community emerge and where did it come from? For some, the truth will undoubtedly be stranger than fiction. The terms “vampire community”, “real vampire community” or “modern vampire community”, as Browning (2014) lays out, did not see use until the late 1990s, and at that point they referred primarily to a network of online message boards, chat rooms and e-mail groups. Even still, a vastly disjointed network of people who self-identified as vampire had already existed for at least two decades. No one knows for sure just how many there were, but in the 1970s people who openly or secretively identified as vampire began regularly attending the same themed social gatherings and, in so doing, enabled to begin the process of networking with one another and identifying blood and energy donors. These social gatherings included Dark Shadows conventions and other vampire fiction and film fan organizations; bondage and S&M events, which were frequented by blood fetishists and others whom real vampires found to be willing blood donors; Goth clubs; as well as variously affiliated pagan groups. Also appearing at this time in limited print runs were self-printed newsletters (or zines), which were especially helpful towards merging into one interconnected community the individual and small independent pockets of real vampires that peppered the United States.

The first research organizations dedicated to the study of vampires emerged in the 1960s. Jeanne Keyes Youngson, for example, founded in 1965 the Count Dracula Fan Club (now The Vampire Empire), an organization originally dedicated to Dracula and vampire fiction and film. However, after Youngson began receiving letters from real vampires, the organization’s studies were extended, leading Youngson to publish a casebook of some of her more fascinating correspondence. The most notable early researcher, however, was Stephen Kaplan, who in 1972 formed the Vampire Research Center in Suffolk County, New York. There Kaplan supervised a “vampire hotline”, which received numerous phone calls (many of them hoaxes) from real vampires. On several occasions, Kaplan made actual house calls to meet with some of his phone responders. The book in which Kaplan reported his findings remains a canonical, albeit problematic text in the field. Before long, other important figures begin to emerge, like Martin V Riccardo who in 1977 founded the Vampire Studies Society and printed quarterly newsletter entitled, Journal of Vampirism . In 1978, the Vampire Information Exchange emerged and published through to the mid-2000s the Vampire Information Exchange Newsletter . Other pertinent studies in the field were to follow in the 1980s as well as the 1990s, from scholars like Riccardo, folklorists like Norine Dresser, researchers and paranormalists like Rosemary Ellen Guiley, journalists like Carol Page and academic criminologists like Katherine Ramsland. The 1990s also brought two historically significant events in the growth and expansion of the real vampire community. The first was Anne Rice conventions, which provided closeted and unaffiliated real vampires with a bounty of opportunities for socializing and networking. Of more profound importance during this period, however, was White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade , a publication that laid the ground rules for a vampire role-playing game and provided, if inadvertently, a social space within which real vampires could congregate and network openly. Vampire: The Masquerade introduced a lexicon, conventions, protocols and identifiers that the real vampire community adopted and adapted to its own needs. Thus emerged the predominant and somewhat unifying identity that persists today.

In the last decade, however, it is the Internet to which the real vampire community owes much of its prosperity. Whereas in the past real vampires existed in pockets or as isolated individuals and, to communicate, were therefore dependent on geographically close fan conventions and low-circulation newsletters, the Internet dissolved geographic limitations, made print correspondence almost entirely obsolete, and opened up vastly more efficient e-forums, chat rooms and e-communication. The 2000s have seen not only new scholarship treating real vampirism but works by actual members of the community itself, including Michelle Belanger, Corvis Nocturnum and Atlanta community leader Merticus of the Atlanta Vampire Alliance (AVA). The most important academic work of the last decade, however, as I will elaborate momentarily, has come at the hands of Joseph Laycock, followed by the shorter works of DJ Williams, John Morehead and myself.

Short popular writings on real vampirism have been so sparse that I am able to give here a near complete history. As more general works go, beneficial is Hoyt’s (1984) Lust For Blood: The Consuming Story of Vampires , which, although focused on the history of supernatural vampires from ancient mythological accounts to twentieth-century accounts in both America and Europe, provides a sampling of modern-day accounts about American vampire “practitioners” and surveys briefly the more famous cases of blood-drinking serial killings. Melton’s (1999) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead is an invaluable first source, defining in minute detail major as well as minor terms that treat the various aspects of the vampire phenomena. Finally, Ramsland’s (2002) The Science of Vampires offers interviews with vampire “practitioners”, forensic experts and various specialists whose works and personal accounts explore the myths and modern-day realities of vampirism.

These next works are among the earliest to examine real vampirism more directly and served as the basis for much subsequent research. A canonical work in the field, Kaplan’s (1984) Vampires Are is a compilation of Kaplan’s findings on “real vampires” before a community existed. Also, Kaplan’s Vampire Research Center was the first of its kind and would provide a model for future research centres and institutions. Dresser’s (1989) American Vampires: Fans, Victims, and Practitioners examines various aspects of the vampire culture in America, from people who experience sexual gratification through blood-letting rituals and consumption, to lifestylers (or people who adopt the visual trappings of vampires), to fans merely obsessed with vampire media. Guiley’s (1991) Vampires Among Us uses a more personal approach to present stories about people who identify themselves as vampires, while also considering the folkloric history of vampires and its influence on the modern-day real vampire scene. Page’s (1993) Bloodlust: Conversations with Real Vampires , one of the first studies of its kind and now regarded as a seminal work in the field, offers interviews with and a detailed look at people who self-identify as vampire while discussing the various aspects of their day-to-day lives. Skal’s (1993) The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror explores in one of its chapters the conflation between blood contamination and vampirism during the Regan years and even provides an interview between the author and a modern-day real vampire. In Ramsland’s (1999) Piercing the Darkness: Undercover with Vampires in America Today , she uses the story of Susan Walsh, who disappeared while investigating vampire cults in 1996, to frame her own investigation into vampiric blood-letting, sexuality and body modification. And lastly, Youngson’s (1997) Private Files of a Vampirologist: Case Histories & Letters examines 11 case studies and 14 personal letters addressed to Youngson by people who self-identify as vampire.

Among the most recent studies (many by actual vampire writers) to begin exploring the vampire community as we understand it today is Guinn’s (1997) Something in the Blood: The Underground World of Today’s Vampires , which provides an introduction to the vampire subculture using interviews not only with people who identify themselves as vampires but people who have unwillingly fallen victim to so-called predatory vampires. Konstantinos’s (2003) Vampires: The Occult Truth explores the occult truths behind vampires using first-person accounts that treat of not only the vampires of folklore but also modern-day psychic and sanguinarian vampires. Nocturnum and Filipak’s (2009) Allure of the Vampire: Our Sexual Attraction to the Undead examines in detail culture’s attraction to vampires by tracing their history in folklore, books and film, from ancient mythology to the modern-day vampire community. Russo’s (2008) Vampire Nation dispels the centuries-old myths and rumours behind vampirism, provides accounts of actual vampirism and real-life narratives, and interviews modern-day vampires who reveal their feeding rituals and behavioural practices.

Works by Belanger, who self-identifies as a psychic vampire, have become some of the most important and respected in the field. Her The Psychic Vampire Codex: A Manual of Magick and Energy Work ( 2004 ) is now considered a canonical work in the field. It examines the history and everyday reality of the real vampire community, its cultural practices and esoteric language, from mere lifestylers to the difference between “psychic” and “sanguinarian” vampires, again the community’s two main divisions. Belanger’s (2005) Sacred Hunger compiles her major essays on the topics of vampirism, Bram Stoker, Dracula, modern-day psychic and sanguinarian vampires, and the history and development of the real vampire subculture. Finally, Belanger’s (2007) Vampires in Their Own Words: An Anthology of Vampire Voices , for which she serves as editor, compiles various essays and personal narratives predominantly by and concerning people who identify themselves as vampires, as well as, to a lesser degree, wiccans and various other lifestylers who write on vampirism and various facets of the vampire subculture and lifestyle. By far the most valuable study on the modern-day vampire community, Laycock’s (2009) Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism explores representations of vampirism using extensive interviews predominantly with members of the AVA as well as a few other vampire communities throughout the United States. This work examines not only real vampires, who, as I have said, report feeling a natural attraction towards blood and energy consumption, but lifestylers as well who have adopted the Gothic aesthetic that has come to be associated with the vampires of media. Laycock’s book, which has proven to be indispensable in understanding the real vampire community, its infrastructure and its organizational history, now serves as a canonical study in the field. There is also a small body of (problematic) socio-religious writings on the real vampire identity that Laycock (2010) outlines in his more recent work. Finally, Williams (2008 , 2009 , 2013 ), and Browning (2010a ,  2010b , 2011 ), treat of the creative, therapeutic, self-liberating and antinormative nature of real vampirism.

Methodology and study documents

I have approached my New Orleans (2009–2011) and Buffalo (2011–2013) studies using multiple resources, tools and techniques. The texts outlined in the previous section are among the most valuable of these resources in providing the study with a conceptual framework with which to proceed. Two of these texts in particular provided valuable insight into current vampire research and terminology, thereby enabling me to assemble what has become perhaps this study’s most research valuable tool: the participant “Questionnaire”, which I shall examine in-depth momentarily. Other valuable tools included my satchel, clipboards, writing utensils and a digital voice recorder. Other, less crucial tools included latex gloves (in the event I was expected to examine a participant’s fangs, or witness the process of exsanguination—that is, the blood-letting ritual performed between a sanguinarian vampire and his or her donor) and a flashlight (in the event my study brings me to a dimly-lit field site). Lastly, among the techniques I utilized for these studies included field notes, as well as observations conducted at various locations throughout the French Quarter (New Orleans), including Gothic apparel shops, night clubs, sidewalks and alleyways.

“General Questionnaire A-2” provided this study’s most crucial data. Of the 15 (14 active) participants in the New Orleans study and 4 in the Buffalo study, approximately 13 have completed this questionnaire. It includes the prefatory statement, “Please briefly answer the following questions as specifically or generally as you feel comfortable with. Please do not answer any question you do not want to”, followed by 36 questions, the answers to which offer valuable insight into the lives and cultural practices of the participants. The questions were as follows:

Name, or alias?

Since high school, what jobs have you held?

Present occupation?

Do you live in New Orleans/Buffalo? If not, where then, and why are you presently living in your present location?

Sexual orientation?

Married? Children?

Are you a vampyre, or vampire, or any variation thereof?

How long have you been a vampyre?

Do you feel you were born a vampyre, or were you somehow initiated into it, or both?

Do you have fangs? Please describe them?

Do you consume human blood? Animal blood? Both?

Do you consume psychic energy?

Define psychic energy?

Describe your first blood-drinking, or psychic energy-absorbing, experience?

Does the site or taste of blood or psychic energy arouse you sexually?

