\u003cP\u003eWhile vampire stories have been part of popular culture since the beginning of the nineteenth century, it has been in recent decades that they have become a central part of American culture. \u003cI\u003eVampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture\u003c/I\u003e looks at how vampire storiesâfrom Bram Stoker's \u003cI\u003eDracula\u003c/I\u003e to \u003cI\u003eBlacula\u003c/I\u003e, from Bela Lugosi's films to \u003cI\u003eLove at First Bite\u003c/I\u003eâhave become part of our ongoing debate about what it means to be human. \u003c/P\u003e\u003cP\u003eWilliam Patrick Day looks at how writers and filmmakers as diverse as Anne Rice and Andy Warhol present the vampire as an archetype of human identity, as well as how many post-modern vampire stories reflect our fear and attraction to stories of addiction and violence. He argues that contemporary stories use the character of Dracula to explore modern values, and that stories of vampire slayers, such as the popular television series \u003cI\u003eBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u003c/I\u003e, integrate current feminist ideas and the image of the Vietnam veteran into a new heroic version of the vampire story.\u003c/P\u003e
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