'Vampires and other blood-sucking monstrous beings constitute some of the most famous myths, legends and stories that continue to haunt contemporary societies. This special issue examines the presence of these beings within cities and their rural surrounds. The contributions to this special issue reflect upon vampires and other monstrosities in relation to the tropical regions of the world from historical pasts to present-day manifestations, and imaginary tropical futures, including: the British colonial empire in the tropical east, New Orleans in the deep south of the United States, across the border to Mexico and Latin American communities, over to India and Southeast Asia, including Bangkok in Thailand, Singapore, and Sabah on the island of Borneo, and to the tropical east coast of Australia. However, the concept of the tropics is not simply a geographical construct, the imaginary of the tropics also emerges out of the spaces of mythology and oral storytelling, ethnographic reports, literature, science fiction magazines, film and television, video games and the internet.' (Anita Lundberg, Lennie Geerlings : Editorial introduction)
Only literary material within AustLit's scope individually indexed. Other material in this issue includes:
-Vampire and Empire: Dracula and the Imperial Gaze by Stu Burns
-Exotic Otherlands, Headquarters of Death: Sub-tropical Land- and Cityscapes in The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska
-Beyond the Vampire: Revamping Thai Monsters for the Urban Age by Katarzyna Ancuta
-Vampires in Video Games: Mythic Tropes for Innovative Storytelling by Roberto Dillon, Anita Lundberg
-The Role of the Internet in the Endurance of “La Llorona” as a Liminal Archetypal Monster in Modern Latin American Society by David Ramírez Plascencia
-Traditional Beliefs About Weretigers Among the Garos of Meghalaya (India) by Francesco Brighenti
-The Tarob and the Sacred Oath. Liminal Spirits and Stories Creating Heterotopic Spacesin Dusun Culture by Martin Potter
-Trysts Tropiques: The Torrid Jungles of Science Fiction by Christopher B. Menadue
-Liminal Criminal: Abject, Absence and Environment in Junky and The Outsider by Molly Hoey