When and how did you first know you were a vampyre?

Why do you consume blood or psychic energy, or both?

What does blood taste like, specifically?

How do you feel while you consume blood or psychic energy? After?

Do you prefer blood to be chilled or warm, or both? Mixed with another liquid? Other?

Do you store blood, and if so how?

Have you ever become sick after consuming blood?

How much blood or psychic energy do you consume at one time?

How often do you need to consume blood or psychic energy?

What, if anything happens if you don’t consume blood or psychic energy?

What effect do you think consuming blood or psychic energy has had on your life?

Where do you get the blood or psychic energy? If donors, describe them?

How do you extract the blood or psychic energy?

How did you learn to extract blood or psychic energy?

How do you feel if you don’t consume blood or psychic energy?

Has your health changed since you started consuming blood or psychic energy?

Has your appearance changed since you started consuming blood or psychic energy?

What type of bed do you sleep in?

What other foods do you eat? How much? How often?

What is the most convenient way for me to contact you again? Specify?

Fieldwork, field site(s) and “reel” vampirism

I should like to say a few words now on the specific habits and cultural identificatory markers predominant among real vampires. Doing so will help to dispel a few myths or misconceptions. Real vampires do not generally sleep in coffins (though certainly some have and do), and they do not claim to live forever. Indeed, real vampires diffuse beyond the realms of film and literature in which popular culture has traditionally situated them. Real vampires are living people, generally leading what may be deemed everyday lives, and who, according to what I and other scholars have been able to ascertain, appropriate the figure of the vampire and adapt it for self-identificatory purposes. This, however, they do only after —in many cases, years after—the compulsion to take blood or energy arises. Even still, this is not to say that some of the fictional vampire’s more obvious cultural and socio-historical dimensions in film and literature are not reflected in real vampires.

Aside from blood-drinking and feeding on energy, a sizeable number in the real vampire community prefers to don Gothic apparel (though certainly not all the time), and many will even don prosthetic fangs, a practice that, for the most, is purely aesthetic, though it can and does serve a cultural need, especially in New Orleans where fangs contribute to inter-communal identification. Scholars and curious observers interested in real vampire communities around the world have begun to probe this subculture with renewed vigour to ask why , partly in an attempt to gain new insight, but for some regrettably it is to disqualify, or suppress I think, this identity group. I suspect that latter does so mainly out of a host of misconceptions as the “real” and the “reel” continue to blur more and more seamlessly into one another in and outside of the vampire subculture. There has even transpired, upon closer scrutiny, a certain degree of cross-pollination between the two realms. That is to say, the more “Goth” or “Steampunk” variety of self-identifying human vampires—which, in fact, comprises only a portion of the vampire community—seems to be informing with increasing regularity the representations of vampires we see in film, television and literature (not just the other way around). The process has become recursive. Thus, to divorce completely this subculture from literary and filmic representations is to deny it its modernity.

Similar may be said for denying real vampires of their humanity. In my own dealings with the real vampire community in New Orleans and Buffalo, I found its members to be kind, accommodating and pleasant to be around. To my surprise, some were loving parents whose children accompanied them to vampire community meetings. Some could have passed for everyday “professionals” one might pass on the street, while others were only too eager to embrace the latest Gothic fashions. All of them, however, regardless of their choice of personal attire, showed what I can only describe as admirable strength and courage in the face of immense opposition to their identity. Equally important, they behave—and survive—as a community(s) .

Curiously, though perhaps not surprisingly, these communities are represented through an amalgam of identities and experiences. The real vampires I met and interviewed ranged in age from approximately 18–50; represented both sexes equally; practiced sanguinarian and/or psychic feeding; described themselves as atheistic, monotheistic or polytheistic; self-identified as heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual; some were parents; married and divorced; and were wearing or have worn fangs, or had, or have had, naturally long incisors. Unquestionably, I found the members of this community to be competent citizens, that they performed blood-letting and other similar rituals safely and did so only with willing donors, and participated regularly in medical checkups that scarcely (if ever) indicated complications as a result of their feeding practices.

The French Quarter, the central research site chosen for the New Orleans study, is particularly germane to this line of enquiry, as there are, I would imagine, few other research sites in which such a vastly diverse ethnic and cultural makeup may be observed to coexist in the open. It is also here, in the French Quarter, that I encountered all of my Louisiana participants. During the initial stages of this study, I was completely overcome with excitement and curiosity, and had very few expectations as to what, or whom, I would find. I must not omit to say, however, that I felt a certain amount of hope , which is something quite different from expectation , and it was hope that permitted a certain level of delusion to set in very early on. Early on, I think on a subconscious level I romanticized the research process. The longer it took me to locate my first participant, the more my delusion morphed and shaped how I imagined “my first time” (as I called it) would be. Finally, at Wicked New Orleans, a Gothic apparel shop, the opportunity arrived. The shop owner, with whom I was engaged in conversation, suddenly stopped me mid-sentence and advised me to go speak to a woman who had entered his shop, a woman he claimed was a “vampire”. I was completely unprepared for this; I never imagined “my first time” would be in a leather shop. Swallowing my pride, I walked over to the unsuspecting woman in her 40s–50s (whom I shall call “Jennifer”). I explained to Jennifer who I was and what I was doing in the French Quarter, to which she smiled and revealed her teeth (some of which had been filed down to a point). I made friendly conversation for a moment (and looking back, I cannot even remember what I said) then gave her my contact information, asking politely that she call or e-mail me at some point. Never, not for one second, did I think I would not see or hear from her again; but I did not. My first chance had come and gone, and I blew it.

As I began delving into some of the field’s early scholarship, particularly Kaplan’s work, I realized the difficulties I had been facing were nothing new to studies in real vampirism. Before going out into the field again, I poured over several scholarly and popular works, and eventually took a new initiative: Treat all future encounters with participants as though I would never see or hear from them again after the initial contact. To prepare, I compiled the “Questionnaire” and carried several copies with me, I brought along clipboards (for the participants to write on), latex gloves (in case of inspection involving blood or teeth), a flashlight (in case my research took me into dark places or homes) and a digital voice recorder (in case a participant refused to write his or her answers but agreed to verbalize them). Although my satchel grew heavier, my workload grew lighter, as the strategy would eventually pay off.

After Jennifer, almost another 2 months would pass before I could locate more participants for my study. A chance opportunity came one October night in 2009, however, when I frequented a club in the French Quarter called, “The Dungeon”. In the space of 2 h, I met there and documented five vampires. Among them were “Maven”, mid-30s, a “fangsmith” (designer and sculptor of made-to-order vampire fangs) of some repute I gathered and would later verify, and a local vampire elder 2 ; a vampire named “Max”, Maven’s sidekick, late-teens/early-20s, and a martial artist; a vampire named “Torch” (with whom I have now lost contact), mid-20s, quiet demeanour and elusive; a vampire I shall call “Victoria” (with whom I have now lost contact), Torch’s girlfriend, late-teens, excited by the prospect of participating in the study; and a vampire I shall call “James”, early-30s, who was initially hesitant to participate. The challenges, however, were far from over. All five participants left contact information in the “Questionnaire”, but only one phone number proved to be legitimate. This fact was rather an unfortunate one. However, after concluding my field observations at The Dungeon, something occurred to me after the fact: all the vampires who were present that night at the club arrived in separate, smaller groups: Maven and Max, Torch and Victoria, and James. Yet, all five participants knew each other by name, which suggested to me at the time at least a certain level of what one might call communiality. How, I remember thinking, would I ever be able to find this community if I could not even get one of its members to call me back or disclose an accurate e-mail address. It turned out I would only have to wait about a month.

Laycock (2009) aptly remarks that the public generally only hears about the real vampire community in the media following some “vampiric” serial murder, or during October as a means to exploit the season of death and monsters. Unfortunately, the New Orleans vampire community has not escaped Laycock’s assessment. An ABC 20/20 special on New Orleans’s real vampires broadcasted that October, one that, according to the community, sensationalized the whole ordeal by editing down their interviews and mixing and matching some of the questions and answers, incorporating into the programme the use of Gothicized music, images and other similar tropes, and in effect turning the whole account into a twisted fantasy. Another painfully negative outcome of the broadcast occurred in the Discussion/Comment Board that accompanied the video at ABC’s Website. As Browning (2010b) discusses at length, on it are statements from viewers who, to some degree, support the vampire community or one’s freedom of expression, but far more frequent were statements by unsupportive, misled or utterly irate viewers whose comments were unfounded and born out of assumptions, misconceptions and misinterpretations about the real vampire identity and community.

One of the vampires featured in the 20/20 broadcast was “Belfazaar (‘Zaar’) Ashantison”, a resident of New Orleans and a member of a community-wide council of vampire elders called the New Orleans Vampire Association (NOVA). It was through him, after meeting his expectations and gaining his trust through our initial interview, that I met over the next few weeks 10–12 additional members of the community, all of whom generously agreed to participate in my study. “Zaar” was in his early-40s, a local vampire elder, and a founding member of NOVA. I encountered the next eight participants at the initial NOVA meeting I attended: a vampire named “Corrien”, who looked to be in her late-30s; a vampire named “Reverend Boone”, in his late-30s/early-40s, who looked to be the most menacing of those in attendance to the meeting; a vampire I shall call “Meph” (short for “Mephistopheles”), a local vampire elder who suffers from a debilitating physical illness and therefore walked with a cane (a Barnabas Collins’s Dark Shadows replica); a vampire named “Jade”, a local vampire elder who looked to be in her mid-30s; a local vampire elder named “Reverend Jezabel de Luna” (or “Jez”), a larger than life female who looked to be in her mid-30s; a local vampire elder I shall call “Lorilee”, who looked to be in her mid-40s; a vampire I shall call “Tony”, who is a local tour guide, a local vampire elder and looked to be in his early-40s; and a vampire I shall call “Erin”, Tony’s girlfriend who looked to be in her late-30s. In time I would meet other vampires as well.

After I moved from New Orleans to Buffalo in Summer 2011, I was immediately interested in whether or not Buffalo had its own real vampire community and if it was similar to New Orleans’s. Perhaps “geography”, I thought, would offer another fruitful context within which to frame the fundamental relationship of the vampire identity to its cultural construction. Whether geographical specificity could yield insights into the more generalized umbrella of vampire self-identification became for me a new and fascinating avenue worth exploring. To carry out this new supplemental study, I planned to use the following research methods: contact leading members of the vampire community at large and through them obtain contact information for persons living in Buffalo who meet one of the categories given previously; frequent night clubs in the greater Buffalo area whose attendees either appropriate “Gothic”-style themes, or that are rumoured to be frequented by persons who meet one of the categories given previously, or both; post, in local newspapers and public e -forums, ads that describe my study and invite qualified persons to participate; frequent local stores that sell “Gothic”-themed goods, and there speak with the owner and workers, describe my study, ask about potentially qualified persons and leave at the store my contact information to be handed out accordingly.

