Bestsellers: Out for the Count
This MIT OpenCourseWare class traces the rise of the vampire trope in English-language fiction from the early nineteenth century through its first major peak in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Readings include Lord Byron's fragment on the undead, John Polidori's The Vampyre, Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, and Stoker's novel, alongside folklore sources on the undead that fed the literary tradition. The course examines how these works shaped the modern literary canon and helped establish vampire fiction as one of the most enduring popular culture genres. Materials include the syllabus, reading list, and assignments as published on MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate offered. The focus stays on literary history and genre formation rather than adaptation or fandom, tracking how a folkloric figure became a fixture of English fiction over the course of a century.