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Neophilologus (2006) 90:601620 Springer 2006 DOI 10.1007/s11061-005-4253-yGUSTAV MEYRINK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE LITERARY VAMPIRE: FROM FEARED BLOODSUCKER TO ESOTERIC PHENOMENONA. BOYDDepartment of German & Russian, Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97301, USAE-mail: [email protected] the satirist, fantasist, and occultist Gustav Meyrink (18681932) began publishing in the early twentieth century, the gure of the vampire was already well-established as a literary motif in German literature. During this period numerous works appeared that depicted vampires based upon the model of Bram Stoker. While commonly conceived as a fearsome, bloodsucking, and seductive creature, short stories by Gustav Meyrink challenged this conventional representation of the vampire. The following study introduces Meyrinks vampire tales and highlights how the author employs and comments on the traditional features of this motif, in the process of which he radically reshapes the motif itself. The result is that Meyrink oers his readers descriptions of vampiric phenomena informed by esoteric thought and turn-of-the-century occultist trends. If vampires and their monstrous kin are indeed carriers of culture, as Jerey Cohen, a leading critic of monster theory, contends, then Meyrinks creation of an esoteric vampire gives voice to the signicant role of the occult movement at the turn of the century and its place within the crisis of modernity.The account of Gustav Meyrinks spiritual conversion describes how the distraught young Prague businessman stood at his desk in 1891 with a pistol pointed to his head when a pamphlet entitled Uber das Leben nach dem Tode was pushed under his door. Inspired by the occultist notions of spirituality contained in this paper, Meyrink placed the gun back in the desk drawer and set out on a lifelong journey to nd salvation.1 Albeit apocryphal in tone, this rsthand recollection of the early twentieth-century satirist, fantasist, and occultist symbolizes the profound awakening he underwent. The ensuing search for knowledge of the immaterial impacted Meyrinks personal and professional life, and the vast otherworldly wisdom he amassed earned him great respect in esoteric spiritual circles. Not surprisingly, the author in turn dealt with questions of spirituality in602A. Boydhis philosophical writings and ctional works. Meyrink incorporated essential elements of his spiritual philosophy in his fantastic writing, imprinting even his most monstrous creations with meaning emblem-atic of the turn-of-the-century occult movement.Through close...