Using information gathered over a period of several months from interviews and field observations, it was my intention for this supplementary study to provide behavioural and socio-cultural data geographically specific to study participants inhabiting the greater Buffalo area. Contrasting this study with the previous one would, I hope, allow me to perceive qualities of each field site that might otherwise appear to the average observer as “normal”, unrelated or universal. While conducting the study, I took along with me, just as I did in New Orleans, my trusty brown satchel containing IRB consent forms, pad and pen, flashlight, voice recorder and latex gloves. What I eventually found, through comparative analysis, was that my experiences with vampire self-identification in New Orleans yielded quite a lot about vampire identity construction in Buffalo, but it had less to do with similarities. Geography, it would seem, played a much greater part than perhaps any of us in the field had realized.

I began my study in Buffalo by first contacting through e-mail the people living there whose contact information I had received from leading members of the real vampire community. It was also my intention to frequent Gothic-styled night clubs or other places generally rumoured to be frequented by real vampires. However, neither was to be had, mainly because they simply did not exist as far as I could ascertain, though Club Diablo (now closed) was mentioned, albeit dubiously, as a potential site. Even still, my experiences in Buffalo were in some ways similar to New Orleans, though in many other ways they were quite different. For example, the term “ronin”, used by the vampire community at large to denote an individual vampire who is not affiliated with a particular house, coven and so on, was applicable to only a handful of vampires living in New Orleans. In Buffalo, however, the use of this term was universal, as the five vampires I encountered were not affiliated with any group, nor did any such group seem to exist within the city or outlying suburbs.

One of my study participants in Buffalo, whom I shall call simply “Christy” (early-30s), was a psychic vampire. Contact with Christy was confined to the Internet. We made several attempts to meet in-person, but conflicting schedules, illness and finances prevented this. There was also, with Christy, a strong issue of confidentiality. This was due in large part to an extenuating circumstance that made her situation quite different than any I encountered in New Orleans. Her partner with whom she lived at the time was not fully aware of the extent of her vampire self-identity, and what little he had been told he reacted negatively to. Additionally, Christy was engaged in the process of trying to gain custody of her daughter and felt (aptly so I think) that knowledge of her self-identity would impede that effort. The next two vampires in my study came as a pair: Serevus (male, 36) and Shyla (female, 19), who at the time were engaged to be married. Both were psychic vampires, and identified primarily as tantric feeder, which is to say they absorbed energy through sexual and erotic encounters. Shyla explained to me that this particular method is often misunderstood, that folks outside and even some within the real vampire community look at it as merely a craving for sex: “[S]ince I realized that I was a sexual vampire, I was really into the attraction—just the feelings. It’s not even just sex in itself, but the actual people flirting and things like that. It’s something I feel. And, you know alot of people don’t understand it”. I met with Serevus and Shyla together at a local Buffalo eatery on three occasions, and later I conducted interviews with each separately at a local prominent coffee shop. In both instances I found them to be very friendly and quite attuned not only to their self-identities but to the cultural practices of the vampire community at large. Although neither was affiliated with a vampire house, both were up-to-date on national and community-wide activities and practices; this contrasted greatly with my New Orleans participants, all of whom were members or leaders of a local vampire house but gave noticeably less attention to general, community-wide matters unless they were pertinent to New Orleans. Serevus and Shyla seemed adamant about starting their own household in Buffalo (a dream made all the more possible, they claimed, as a result of my study).

Contrasting these geographical studies through the use of interviews and field observations gathered from each field site has helped to accentuate place-specific behavioural and socio-cultural factors. On that note, it is worth mentioning as well that Halloween meant far less to the Buffalo identity than it did in New Orleans. For many in the vampire community, October in general, and Halloween in particular, can be a profitable time of year. Vampire organizations like the one I shadowed in New Orleans, fangsmiths (who construct prosthetic fangs for vampires), vampire event performers, and individual members and houses of the vampire community, all converge on large cities like New York, New Orleans and Atlanta, and in cities across the world, to participate in ceremonies and take part in celebration and fellowship. This is especially true for New Orleans, which plays host to some of the largest vampire events in the country. However, although the fruit of such gatherings is profit for the organizations and private parties who, in turn, feed that money back into their respective vampire communities and organizations, these profits are also vital to fuelling local charity events, such as those organized by Zaar and NOVA like feeding the homeless (at times, as many as 80–100 mouths) at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving or aiding those in general need, and to perpetuating the organizations who pride themselves on giving back to their local communities. This speaks voluminously of the vampire identity, which, to the outside world, is often associated purely with excess, psychopathology and a general sense of disconnection from community involvement. The reality, as I have tried to show, is actually far different. Modern vampires, through reconciling these and other, similar antitheticals, effectively critique ideological systems that dictate how normalcy should be constructed. Indeed, their metaphysical understandings of themselves and what they regard as their innate condition serve to “challenge”, as one external reader of this article found, “the authority of contemporary power structures and normalizing discourses of both western religion and modern medicine and psychiatry”. Footnote 2 In short, normativity is of minimal practical use to real vampires and serves little more than to recall for them hurtful memories of a repressive and oppressive system that shuns more than it embraces.

Closing remarks

Often we think of culture and otherness as mutually exclusive entities, the former always preceding, and generally dictating, the latter. But must they always exist along such a narrow continuum, or can the two accommodate between themselves a level of reciprocity? Indeed, I have found that they can, but more pertinently, how is this achieved? How can otherness achieve a mutual and recursive dialogue with culture? One answer may lie within deviant subcultural formation or, to put another way, what I term defiant culture . In what ways are marginalized groups key to understanding some larger dynamic? And how can otherness become, indeed, part of a broader cultural analysis? This remains a large, interesting yet unresolved problem.

My use of the term “subculture” as an analytical tool to describe the real vampire community is informed predominantly by the work of Australian Literary and Cultural Studies professor Ken Gelder. According to Gelder (2007) , subcultures share a “common narrative” as nonconformist and, thereby, non-normative. At least six “prevailing cultural logics”, by Gelder’s account, exist for identifying subcultures (3–4):

Routinely, members of a subculture are judged or conceived by the outside in negative terms in relation to labour. They may be considered idle or lazy, even too leisurely, or they may partake of work related to their own subculture that is looked upon by the outside as parasitical, counter to “legitimate” work or even illegal.

A subculture’s relation to class is only vaguely understood. Some subcultures are even seen as digressing completely from their class, discarding any class affiliation or “ ‘transcending’ class as a result of the particular cultural adjustments they have made”.

Property ownership is seen as somehow antithetical to subcultural identity. For, subcultures tend to territorialize, rather than own, a geographical location or area, in this way creating new modes of expression and belonging that is based in part on place.

Typically, subcultures congregate outside the domestic sphere. For youth in particular, it is this “initial deviation from home and the subsequent adjustment into subcultural forms of homeliness and belonging” outside the domestic family unit that earmarks subcultural identity.

Public or “cultural logic”, as Gelder puts it, has a tendency to see subcultures as excessive or exaggerated. In this case, the “deviance” of subcultures is attributable, at least in part, to an excess of characteristic traits spanning behaviour, dress, sounds and so on, as well as, I would add, esoteric knowledge, all of which are contrasted with “normal” society’s conceptions of moderation and restraint.

Finally, the remaining cultural logic concerns a subculture’s inherent “opposition to the banalities of mass cultural forms”. By this is meant that subcultural identity embraces a nonconformist stance towards societal massification, that is, self-alienation.

Each of Gelder’s cultural logics is indicative both of the real vampire subculture and external perceptions of it. At a glance, the use of my term “defiant culture” would seem, then, to be synonymous with sub culture. Therefore, further explanation is needed. My term is an appropriation of the work of Christina Santos and Adriana Spahr on “defiant deviance”. Santos and Spahr (2006) examine the ways in which the supernatural persists as a recurring element in mass media and culture, despite its general obsoletion at the hands of the Enlightenment. The persistence of the supernatural—in art, literature, film and so on—is for Santos and Spahr a “defiant form of deviance”: “a state of opposition and a disposition to resist that deviates from the accepted norm” (1). Put another way, society’s free embrace of supernatural figures and the paranormal, in spite of prevailing technological and scientific knowledge, is intentionally defiant , that is, a deviation intended by design to defy. Although Santos and Spahr do apply their term to a single case study of alleged vampirism (“by association only”, the authors note) in the person of Countess Erzsébet Báthory (1560–1614) of Hungary, their work fails to account for actual self-identification with vampirism, of which, perhaps unbeknownst to them, there is an entire inter-connected, subcultural community populated with members who do just that. As for Gelder, his cultural logics, although productively inclusive, seem also hardly adequate to surmise a subculture considered by the outside to be so deviant and so aberrant that the very nature of its identity is by many altogether discounted. The real vampire community is, to be sure, a subculture like no other. It is what I term a “defiant culture”; this is to say, it manifests its own deviance through the act of defiance for its own sake, in this case, the conscious use of a negative identifier like “vampire”. Laycock (2010) is apt to note that “The idea that the real vampire community is formed by an inherent quality”, that is, biology, “rather than subcultural participation is reflected in the structure of the community, which is dialogical and acephalous” (8). Yet I contend that the appropriation of the word “vampire” and the vampire milieu is at least as important, producing as a result a community that is both “defiant” and iconoclastic.

Beyond mere physiology, however, what particularly strikes me are the ways in which the very being and nature of this community are subversive to how societies construct “normalcy”. It becomes important to ask, then, whether the history of real vampires can help to address the broader relation between culture and otherness. Real vampires comprise, as I have said, a subculture the outside considers so deviant and so aberrant that its very nature is altogether discounted. Yet, simultaneously, this distinction is crucial to the real vampire community’s status as a “defiant culture”: through manifesting its own deviance by means of defiance for its own sake, it achieves as it were a degree of self-empowerment. Heiner’s (2008) sentiment that “One of the more resounding principles in the sociology of deviance is that the defining quality of deviance resides in the audience and not in the person or behavior” (xi) is something I have tried to emphasize in my work on real vampires, in addition to whether identity construction among “alternative” subcultures in the United States in general and in New Orleans and Buffalo in particular can aid in redefining the dominative and corrective moral and behavioural imperatives societies use to construct “normalcy”. Ironically it is these same imperatives, borrowing loosely from the work of Eve Sedgwick, that make the modern vampire identity a strategic site for confronting, and challenging, ideological assumptions culturally and historically imbedded in the methods by which we as a society hierarchize the world around us ( Browning, 2012 ). Modern vampires are capable of making accessible the infinite potentials for exposing and, with any luck, unfixing the repressive and oppressive categories that precipitate marginalization. In short, modern vampirism offers a valuable lens through which to understand and, perhaps, dispel some of the ideological “baggage” each of us carries; through them, we see the dark side of ourselves. Yet the subject of modern vampires would not be nearly as interesting, or as “radical”, were it not perceived as being so “deviant”. Thus, the study of modern vampirism is, in a broader sense, the study of “deviance”. However, it is also the study of “defiance” and self-empowerment.

