(R)Ewolucja w modelu postrzegania wampira

Abstract

A Slavic upir, upiór or wapierz is a well-known vampire. However, it underwent numerous transformations throughout the ages. From a dark demon living in the Gothic castles, it transformed into an affectionate lover, a community worker working in favour of the mankind and a businessman living in the modern attic. The author discusses particular types of vampires, namely: a vampirecorpse, a living vampire and a varcolac, as well as ways of transformations into a demon, and the process of a sacrificing selection. Also, she explains the issue of vampirism in the case of people suffering from porphyria, and analyses vampires’ attitude towards women, as well as describes the ways of killing the very demon. The issues of changing a vampire mentality, attitude towards people, life, work and place of living, as well as the presence of demons in the mentality of people nowadays, and a medial construction of reality making use of the vampire motive in order to gain the biggest number of readers, fascinated with demonological contents. Nowadays, the faith in Slavic goddesses and demons constitutes a component of a global culture while the vampire itself, a transgressive figure, is undoubtedly the most popular character of pop-culture. It is present in audiovisual productions, no longer created exclusively in Hollywood. A change of the paradigm of perceiving a vampire, being currently the icon of pop-culture has appeared in the 20th century. People dream of omnipotence available to demons whereas the movie demons undergo humanization these days. The perspective in question has been reversed.