Vampire as Superman. George Sylvester Viereck’s Decadent Novel "The House of the Vampire" in the USA and Germany

• Published in: Literatura dvuh Amerik no. 8; pp. 8 - 25
• Main Author: Molodiakov, Vassili
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; German
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature 01.06.2020
• Subjects: decadence; early 20th century american fiction; george sylvester viereck; plagiarism; vampirism
• ISSN: 2541-7894; 2542-243X
• DOI: 10.22455/2541-7894-2020-8-8-25

The arcticle deals with one of the first American decadent novels – “The House of the Vampire” by George Sylvester Viereck (1884 –1962) discussed by literary and cultural historians in the 21st century and recently translated into Russian and French languages. Like Viereck’s decadent poetry collection “Nineveh and Other Poems” (1907) this novel, influenced by Edgar Poe and Oscar Wilde, provoqued a heated discussion in American press. Discussed subjects went far beyond ‘pure’ matters of literary art and skill, of literary groups and schools’ interaction. Writers and critics paid a special attention to some ethic and moral problems Viereck dealt with, first of all, if it is permissible for a genial creator, even superman to be an intellectual “vampire”, to steal and to use other people’s creative ideas and works. Viereck’s preface to the German language author’s version of the novel (1909) is published in the addenda to this article for the first time in Russian translation. In this program preface Viereck explained in details his views on “vampirism” permissible for great artists, and on the nature of creative process in general. Writing for German (European) readers Viereck pointed to the diversity and the intensity of American spiritual life and quest in the 1900s and challenged current European image of the USA as a spiritless “dollar’s kingdom”. Viereck also emphasized the necessity of broader literary and cultural contacts between the Old World and the New World. He participated in this process acting as an envoy of American spiritual culture in Germany.