Additional Information

How to cite this article : John Edgar Browning (2015) The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: a research note towards comparative ethnography. Palgrave Communications 1:15006 doi: 10.1057/palcomms.2015.6. Footnote 3

Geographical areas, individual houses and even individual members of the real vampire community will independently render the word “vampire” as “vampyre” as a means of distinguishing the community from the supernatural archetype of fiction and film. The rendering “vampi(y)re” is also sometimes used as a compromise to satisfy proponents of each spelling.

I am grateful to an external reader of this article for this succinct observation and phrasing.

Sanguinarius defines “elder” thusly: “A prominent member of the vampiric community who is honored and respected for his or her experience, knowledge, willingness to help others, accomplishments and devotion. Elders are often those individuals who have helped establish a community, organize groups, or help network the community” (13). See Sanguinarius (2010) and also Merticus (2014) .

Belanger M (2004) The Psychic Vampire Codex: A Manual of Magick and Energy Work . Weiser: Newburyport, MA.

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Acknowledgements

Much thanks is owed to SUNY-Buffalo professors Michael Frisch, Bruce Jackson and Sarah Elder, who provided helpful feedback on my research. Ethnographic materials and research underpinning this study such as field notes, digital audio recordings, transcripts, ephemera collected onsite and internal NOVA documents are deposited with the author under secure lock and key for the purpose of protecting the personal identities of the study participants. Copies of individual consent forms wherein full identification is not disclosed can be requested by outside parties. A more extensive elaboration of this research, including or in addition to the ethnographic materials listed above, is forthcoming in a book-length project currently in progress.

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Browning, J. The real vampires of New Orleans and Buffalo: a research note towards comparative ethnography. Palgrave Commun 1 , 15006 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2015.6

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My favourite fictional character: Wintering’s grotesque widows reveal the ‘monstrous’ woman as wise and progressive

Martine Kropkowski , The University of Queensland

Renfield: Nicolas Cage’s reimagining of Dracula pulls the vampire film into the 21st century

Catherine Spooner , Lancaster University

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‘Dracula Daily’ reanimates the classic vampire novel for the age of memes and snark

Stanley Stepanic , University of Virginia

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Nosferatu at 100: how the seminal vampire film shaped the horror genre

Lindsay Hallam , University of East London

More ‘disease’ than ‘Dracula’ – how the vampire myth was born

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James Wintrup , University of Oslo

America’s first vampire was Black and revolutionary – it’s time to remember him

Dracula: free movement of vampires a fitting horror story for the Brexit era

Vampire bats aren’t the monsters we thought they were

Jan Hoole , Keele University

Rabies’ horrifying symptoms inspired folktales of humans turned into werewolves, vampires and other monsters

Jessica Wang , University of British Columbia

Vampire’s rebirth: from monstrous undead creature to sexy and romantic Byronic seducer in one ghost story

Perverse passions that will not die: The modern vampire first walked among us two centuries ago

Robert Morrison , Queen's University, Ontario

Mr Darcy as vampire: a literary hero with bite

Eric Parisot , Flinders University

Fantasmagoriana: the German book of ghost stories that inspired Frankenstein

Fabio Camilletti , University of Warwick

Five vampire traits that exist in the natural world

Louise Gentle , Nottingham Trent University

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Blood on the stage: Let the Right One In is a vampire love story for our times

Vivienne Glance , The University of Western Australia

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90+ Topics about “Dracula” to publish a Killer Essay

Vampires seem to be the superheroes of today. They've been strong, beautiful, and glint in the sun's rays. In addition , they totally ignore their bloodlust and don’t hurt people anymore. The first concept of the vampire has been distorted by modern authors. This list of awesome essay topics on “Dracula” by Bram Stoker will remind you that true vampires have nothing in accordance with A vampire named edward.

If you should be not afraid of horrors and mysteries, you are welcome to read our list thoroughly. We're sure that you'll find something worth your attention in this collection of “Dracula” paper topics. You are also free to leave your essay to the experienced authors of EssayShark. com!

Literary Analysis Topics About “Dracula” by Bram Stoker

What effect does stoker reach by keeping the main character in the shadows for so long in the novel.

• Can there be any connection between the structure and content of “Dracula” by Bram Stoker?
• How can the epistolary style enforce the overall impression from the novel “Dracula”?
• How come setting very important to perception of Stoker’s novel?
• Analyze the elements of the detective story in “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
• How can the character of Renfield subscribe to the Gothic atmosphere on the novel “Dracula”?
• Just how do female characters in “Dracula” by Stoker contribute to the representation of the conflict between good and evil?
• Sexual overtones being an element of the novel “Dracula. ”
• The historical back ground of the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
• Gothic elements in “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
• Dracula’s character as a political threat.
• The big event of letter writing in Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula. ”
• What traits of Victorian literature can be identified in the novel “Dracula”?
• The novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker as a Gothic classic.
• Diversity of literary devices in “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.

“Dracula” Argumentative Essay Topics

• Are social rules significant for Dracula’s character?
• Can the character of Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel be viewed as an allusion to the aristocracy, the dying breed at the end of the 19th century?
• How come Jonathan Harker blind to mystical occurrences around him at the beginning of the novel?
• Can Lucy Westenra be considered as a stereotypical “good girl” or “bad girl”?
• Which main character of the novel “Dracula” awakens indisputable sympathy?
• How come the issue of insanity essential for the novel “Dracula”?
• What issues developed in the novel “Dracula” are acute today?
• How does Dracula choose Lucy to be his first victim?
• Why (or why not) does Mina represent the traditional female character of the 19th century?
• Select the most significant conflict in the novel “Dracula, ” analyze it, and explain your option.

Analytical Essay Topics on “Dracula” by Bram Stoker

• Analyze how Bram Stoker interprets Darwinian theory in his novel “Dracula. ”
• The role of the “alien” in Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula. ”
• What forces does Dracula represent in the novel?
• Analyze the metaphorical meaning of Dracula’s character.
• Strengths and weaknesses of the patriarchal society in the novel “Dracula. ”
• Sanity and insanity of the primary characters in the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
• The superiority of Western culture in the novel “Dracula. ”
• Analyze the main known reasons for paranoia of the protagonists in the novel “Dracula. ”
• The representation of Freudian theories in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Sexism as the main idea of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Analyze the doubled characters in the novel “Dracula. ”
• How can Bram Stoker interpret the matter of invasion anxieties in “Dracula”?
• The classic conflict of Good and Evil in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Who or what's Dracula in accordance with Bram Stoker’s novel?
• Why do the characters of “Dracula” question their own sanity in some episodes?
• How is the topic of sexual orientation represented in Stoker’s “Dracula”?
• Examine the alternative families represented in the novel “Dracula. ”
• How is the anxiety about vampires associated with the real fears of Victorian society?
• Liminality of Dracula’s character: living dead among people.
• Western culture compared to Eastern culture in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Explain the issue of reverse colonization based on the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
• Van Helsing’s character as a synthesis of scientific knowledge and supernatural beliefs.
• The metaphorical meaning of Dracula’s invasion of London.
• Anti-feministic ideas in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• How do the popularity of Stoker’s novel since its first release in 1897 be explained?

Compare “Dracula” Essay Topics

• Compare the characters of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and F. W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” (1922).
• Compare the role of ladies in Euripides’ “Medea” and in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Compare the representation of sexuality in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and the movie “Dracula” directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
• Compare the characters of three of Lucy’s suitors in “Dracula. ”
• Compare the vampire characters in “Interview With the Vampire” by Rice and “Dracula” by Stoker.
• Assess how Dracula’s character awakens sympathy in the novel by Bram Stoker and in the movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
• Compare Stoker’s vampires and today’s stereotypes about them.
• Compare the nature of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Mr. Hyde.
• Compare the plot of the movie “Dracula” (1931) and the original novel written by Bram Stoker.
• Assess the representation of female characters in Stoker’s “Dracula” and in its movie adaptation in 1992 directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
• Assess the concept of the vampire produced by Bram Stoker and the depiction with this creature in myths.
• Assess Dracula’s and Jonathan’s attitude toward love and affection.
• Compare Dracula’s character created by Bram Stoker and its own comic interpretation in the film “Vampire in Brooklyn” directed by Wes Craven.
• Assess how London of the 19th century is depicted in “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and in “Strange Case of Dr . Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson.
• Compare the role of traveling in Stoker’s “Dracula” and in Shelley’s “Frankenstein. ”

“Dracula” Essay Topics about Vampires

• The evolution of vampire characters from “Dracula” by Bram Stoker to “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer.
• Supernatural abilities of Dracula in Stoker’s novel.
• Analyze the connection involving the primeval instincts and vampirism basing on the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
• Vampirism as a synthesis of taboos in Stoker’s novel.
• Describe Dracula’s castle and its residents.
• How can vampirism destabilize moral values in “Dracula” by Bram Stoker?
• Vampirism as symbolic of the immoral life style in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Can vampires fall in love according to Bram Stoker’s novel?
• Dracula as emblematic of the unknown and fate in Bram Stoker’s novel.
• The best cinematic “Dracula” in history.

“Dracula” Paper Topics on Psychology

• Masculine authority in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Lucy Westenra as a rebel character in the novel “Dracula. ”
• The bond of horror and desire in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• The role of rational and irrational in Stoker’s novel “Dracula. ”
• The difficulties of psychological science in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Hysteria in the characters of Lucy and Mina in Stoker’s novel.
• The attitude toward foreigners in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Forms of masculinity represented in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”
• Driving a car of non-standard sexual orientation in Victorian England depicted in “Dracula. ”
• The role of mental diseases in “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.

