The vampire figure is very much a part of the literary landscape of today, and has been so for the last 200 years. The vampire has not always appeared as it does today, as the rich, urbane gentleman, but has its origins in old folklore legends. The idea that the vampire figure has changed over the course of history is not new, but instead of discussing the phenomena influencing, and changing, the vampire motif, this essay will try to shed light on the aspects of the folklore vampire that are still part of the vampire of today. By applying the theory of folklorism (folklore not in its original context, but rather the imitation of popular themes by another social class, or the creation of folklore for purposes outside the established tradition), presented by Hans Moser and Hermann Bausinger among others, this essay attempts to prove that the modern vampire is in fact a folklorism of the old folklore legends. The essay examines the more recent incarnation of the vampire, the literary vampire who emerged during the 18th and 19th century, with the intent to prove that, while it is different from its origin, it has several features in common with its ancestry as well. To show this, examples from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), and the more recent novel Fangland (2007) by John Marks have been chosen to serve as basis for the analysis. Both novels clearly show instances where folklore has been brought into the narrative as a way to define and depict the vampire.

The dissertation focuses on the phenomenon of a new presence of references to traditional folk culture in contemporary Czech and Slovak art. Emphasis is placed on the period from the year 2000 to the present. The core of the work consists of chapters devoted to artists who in this period significantly thematized various aspects of traditional folk culture, either as a partial element of specific projects or in the form of continuous interest in the field. The essence of this part is to show the breadth and heterogeneity of the examined manifestations across the media spectrum. The main purpose of the work is to analyze and place the researched phenomena in a relevant context within the theory and history of art. The reason is their different nature from thematically similar manifestations in the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, when compared with current trends abroad, a number of connections are shown, such as links to environmental issues, criticism of the state of society and, above all, to new issues related to personal and collective identification. Therefore, I base the analysis of these phenomena on a hybrid interdisciplinary basis using theoretical approaches to identity in the social sciences and humanities. I do so in the introductory theoretical chapters, but the main focus is on the final analytical synthesis. To a large extent, it also builds on data obtained from interviews with artists, the transcripts of which the reader will find in the appendix. Finally, the documentation of curatorial projects and exhibitions realized as a practical part of the dissertation project is attached.