While roaming a mall-based Waldenbooks yesterday, I happened upon a display of books promoted as “paranormal romance.” The great majority of them in the store were vampire romances, which really caught my attention since I’m teaching “Death, Burial and Culture” this fall and want my students to do projects on folklore surrounding the dead (or undead, as the case may be). So I, uh, bought one… For research purposes only, of course (Oh, like I’m supposed to pass up something titled, “A Girl’s Guide to Vampires”).

To restore my now-tattered academic credentials, here’s a fairly serious literary analysis of this subgenre by Lee McClain.