“Dracula” Paper Topics on Religion and Faith

• So how exactly does Dracula’s life style violate Christian values?
• The role of curse and redemption in the novel “Dracula. ”
• The conflict between science and faith in “Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
• The representation of anti-Christian some ideas in Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula. ”
• Strength of character and faith vs . demonic powers in the novel “Dracula. ”
• Insult against religious beliefs in the novel “Dracula. ”
• The role of religion and sacred objects in the plot of “Dracula. ”
• The novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker as a Christian allegory.
• Can Van Helsing’s actions be looked at as witchcraft or religious rites?
• The foundation of evil in Stoker’s “Dracula. ”

Now, you are willing to fight vampires! Sure, we don’t suggest you to walk over the streets through the night and look for troubles. You’d better use this listing of inspiring essay topics on “Dracula” by Bram Stoker to write a great essay and acquire an “A. ” Nevertheless , our service is always for your use. Stay safe and keep handy a bottle of holy water. In case.

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200 Term Paper Topics in Different Fields

Table of contents

• Writing Metier

Welcome to a treasure trove of term paper topics thoughtfully crafted by the expert team of term paper writers  at Writing Metier. 

As a co-founder of this dynamic company, I’ve witnessed the struggles many students face when choosing the right topic for their term paper. That’s why we’ve rolled up our sleeves to provide you with an arsenal of ideas that are not only academically enriching but also incredibly engaging.

In this article, you’ll find a rich array of topics to start with while writing your term paper , handpicked to ignite your curiosity and fuel your academic pursuits. 

From the persuasive depth required in argumentative papers to the innovative angles needed for experimental research, our collection is a kaleidoscope of possibilities. 

Whether you’re in search of easy term paper topics to get you over the line or you’re hunting for something more challenging to showcase your analytical prowess, this list is your starting point on the path to academic success.

I’ll break our term paper topic suggestions list into such types:

• Argumentative Papers – c ommon in many disciplines, they develop critical thinking and persuasion skills.
• Analytical Papers –  widely assigned, these papers help students develop analytical and interpretive skills.
• Compare and Contrast Papers –  regularly used across subjects, they teach students to identify similarities and differences in concepts, theories, or works.
• Cause and Effect Papers –  often found in social sciences, they help students understand the relationship between different events or phenomena.
• Definition Papers –  useful in explaining complex concepts or terms, especially in technical or specialized fields.
• Interpretive Papers –  common in literature, history, and arts, these papers require a deep understanding of the material and the ability to interpret underlying meanings.
• Reports –  these are fundamental in many scientific and technical courses, focusing on clear, structured presentation of information.
• Survey Research Papers –  particularly common in social sciences, they involve data collection and analysis skills.
• Experimental Research Papers –  a staple in natural and applied sciences, these papers are crucial for understanding scientific methodologies and processes.
• Review Papers –  often found in graduate studies, they require a comprehensive understanding of existing research in a particular field.

Term Paper Topic and Question Ideas

Let’s begin with what you all have been waiting for – topic suggestions!

Argumentative Term Paper Topics

When it comes to crafting a compelling argumentative term paper, the choice of topic is crucial. In this section, we present some of the best topics for term papers that challenge you to take a stand, defend your viewpoint, and persuade your audience. 

These topics are not just good term paper topics; they are gateways to exploring contemporary issues with depth and clarity.

• Social Media Influence : Does social media do more harm than good in shaping young people’s worldviews?
• Climate Change Policies : Should governments enforce stricter regulations to combat climate change?
• Artificial Intelligence Ethics : Is the rapid development of AI technology a threat to human employment?
• Vaccination Mandates : Should vaccinations be mandatory for public health safety?
• Online Education vs Traditional : Is online education as effective as traditional classroom learning?
• Animal Testing in Research : Should animal testing be banned in scientific research?
• Genetic Engineering : Are the benefits of genetic engineering worth the ethical concerns?
• Privacy in the Digital Age : Is government surveillance a necessary tool for national security or an invasion of privacy?
• Renewable Energy : Should governments invest more in renewable energy sources over fossil fuels?
• Minimum Wage Increase : Does increasing the minimum wage help or hurt the economy?
• Gun Control Laws : Do stricter gun control laws reduce gun violence?
• Legalization of Marijuana : Should marijuana be legalized for recreational use?
• Death Penalty : Is the death penalty an effective deterrent for major crimes?
• School Uniforms : Do school uniforms contribute to a better learning environment?
• Universal Basic Income : Can a universal basic income solve economic inequality?
• Space Exploration Funding : Should space exploration be prioritized over addressing Earth’s issues?
• Plastic Ban : Would a global ban on single-use plastics be environmentally beneficial?
• Affirmative Action in Education : Is affirmative action still necessary in education admissions?
• Euthanasia : Should euthanasia be legalized to allow people with terminal illnesses to die with dignity?
• Censorship in Media : Is censorship necessary to protect society, or does it infringe on freedom of expression?

While argumentative papers test your persuasive skills, the realm of analytical papers requires a different approach. Let’s shift our focus to topics that demand a detailed examination and critical analysis .

Analytical Term Paper Topics

If dissecting complex topics and examining them from multiple angles excites you, our list of analytical term paper topics is tailor-made for you. 

Ranging from easy term paper topics to more intricate ones, these themes allow you to showcase your analytical prowess and turn a critical eye on a variety of subjects.

• Impact of COVID-19 on Global Economy : Analyze the long-term economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic globally.
• Social Impacts of Remote Work : Examine how remote work has changed social interactions and workplace dynamics.
• Cryptocurrency’s Role in Finance : Analyze the potential impacts of cryptocurrency on traditional banking systems.
• Psychological Effects of Social Media : Evaluate how social media platforms impact mental health and self-esteem.
• Climate Change and Migration : Investigate the relationship between climate change and patterns of human migration.
• Rise of Streaming Services : Analyze the impact of streaming services on the traditional television and movie industries.
• Gender Pay Gap : Examine the factors contributing to the gender pay gap in different industries.
• Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare : Analyze the benefits and challenges of implementing AI in healthcare systems.
• Cybersecurity in the Digital Age : Evaluate the effectiveness of current cybersecurity measures in protecting data privacy.
• Impact of Electric Vehicles on the Auto Industry : Investigate how electric vehicles are reshaping the future of the automotive industry.
• Effects of Urbanization on Environment : Analyze the environmental consequences of rapid urbanization.
• Mental Health in the Workplace : Examine the role of workplace culture in employee mental health and wellbeing.
• Renewable Energy’s Economic Feasibility : Analyze the economic sustainability of transitioning to renewable energy sources.
• Influence of Advertising on Consumer Behavior : Evaluate how advertising strategies affect consumer choices and spending habits.
• Gentrification and Community Displacement : Investigate the social and economic impacts of gentrification on local communities.
• Sustainable Fashion Industry : Analyze the challenges and opportunities in making the fashion industry more sustainable.
• Impact of Globalization on Local Cultures : Examine how globalization affects the preservation and evolution of local cultural identities.
• E-Sports and Gaming Culture : Analyze the rise of e-sports and its impact on mainstream sports and entertainment.
• Food Security and Climate Change : Investigate the relationship between climate change and global food security challenges.
• Technology and Education Reform : Analyze how technological advancements are shaping modern education methods and accessibility.

From the precision of analysis, we now move to the art of comparison and contrast, where you will juxtapose differing views or phenomena to shed new light on your subject.

Compare and Contrast Term Paper Topics

Finding the perfect balance between two subjects is at the heart of a great compare and contrast term paper . 

This section offers a range of topics that serve as excellent examples of term paper topics, inviting you to explore and contrast diverse ideas, theories, or events, enriching your understanding of both.

• Online Learning vs. Traditional Classroom : Compare and contrast the effectiveness of online learning with traditional classroom settings.
• Capitalism vs. Socialism : Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of capitalism compared to socialism.
• Renewable Energy vs. Fossil Fuels : Compare the environmental impacts and sustainability of renewable energy sources versus fossil fuels.
• Modern Art vs. Classical Art : Contrast the themes and techniques of modern art with those of classical art.
• Public Healthcare vs. Private Healthcare : Compare the efficiency and quality of public healthcare systems to private healthcare systems.
• E-books vs. Printed Books : Analyze the differences in user experience and environmental impact between e-books and traditional printed books.
• Western Diet vs. Mediterranean Diet : Contrast the health impacts of a typical Western diet with the Mediterranean diet.
• Android vs. iOS : Compare the functionality, user interface, and customization options of Android and iOS platforms.
• Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing : Analyze the effectiveness and reach of traditional marketing methods compared to digital marketing strategies.
• Democracy vs. Authoritarianism : Contrast the political, social, and economic outcomes in democratic versus authoritarian regimes.
• Organic Farming vs. Conventional Farming : Compare the environmental impact and productivity of organic farming methods to conventional farming practices.
• Freudian Psychoanalysis vs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy : Analyze the methodologies and effectiveness of Freudian psychoanalysis compared to cognitive behavioral therapy.
• Remote Work vs. Office Work : Contrast the impacts on productivity and work-life balance between remote work and traditional office settings.
• Vegetarian Diet vs. Meat-Inclusive Diet : Compare the health benefits and environmental impacts of a vegetarian diet versus a diet that includes meat.
• Classical Music vs. Pop Music : Analyze the differences in structure, audience, and cultural impact between classical music and contemporary pop music.
• Electric Cars vs. Gasoline Cars : Contrast the environmental impact, cost, and performance of electric cars with traditional gasoline cars.
• Public Schools vs. Private Schools : Compare the educational outcomes and resources available in public schools versus private schools.
• Social Networking vs. Traditional Networking : Analyze the effectiveness and depth of connections made through social networking sites compared to traditional networking methods.
• Modern Architecture vs. Gothic Architecture : Contrast the design principles, materials, and cultural significance of modern architecture with that of Gothic architecture.
• Globalization vs. Nationalism : Compare the economic, cultural, and political impacts of globalization against the principles of nationalism.

As we transition from the balance of comparison to the cause and effect dynamics, prepare to delve into topics that explore the relationship between various factors and their consequences.

Cause and Effect Term Paper Topics

Understanding the intricate relationship between cause and effect is essential for any academic exploration. 

This list provides a range of interesting term paper topics that will help you unravel the connections between causes and their subsequent effects, offering a fascinating journey into the why and how of various phenomena.

