E.T.A Hoffmann's Vampirism Tale: Instinctual Perversion

Since Hoffmann's vampire story was written expressly for volume four of The Serapion Brothers, it was, as with several other tales, not assigned a title and has been variously labelled “Vampirism,” “Cyprian's Narrative,” “Tale of a Vampire,” “The Hyena,” etc., depending on which biography or critical edition of the author's works one might happen to consult. The theoretical discussion of this theme by members of the Serapion circle before and after the story and the sources they mention1 indicate that Hoffmann was more than casually familiar with the myth of the bloodsucking undead, which had been garnering interest among European writers of Dark Romanticism since the turn of the nineteenth century. From these discussions, it becomes apparent that Hoffmann wishes to avoid explicit portrayal of the incredible, horrific trappings associated with vampirism, preferring to exercise “poetic tact” in order that “the gruesome does not degenerate to the level of the disgusting and loathsome” (927).

During the debate preceding the story, Hoffmann seems more concerned with the underlying idea of vampirism, that is, with the psychological implications of its gruesome elements, and regards the “dread” and “horror” (927) it evokes not as an aesthetic confirmation of the sublime but as a manifestation of all too human aberrations which, as the narrator Cyprian states, reside “within our own breast” (927), indeed which originate “more often in thought than in appearances” (928). It is not Cyprian who places emphasis on the supernatural content of the vampire myth but other members of the literary circle. Thus, we hear from Sylvester: “To my knowledge a vampire, you see, is nothing more than a living corpse who sucks the blood of those still