French Literature Reviews - 2026

Arnaud Esquerre, Ainsi se meuvent les vampires
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

What is a vampire? The word "vampire" was coined and used in a corner of the world, if not to resolve, then at least to confront a contradiction common to all human beings: how do we live with the fact of mortality? What is a vampire? While we readily imagine a Dracula feeding on the blood of the living, sociologist Arnaud Esquerre reveals a completely different and much more complex face of these beings caught between death and life. We thus learn that they have a birthplace and a date of birth: in 18th-century Europe. They then begin to populate discourse, regardless of whether their existence is affirmed or denied. Over time, vampires would come to designate everything from a variety of bats to a successful literary character (from Lord Byron to Bram Stoker); a medical category seeking to account for cases of necrophilia; or, for Karl Marx, capitalists; or even the protagonists of a comedy film, as in The Fearless Vampire Killers.

We are thus set on the trail of vampires, following them through sources as diverse as they are unexpected, from medical archives to the series True Blood, via the writings of naturalists. This investigation traces the destiny of a word invented and used, if not to resolve, then at least to confront a contradiction common to all human beings: how do we live with the fact of mortality?

Arnaud Esquerre is a sociologist and senior researcher at the CNRS. He recently published Interdire de voir (Fayard, 2019) and, with Luc Boltanski, Qu’est-ce que l’actualité politique ? (Gallimard, 2022).

Read an excerpt from the work...

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The figure of the vampire has long fascinated writers, filmmakers and social theorists alike, evolving from eighteenth-century anxieties into a versatile metaphor across various disciplines. In cultural history and the sociology of ideas, mythical figures are frequently examined as barometers of societal shifts, capturing anxieties surrounding mortality, power and marginality. As the text indicates, the term emerged in Europe during the 1700s to confront the fundamental human contradiction of mortality, subsequently expanding into fields as varied as natural history, political economy, medicine and popular fiction. Readers interested in the cultural history of mythologies and the evolution of social discourses may find this work relevant.

You can read an interview with the author on nonfiction.fr...