• Technology Advancements and Job Market : Analyze the effect of technological advancements on the job market and employment trends.
• Global Warming and Weather Patterns : Examine the causal relationship between global warming and extreme weather patterns.
• Social Media and Youth Mental Health : Investigate the effects of social media usage on the mental health of young people.
• Economic Recession and Small Businesses : Analyze the impact of economic recessions on the survival and growth of small businesses.
• Urbanization and Wildlife Habitats : Explore the effects of urbanization on local wildlife habitats and biodiversity.
• Education System Reforms and Student Performance : Examine how recent reforms in the education system have impacted student performance and learning outcomes.
• Parenting Styles and Child Development : Investigate the effect of different parenting styles on the emotional and psychological development of children.
• Air Pollution and Respiratory Health : Analyze the causal relationship between air pollution levels and respiratory health issues in urban areas.
• Diet and Physical Health : Examine the effects of different dietary habits on physical health and wellness.
• Political Policies and Economic Growth : Investigate the impact of various political policies on a country’s economic growth and stability.
• Stress and Workplace Productivity : Analyze the effects of workplace stress on employee productivity and job satisfaction.
• Deforestation and Climate Change : Explore the causal relationship between deforestation and climate change.
• Exercise and Mental Wellbeing : Examine the effect of regular physical exercise on mental health and mood stability.
• Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategies : Investigate how marketing strategies cause shifts in consumer buying behavior.
• Immigration Policies and Labor Markets : Analyze the impact of immigration policies on the labor market and workforce demographics.
• Mobile Technology and Social Interaction : Examine the effects of mobile technology on face-to-face social interactions and communication.
• Sleep Patterns and Academic Performance : Investigate the causal relationship between sleep patterns and academic performance in students.
• Cultural Globalization and National Identities : Analyze the effect of cultural globalization on the preservation of national identities and traditions.
• Government Regulations and Entrepreneurship : Examine the impact of government regulations on entrepreneurship and business innovation.
• Online Retail and Brick-and-Mortar Stores : Explore the effects of the rise of online retail on traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

Moving from the causality of events, let’s turn our attention to the essence of specific concepts and ideas, where definition term papers allow you to articulate and explore in-depth.

Definition Term Paper Topics

The art of defining a concept or a term goes beyond mere description. 

In this section, you’ll find term paper topics for students that revolve around defining and explicating complex ideas or phenomena, challenging you to crystallize your understanding into clear, concise language.

• Defining Artificial Intelligence : Explore the various dimensions and implications of artificial intelligence in the modern world.
• Understanding Blockchain Technology : Provide a comprehensive definition and examine the potential impacts of blockchain technology.
• Concept of Sustainability : Define sustainability in the context of environmental, economic, and social dimensions.
• Defining Modern Feminism : Explore the evolution and current meaning of feminism in contemporary society.
• Understanding Cultural Appropriation : Define cultural appropriation and discuss its implications in arts, fashion, and media.
• The Gig Economy : Provide a detailed definition and explore the rise and impact of the gig economy on traditional work structures.
• Defining Cybersecurity : Examine the scope and importance of cybersecurity in the digital age.
• Understanding Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) : Define GMOs and discuss their role and controversy in food production.
• Concept of Globalization : Offer a comprehensive definition and explore the multifaceted impacts of globalization.
• Mental Health Awareness : Define mental health and discuss the importance of awareness and de-stigmatization in society.
• Defining Renewable Energy : Explore the concept of renewable energy and its role in combating climate change.
• The Digital Divide : Define the digital divide and examine its implications in various socio-economic contexts.
• Understanding Euthanasia : Provide a comprehensive definition and discuss the ethical implications of euthanasia.
• Concept of Social Justice : Define social justice and explore its significance in modern societal structures.
• Understanding Quantum Computing : Define quantum computing and discuss its potential impacts on the future of technology.
• Defining Urbanization : Explore the process of urbanization and its impacts on societies and environments.
• Concept of Virtual Reality : Provide a comprehensive definition and explore the applications and implications of virtual reality.
• Understanding Nutrigenomics : Define nutrigenomics and discuss its role in personalized nutrition and health.
• Defining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) : Examine the concept of CSR and its importance in the modern business world.
• Understanding Telemedicine : Define telemedicine and discuss its growing role in the healthcare system.

With definitions well in hand, we now venture into the territory of interpretive term papers, where your insight and personal perspective bring unique interpretations to the forefront.

Interpretive Term Paper Topics

Interpretive term papers provide a canvas for your thoughts and analyses, allowing you to delve into texts, artworks, or phenomena with a subjective lens. 

Here, we offer term paper topics easy for engagement yet rich in potential for deep, personal interpretation, perfect for those looking to add their unique voice to academic discourse .

• Interpreting Shakespeare’s Hamlet : Explore the themes of madness, revenge, and morality in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.
• The Great Gatsby and the American Dream : Interpret F. Scott Fitzgerald’s representation of the American Dream in “The Great Gatsby”.
• Picasso’s Guernica : Analyze the symbolism and political commentary in Picasso’s masterpiece “Guernica”.
• Orwell’s 1984 and Modern Surveillance : Interpret the relevance of George Orwell’s “1984” in the context of today’s digital surveillance society.
• Symbolism in Dante’s Inferno : Explore the use of symbolism in Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno” and its representation of sin and redemption.
• Jane Austen’s Critique of Social Class : Interpret the social class critique in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”.
• Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Emotional Expression : Analyze the expression of emotion and meaning in Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night”.
• To Kill a Mockingbird and Racial Injustice : Interpret Harper Lee’s depiction of racial injustice and moral growth in “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
• Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Its Historical Context : Analyze the historical context and musical innovation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
• Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Alienation : Explore themes of alienation and identity in Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”.
• The Symbolism in Salvador Dali’s Surrealist Art : Interpret the symbolism and psychological depth in Salvador Dali’s surrealist paintings.
• Homer’s Odyssey and the Hero’s Journey : Analyze the elements of the hero’s journey in Homer’s “Odyssey”.
• Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portraits and Personal Struggle : Interpret the expression of personal struggle and identity in Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits.
• Mark Twain’s Satire in Huckleberry Finn : Analyze Mark Twain’s use of satire in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” to critique society.
• The Tragic Hero in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex : Interpret the concept of the tragic hero in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”.
• Joyce’s Ulysses and Stream of Consciousness : Explore the use of stream of consciousness in James Joyce’s “Ulysses”.
• Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Mythology : Analyze J.R.R. Tolkien’s use of mythology and folklore in “The Lord of the Rings”.
• Michelangelo’s David and Renaissance Ideals : Interpret the representation of Renaissance ideals in Michelangelo’s statue of David.
• Emily Dickinson’s Poetry and Themes of Death : Explore the recurring themes of death and immortality in Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
• The Matrix and Philosophical Symbolism : Analyze the philosophical themes and symbolism in the film “The Matrix”.

From the subjective nuances of interpretation, we shift gears to the objective and structured world of report papers, focusing on presenting information in a clear, organized manner.

Report Term Paper Topics

Report term papers demand precision, structure, and clarity in presenting information and analysis. 

This section provides you with a range of term paper research topics that are ideal for crafting detailed and informative reports, covering a spectrum of subjects that are both current and engaging.

• COVID-19’s Impact on Global Health Systems : Report on how different health systems worldwide have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Renewable Energy Progress Report : Analyze the current state and future prospects of renewable energy technologies globally.
• Urbanization and Its Environmental Impact : Report on the environmental consequences of rapid urbanization in major cities.
• Technological Advancements in Education : Explore the integration and impact of technology in modern educational systems.
• Climate Change and Agricultural Practices : Analyze how climate change is affecting agricultural practices and food production.
• Mental Health Services Accessibility : Report on the accessibility and quality of mental health services in various countries.
• Consumer Trends in E-commerce : Analyze the evolving consumer behavior trends in the e-commerce industry.
• Public Transportation Systems Comparison : Compare and evaluate public transportation systems across major global cities.
• Plastic Pollution and Marine Life : Report on the impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
• Digital Divide and Internet Access : Explore the current state of the digital divide and its impact on internet access globally.
• Advancements in Cancer Research : Report on the latest developments and challenges in cancer research and treatment.
• Impact of Social Media on Politics : Analyze how social media platforms are influencing political discourse and elections.
• Sustainable Tourism Practices : Report on the adoption and effectiveness of sustainable practices in the tourism industry.
• Artificial Intelligence in Business : Explore the use and impact of AI technologies in various business sectors.
• Effects of Urban Green Spaces : Analyze the social and environmental effects of green spaces in urban areas.
• Childhood Obesity Trends and Policies : Report on the trends and public health policies addressing childhood obesity.
• Gender Equality in the Workforce : Analyze the progress and challenges of achieving gender equality in the workplace.
• Impact of GMOs on Agriculture and Environment : Report on the benefits and risks associated with the use of GMOs in agriculture.
• Cybersecurity Threats and Prevention Measures : Explore current cybersecurity threats and the effectiveness of various prevention strategies.
• Affordable Housing Crisis Analysis : Report on the state of the affordable housing crisis and the effectiveness of measures taken to address it.

As we move from structured reports to the dynamic world of survey research, prepare to engage with topics that require you to gather and analyze data from real-world sources.

Survey Research Term Paper Topics

Survey research term papers are your gateway to exploring the opinions, behaviors, and trends that shape our world. 

This list of term paper topics help you design, conduct, and analyze surveys, providing valuable insights into various aspects of human behavior and societal trends.

• Student Perceptions of Online Learning : Conduct a survey to understand student experiences and perceptions of online learning environments.
• Consumer Attitudes Towards Green Products : Survey consumer attitudes and purchasing behaviors regarding environmentally friendly products.
• Impact of Work-from-Home on Productivity : Survey employees across different sectors to analyze the impact of remote work on productivity.
• Social Media’s Role in Mental Health : Conduct a survey to explore the relationship between social media use and mental health among adolescents.
• Public Opinion on Climate Change Policies : Survey public opinion on various climate change policies and their perceived effectiveness.
• Healthcare Accessibility and Satisfaction : Conduct a survey to assess public satisfaction with healthcare services and accessibility.
• Attitudes Toward Vaccination in Different Communities : Survey different communities to understand attitudes towards vaccinations and their reasons.
• Consumer Behavior in the Fashion Industry : Conduct a survey to analyze consumer buying patterns and trends in the fashion industry.
• Employee Satisfaction and Workplace Culture : Survey employees in various organizations to assess the impact of workplace culture on job satisfaction.
• Dietary Habits and Health Outcomes : Conduct a survey to explore the relationship between dietary habits and health outcomes.
• Public Perception of Police and Law Enforcement : Survey the public’s perception and trust in police and law enforcement agencies.
• Influence of Influencer Marketing on Purchasing Decisions : Survey consumers to analyze the impact of influencer marketing on their purchasing decisions.
• Attitudes Towards Renewable Energy Adoption : Conduct a survey to understand public attitudes and barriers to adopting renewable energy sources.
• Effects of Music on Concentration and Productivity : Survey a group of individuals to assess how different genres of music affect their concentration and productivity.
• Cultural Participation and Its Social Impact : Conduct a survey to explore the impact of cultural participation on social cohesion and community engagement.
• Perceptions of Online Privacy and Data Security : Survey internet users to understand their concerns and perceptions about online privacy and data security.
• Trends in Fitness and Exercise Habits : Conduct a survey to analyze current trends and attitudes towards fitness and exercise routines.
• Reading Habits and Preferences : Survey a demographic to understand their reading habits and preferences in the digital age.
• Public Attitudes Towards Space Exploration : Conduct a survey to gauge public interest and opinions on space exploration and its funding.
• Consumer Attitudes Towards Sustainable Packaging : Survey consumer opinions and behaviors related to sustainable packaging and its importance.

