Jean Marigny


Jean Marigny is a French emeritus professor of Stendhal University in Grenoble, where he taught English and American literature. He is a specialist in vampire studies, from ancient folklore to modern vampire myth.

Career

Jean Marigny has devoted much of his career to the myth of vampires, he is the founder of the research centre for studies in fantasy and horror in English and American literature: the Groupe d'Études et de Recherches sur le Fantastique which he directed several years at Stendhal University. He is also a member of the Canadian branch of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula.
After his doctoral dissertation in 1985, Le Vampire dans la littérature anglo-saxonne, he has published a number of essays and translated novels and short stories about the vampire theme. He published two anthologies, Histoires anglo-saxonnes de Vampires in 1978 and Les Vampires : Dracula et les siens in 1997. He is the author of Vampires: The World of the Undead, a copiously illustrated pocket book that has been translated into seven languages and was a reaction to Francis Coppola's Dracula. He also directed a collective work on Dracula for the collection 'Figures mythiques' published by. Marigny is considered one of the greatest vampire specialists around the world, particularly with regard to Anglo-Saxon fiction on the subject.
What fascinates Marigny about vampire is the character: a paradoxical being. As he explains, 'No fictional character is more emblematic of the fantasy than the vampire. If it is true that fantasy is based on paradox, the vampire is the best illustration, since it is both dead and alive.'

Publications

Le Vampire dans la littérature anglo-saxonne, doctoral dissertation on Anglo-Saxon literature Histoires anglo-saxonnes de Vampires Les Vampires : Dracula et les siens, in collaboration with Sang pour sang : Le réveil des vampires, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard », série Culture et société. Paris : Éditions Gallimard, 1992