The frightening borderlands of Enlightenment: The vampire problem
Between 1724 and 1760, in the frontier area of the Habsburg empire waves of a hitherto unknown epidemic disease emerged: vampirism. In remote villages of southeastern Europe, cases of unusual deaths were reported. Corpses did not decay and, according to the villagers, corporeal ghosts were haunting...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Elsevier Science
2012
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| In: |
Studies in history and philosophy of science. Part C, Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences
Year: 2012, Volume: 43, Issue: 3, Pages: 710-719 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Austria
/ Serbia
/ Vampire
/ Living corpse
/ Spirits
/ History 1724-1760
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy KBK Europe (East) TJ Modern history ZB Sociology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Between 1724 and 1760, in the frontier area of the Habsburg empire waves of a hitherto unknown epidemic disease emerged: vampirism. In remote villages of southeastern Europe, cases of unusual deaths were reported. Corpses did not decay and, according to the villagers, corporeal ghosts were haunting their relatives and depriving them of their vital force. Death occurred by no later than three to four days. The colonial administration, alarmed by the threat of an epidemic illness, dispatched military officers and physicians to examine the occurrences. Soon several reports and newspaper articles circulated and made the untimely resurrection of the dead known to the perplexed public, Europe-wide. “Vampyrus Serviensis”, the Serbian vampire, became an intensively discussed phenomenon within academe, and thereby gained factual standing. My paper depicts the geopolitical context of the vampire’s origin within the Habsburg states. Secondly, it outlines the epistemological difficulties faced by observing physicians in the field. Thirdly, it delineates the scholarly debate on the apparent oxymoron of the living dead in the era of enlightened reason. Fourthly, the early history of vampirism shows that ghosts and encounters with the undead are not superstitious relics of a pre-modern past, or the Enlightenment’s other, but intimate companions of Western modernity. |
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| ISSN: | 1879-2499 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studies in history and philosophy of science. Part C, Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2012.02.007 DOI: 10.15496/publikation-42530 HDL: 10900/101150 |