From the practical applications of survey research, we now dive into the experimental realm, where hypotheses and scientific methods lead the way.

Experimental Research Term Paper Topics

For those fascinated by the scientific method, this collection of experimental research term paper topics offers a playground of inquiry and discovery. 

These topics encourage you to design experiments, test hypotheses, and explore the intricacies of scientific phenomena, making them some of the best topics for term paper in English for aspiring scientists.

• Effect of Light on Plant Growth : Conduct an experiment to determine how different light conditions affect the growth rate of plants.
• Memory Recall in Different Environments : Investigate how environmental factors influence memory recall in individuals.
• Water Quality and Plant Health : Experiment to analyze the effects of various water qualities on the health of a specific plant species.
• Caffeine’s Effect on Cognitive Performance : Conduct a study to assess how caffeine consumption impacts cognitive tasks and reaction times.
• Behavioral Changes in Animals Due to Environmental Stimuli : Observe and record behavioral changes in animals in response to different environmental stimuli.
• Impact of Diet on Athletic Performance : Experiment to evaluate how different diets affect the physical performance of athletes.
• Air Pollution’s Effect on Respiratory Health : Conduct an experiment to explore the impacts of air pollution on respiratory health indicators.
• Sound Frequencies and Plant Growth : Investigate the effect of different sound frequencies on the growth rate of plants.
• Sleep Patterns and Academic Performance : Study the correlation between varying sleep patterns and academic performance in students.
• Effectiveness of Natural vs. Chemical Fertilizers : Experiment to compare the effectiveness of natural and chemical fertilizers on plant growth.
• Temperature Effects on Battery Performance : Assess how different temperatures affect the performance and efficiency of various types of batteries.
• Social Media Use and Attention Span : Conduct a study to explore the relationship between social media usage and attention span in individuals.
• Impact of Exercise on Mental Health : Experiment to analyze the effects of regular physical exercise on mental health and stress levels.
• Plastic Degradation in Different Environments : Investigate the rate of plastic degradation in various environmental conditions.
• Influence of Music on Cognitive Task Performance : Study how listening to different genres of music affects performance on cognitive tasks.
• Effects of Urban Noise on Bird Behavior : Observe and record changes in bird behavior and communication in urban environments with high noise levels.
• Antibacterial Properties of Natural Substances : Experiment to evaluate the antibacterial properties of various natural substances.
• Color Psychology and Consumer Behavior : Study how different colors influence consumer behavior and decision-making in marketing.
• Effect of Video Games on Reflexes and Decision Making : Assess the impact of playing video games on the reflexes and decision-making skills of individuals.
• Microplastics’ Impact on Marine Life : Conduct an experiment to observe the effects of microplastics on the health and behavior of marine organisms.

Finally, we arrive at review papers, where synthesizing and critiquing existing literature becomes your path to academic exploration.

Review Term Paper Topics

Review term papers are an opportunity to engage with and reflect upon existing literature in a meaningful way. 

This list offers a variety of term paper title ideas, inviting you to synthesize, critique, and discuss existing research and literature, placing you at the heart of the academic conversation.

• Literature Review on Climate Change Mitigation Strategies : Review and synthesize current research on various strategies to mitigate climate change.
• Technological Advancements in Renewable Energy : A review of the latest technological innovations in renewable energy and their potential impacts.
• Review of Mental Health Interventions in Schools : Evaluate the effectiveness of different mental health interventions implemented in educational settings.
• Impact of Social Media on Society : A comprehensive review of research examining the social, psychological, and cultural impacts of social media.
• Economic Consequences of Global Pandemics : Review the economic impacts of global pandemics, with a focus on COVID-19.
• Advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Ethics : Analyze current literature on the advancements in AI and the surrounding ethical considerations.
• Sustainable Urban Planning Practices : Review of sustainable urban planning strategies and their effectiveness in various global cities.
• Trends in Global Obesity and Public Health Strategies : Synthesize research on the trends in global obesity and evaluate public health strategies.
• Evolution of Cybersecurity Threats and Defenses : A review of how cybersecurity threats have evolved over time and the responses developed.
• Nutritional Science and Chronic Disease Prevention : Review current research on the role of nutrition in preventing chronic diseases.
• The Psychology of Advertising : Analyze literature on how advertising tactics psychologically influence consumer behavior.
• Innovations in Water Purification Technology : Review recent advancements in water purification technologies and their global implications.
• Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Transportation : Evaluate research on the potential impacts of autonomous vehicles on transportation systems.
• The Role of Microfinance in Poverty Reduction : Review the effectiveness of microfinance initiatives in reducing poverty in various regions.
• Developments in Cancer Treatment : Synthesize recent developments in cancer treatment, including breakthrough therapies and drugs.
• The Effectiveness of Renewable Energy Subsidies : Review the economic and environmental impacts of subsidies for renewable energy sources.
• Mental Health Effects of Climate Change : Analyze literature on the psychological effects of climate change on different populations.
• Blockchain Technology and Financial Services : Review the implications of blockchain technology in reshaping financial services.
• Genetic Engineering in Agriculture : Evaluate the benefits and risks associated with the use of genetic engineering in agriculture.
• Telemedicine and Healthcare Accessibility : Review the impact of telemedicine on improving healthcare accessibility and efficiency.

As you reach the end of this list, remember that choosing the right topic is the first step in the dance of academic writing. Each topic here is a window into a new world of ideas and discoveries, waiting for you to open it. 

Your term paper is an opportunity to not just meet academic expectations, but to express your thoughts, analyze critically , and contribute to a broader conversation in your field. 

If you need assistance with more specific topic suggestions from our experts, you can fill out our “Free topic suggestions” form. Moreover, our term paper writers are at your service if you need writing or editing assistance.

So, pick a topic that resonates with you, let your curiosity guide your research, and create a term paper that stands out. At Writing Metier , we’re excited to see where your choice will take you, and we’re here to support you every step of the way.

Free topic suggestions

Vasy kafidoff.

Vasyl Kafidoff is a co-founder and CEO at WritingMetier. He is interested in education and how modern technology makes it more accessible. He wants to bring awareness about new learning possibilities as an educational specialist. When Vasy is not working, he’s found behind a drum kit.

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• Essay on Vampire

Why Zombies And Vampires Exist Argumentative Essay Examples

Type of paper: Argumentative Essay

Topic: Vampire , Blood , Heart , Zombie , Death , Belief , Europe , Literature

Words: 1100

Published: 03/09/2020

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Vampires - in the lower mythology of Europe dead at night getting up from the grave or being in the shape of a bat, sucking the blood of sleeping people, Sender nightmares. Vampires are "unclean" dead - criminals, suicides, deaths of premature death and the dead from the bites of vampires. The image of a vampire is not rare for the cinema and literature, although vampires from works of art, usually, have some differences from the vampire mythology. In folklore, the term, usually, used to refer to the blood-sucking essence of Eastern European legends, but often referred to as vampires and similar creatures from other countries and cultures. It seems that until the XIX century, vampires in Europe were described as horrible monsters from the grave. Vampires, usually, became suicidal, criminals or evil sorcerers, though in some cases become a vampire "offspring of sin" could pass his vampirism on innocent victims. However, sometimes it can become a vampire and victim of a brutal, untimely or violent death. Most Romanian belief in vampires (except Strigoi) and European vampire stories have, according to the literature, of Slavic origin. Vampire can be killed by plunging a stake or something silver (bullet, knife) in the heart or burn. In XVIII-XIX centuries rumors about vampires came not only to the ears of the king of England, but also spread to New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. In these areas, there are many documented cases where families dug those who used to enjoy, and removed the corpses of the heart, in the belief that the deceased was a vampire responsible for illness and death in the family (although the word "vampire" was never used to describe him / her). It was believed that the dead of night visits deadly tuberculosis (or "tuberculosis", as it was called in those days) to the members of his family became the cause of the disease the disease. The most famous (and latest recorded) case was a nineteen year old Mercy Brown, who died in the American Exeter in 1892. Her father, who was assisted by a family doctor, pulled her out of the tomb two months after her death. Her heart was cut out and burned to ashes. Record of this case was found among the papers of Bram Stoker, and the story closely resembles the events in his classic novel "Dracula." Belief in vampires still exists. Although some cultures have kept their original belief in the undead, most modern believers are influenced by artistic image of the vampire as he appears in films and literature. In the 1970s, there were rumors (spread by local media) about a vampire preying on the Highgate Cemetery (Highgate Cemetery) in London. Adult vampire hunters in large numbers thronged the cemetery. Among several books describing this case, we can note books Sean Manchester (Sean Manchester), a local resident who is one of the first to suggest the existence of "Highgate Vampire" and who claimed to be expelled and destroyed all the vampire nest in the area. In the modern folklore of Puerto Rico and Mexico, the chupacabra is considered the creation of those that eats flesh or drink the blood of animals. This gives grounds to consider it another kind of vampire. "Hysteria due chupacabra" is often associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly in the mid-1990s. In late 2002 and early 2003, hysteria about the so-called vampire attacks spread throughout the African country of Malawi. The crowd sounded a death with stones and attacked at least another four people, including the governor Chivayya Eric (Eric Chiwaya), based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires. In Romania, in February 2004, some of the relatives of the late Toma Petre (Toma Petre) feared that he became a vampire. They dragged his corpse, tore his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water, then to drink it.

Zombies are, usually, be understood as supernatural way a human corpse. In today's epic, we also meet zombie animals. Also, zombies can still call a person who does not control their own actions and the body in general. Also, in a figurative sense, zombie people - craze something or someone. The exact origin of the term, as the word itself, is still a lot of rumors and controversy. We only know one thing. Zombies come to us from Africa. Do not get too into the details, and etymology. Zombies appeared in the West Indies, particularly in Haiti, along with the cult of voodoo, brought with them African "guests." Similarity zombies are found not only in the culture of West Africa and the Caribbean. In Japanese mythology, there is the spirit of bosc, who feeds on human flesh. Bosc spirits are the souls of people who died of starvation. The first person to mention in the present context the term "zombie" is considered to be well-known American occultist and explorer William Seabrook (William Seabrook). It happened in 1929 in a book by William "Magic Island," which he wrote after a visit to Haiti, where he met with a voodoo sorcerers. American was generally odious personality and wrote many bestsellers about your experience cannibalism, voodoo, and confinement in a mental hospital. And he died an unnatural death from a drug overdose. The publication was the first impetus to the emergence of interest in the company to a zombie. Within three years after this was filmed the first picture on the theme of zombies - "White Zombie", the events which are taking place in Haiti, where the slave owner controls an army of zombies, engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane on his plantations. The concept of zombies in a context in which we see it now in movies, games and literature, was formed in the late 60-ies of the last century, after the release of pictures of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead."

Barber, Paul (1988). Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality. New York: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-04126-8. Bunson, Matthew (1993). The Vampire Encyclopedia. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27748-6. Black, J. Anderson (2000) The Dead Walk Noir Publishing, Hereford, Herefordshire, ISBN 0-9536564-2-X

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Home » Term Paper – Format, Examples and Writing Guide

Term Paper – Format, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Definition:

Term paper is a type of academic writing assignment that is typically assigned to students at the end of a semester or term. It is usually a research-based paper that is meant to demonstrate the student’s understanding of a particular topic, as well as their ability to analyze and synthesize information from various sources.

Term papers are usually longer than other types of academic writing assignments and can range anywhere from 5 to 20 pages or more, depending on the level of study and the specific requirements of the assignment. They often require extensive research and the use of a variety of sources, including books, articles, and other academic publications.

Term Paper Format

The format of a term paper may vary depending on the specific requirements of your professor or institution. However, a typical term paper usually consists of the following sections:

• Title page: This should include the title of your paper, your name, the course name and number, your instructor’s name, and the date.
• Abstract : This is a brief summary of your paper, usually no more than 250 words. It should provide an overview of your topic, the research question or hypothesis, your methodology, and your main findings or conclusions.
• Introduction : This section should introduce your topic and provide background information on the subject. You should also state your research question or hypothesis and explain the importance of your research.
• Literature review : This section should review the existing literature on your topic. You should summarize the key findings and arguments made by other scholars and identify any gaps in the literature that your research aims to address.
• Methodology: This section should describe the methods you used to collect and analyze your data. You should explain your research design, sampling strategy, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques.
• Results : This section should present your findings. You can use tables, graphs, and charts to illustrate your data.
• Discussion : This section should interpret your findings and explain what they mean in relation to your research question or hypothesis. You should also discuss any limitations of your study and suggest areas for future research.
• Conclusion : This section should summarize your main findings and conclusions. You should also restate the importance of your research and its implications for the field.
• References : This section should list all the sources you cited in your paper using a specific citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).
• Appendices : This section should include any additional materials that are relevant to your study but not essential to your main argument (e.g., survey questions, interview transcripts).

Structure of Term Paper

Here’s an example structure for a term paper:

I. Introduction

A. Background information on the topic

B. Thesis statement

II. Literature Review

A. Overview of current literature on the topic

B. Discussion of key themes and findings from literature

C. Identification of gaps in current literature

III. Methodology

A. Description of research design

B. Discussion of data collection methods

C. Explanation of data analysis techniques

IV. Results

A. Presentation of findings

B. Analysis and interpretation of results

C. Comparison of results with previous studies

V. Discussion

A. Summary of key findings

B. Explanation of how results address the research questions

C. Implications of results for the field

VI. Conclusion

A. Recap of key points

B. Significance of findings

C. Future directions for research

VII. References

A. List of sources cited in the paper

How to Write Term Paper

Here are some steps to help you write a term paper:

• Choose a topic: Choose a topic that interests you and is relevant to your course. If your professor has assigned a topic, make sure you understand it and clarify any doubts before you start.
• Research : Conduct research on your topic by gathering information from various sources such as books, academic journals, and online resources. Take notes and organize your information systematically.
• Create an outline : Create an outline of your term paper by arranging your ideas and information in a logical sequence. Your outline should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Write a thesis statement: Write a clear and concise thesis statement that states the main idea of your paper. Your thesis statement should be included in your introduction.
• Write the introduction: The introduction should grab the reader’s attention, provide background information on your topic, and introduce your thesis statement.
• Write the body : The body of your paper should provide supporting evidence for your thesis statement. Use your research to provide details and examples to support your argument. Make sure to organize your ideas logically and use transition words to connect paragraphs.
• Write the conclusion : The conclusion should summarize your main points and restate your thesis statement. Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion.
• Edit and proofread: Edit and proofread your term paper carefully to ensure that it is free of errors and flows smoothly. Check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
• Format and cite your sources: Follow the formatting guidelines provided by your professor and cite your sources properly using the appropriate citation style.
• Submit your paper : Submit your paper on time and according to the instructions provided by your professor.

Term Paper Example

Here’s an example of a term paper:

Title : The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity

As the world becomes more digitally interconnected, cybersecurity threats are increasing in frequency and sophistication. Traditional security measures are no longer enough to protect against these threats. This paper explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity, including how AI can be used to detect and respond to threats in real-time, the challenges of implementing AI in cybersecurity, and the potential ethical implications of AI-powered security systems. The paper concludes with recommendations for organizations looking to integrate AI into their cybersecurity strategies.

Introduction :

The increasing number of cybersecurity threats in recent years has led to a growing interest in the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve cybersecurity. AI has the ability to analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns and anomalies that may indicate a security breach. Additionally, AI can automate responses to threats, allowing for faster and more effective mitigation of security incidents. However, there are also challenges associated with implementing AI in cybersecurity, such as the need for large amounts of high-quality data, the potential for AI systems to make mistakes, and the ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI in security.

Literature Review:

This section of the paper reviews existing research on the use of AI in cybersecurity. It begins by discussing the types of AI techniques used in cybersecurity, including machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks. The literature review then explores the advantages of using AI in cybersecurity, such as its ability to detect previously unknown threats and its potential to reduce the workload of security analysts. However, the review also highlights some of the challenges associated with implementing AI in cybersecurity, such as the need for high-quality training data and the potential for AI systems to be fooled by sophisticated attacks.

Methodology :

To better understand the challenges and opportunities associated with using AI in cybersecurity, this paper conducted a survey of cybersecurity professionals working in a variety of industries. The survey included questions about the types of AI techniques used in their organizations, the challenges they faced when implementing AI in cybersecurity, and their perceptions of the ethical implications of using AI in security.

The results of the survey showed that while many organizations are interested in using AI in cybersecurity, they face several challenges when implementing these systems. These challenges include the need for high-quality training data, the potential for AI systems to be fooled by sophisticated attacks, and the difficulty of integrating AI with existing security systems. Additionally, many respondents expressed concerns about the ethical implications of using AI in security, such as the potential for AI to be biased or to make decisions that are harmful to individuals or society as a whole.

Discussion :

Based on the results of the survey and the existing literature, this paper discusses the potential benefits and risks of using AI in cybersecurity. It also provides recommendations for organizations looking to integrate AI into their security strategies, such as the need to prioritize data quality and to ensure that AI systems are transparent and accountable.

Conclusion :

While there are challenges associated with implementing AI in cybersecurity, the potential benefits of using these systems are significant. AI can help organizations detect and respond to threats more quickly and effectively, reducing the risk of security breaches. However, it is important for organizations to be aware of the potential ethical implications of using AI in security and to take steps to ensure that these systems are transparent and accountable.

References:

• Alkhaldi, S., Al-Daraiseh, A., & Lutfiyya, H. (2019). A Survey on Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Cyber Security. Journal of Information Security, 10(03), 191-207.
• Gartner. (2019). Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2020/
• Kshetri, N. (2018). Blockchain’s roles in meeting key supply chain management objectives. International Journal of Information Management, 39, 80-89.
• Lipton, Z. C. (2018). The mythos of model interpretability. arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.03490.
• Schneier, B. (2019). Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World. WW Norton & Company.
• Wahab, M. A., Rahman, M. S., & Islam, M. R. (2020). A Survey on AI Techniques in Cybersecurity. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 11(2), 22-27.

When to Write Term Paper

A term paper is usually a lengthy research paper that is assigned to students at the end of a term or semester. There are several situations when writing a term paper may be required, including:

• As a course requirement: In most cases, a term paper is required as part of the coursework for a particular course. It may be assigned by the instructor as a way of assessing the student’s understanding of the course material.
• To explore a specific topic : A term paper can be an excellent opportunity for students to explore a specific topic of interest in-depth. It allows them to conduct extensive research on the topic and develop their understanding of it.
• To develop critical thinking skills : Writing a term paper requires students to engage in critical thinking and analysis. It helps them to develop their ability to evaluate and interpret information, as well as to present their ideas in a clear and coherent manner.
• To prepare for future academic or professional pursuits: Writing a term paper can be an excellent way for students to prepare for future academic or professional pursuits. It can help them to develop the research and writing skills necessary for success in higher education or in a professional career.

Purpose of Term Paper

The main purposes of a term paper are:

• Demonstrate mastery of a subject: A term paper provides an opportunity for students to showcase their knowledge and understanding of a particular subject. It requires students to research and analyze the topic, and then present their findings in a clear and organized manner.
• Develop critical thinking skills: Writing a term paper requires students to think critically about their subject matter, analyzing various sources and viewpoints, and evaluating evidence to support their arguments.
• Improve writing skills : Writing a term paper helps students improve their writing skills, including organization, clarity, and coherence. It also requires them to follow specific formatting and citation guidelines, which can be valuable skills for future academic and professional endeavors.
• Contribute to academic discourse : A well-written term paper can contribute to academic discourse by presenting new insights, ideas, and arguments that add to the existing body of knowledge on a particular topic.
• Prepare for future research : Writing a term paper can help prepare students for future research, by teaching them how to conduct a literature review, evaluate sources, and formulate research questions and hypotheses. It can also help them develop research skills that they can apply in future academic or professional endeavors.

Advantages of Term Paper

There are several advantages of writing a term paper, including:

• In-depth exploration: Writing a term paper allows you to delve deeper into a specific topic, allowing you to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.
• Improved writing skills: Writing a term paper involves extensive research, critical thinking, and the organization of ideas into a cohesive written document. As a result, writing a term paper can improve your writing skills significantly.
• Demonstration of knowledge: A well-written term paper demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, which can be beneficial for academic or professional purposes.
• Development of research skills : Writing a term paper requires conducting thorough research, analyzing data, and synthesizing information from various sources. This process can help you develop essential research skills that can be applied in many other areas.
• Enhancement of critical thinking : Writing a term paper encourages you to think critically, evaluate information, and develop well-supported arguments. These skills can be useful in many areas of life, including personal and professional decision-making.
• Preparation for further academic work : Writing a term paper is excellent preparation for more extensive academic projects, such as a thesis or dissertation.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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