Queering the Vampire Narrative

Queering the Vampire Narrative offers classroom-ready original essays that continue our explorations of vampires as representations of the cultural Other, which builds on the work of our previous texts. The editors argue, ultimately, the vampire is a queer icon, infinitely blurring the boundaries of identity and cultural norms and queering even the most seemingly stable notions, such as life, death, humanity, and monstrosity. The Vampire is the undead monarch of subtextual articulations of Otherness, especially queer behaviors and desires, offering explorations of the AIDS epidemic, the destabilization of ideas of fixed and stable sexuality, the search for community and chosen family, and the issues of individual and generational trauma. In current fictions, vampires are coming out of the coffin and the closet, identifying as openly queer and often created by queer writers, artists, and directors and bringing the subtext to the surface of the narrative. This volume seeks to create a dialogue about the impact and importance of the vampire on queer identity and queer theory and to answer the questions of why the vampire is such a compelling queer icon and what visions of vampires articulate about our ideas surrounding issues of sexuality, sexual orientation, sexual behaviors, and desires. Contents Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors 1. Queer Vampires, Queering the Vampire, and the Transgressive Undead: An Introduction 1 Note about Language Note References 2. Undyingly Queer: Cultural Context, Found Family, and the Eternal Unavoidable Queerness 1 Introduction 2 Creating the Seductive Monster 3 Liberating the Penitent Predator 4 Defanging the Deadly Hero 5 Evolving but Eternally Queer 6 Discussion Questions Notes References 3. Flipping the Script? Queering the Insider/Outsider Status of the Black Vampire Queen 1 Spoiler Alert, a Film Summary 2 “You Don’t See the Advantages of Your Position”: The Death of Supply and Demand 3 Grace Jones as Queer Icon 4 Insider Status; or Black Vampiric Capitalism 5 Katrina as Outsider 6 Katrina—Still a Cautionary Tale? 7 Queering the Cultural Logic; or, Who’s the Real Villain? A Conclusion 8 Discussion Questions Notes References 4. Gendered Fault Lines: Reproductive Politics in Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls 1 Queering Heteronormative Kinship 2 The Reproductive Politics of Gynaehorror 3 Life’s Passive Instrument: The Abortion Scene6 4 Conclusion 5 Discussion Questions Notes References 5. The Monstrous Mother as Obstacle to Herd Immunity and Queer Community in American Horror Story 1 Love, Loyalty, and Creating the Mother 2 Creating the Toxic Family 3 Monstrous Children 4 Viruses and the Antivax Campaign 5 Maternal Hegemony 6 Deconstructing the Normative Family Discussion Questions Notes References 6. “Love Will Have Its Sacrifices”: The Evolution of Lesbian Representation in Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1 On Vampires in Sapphic Literature 2 The Queen of Vampires Is a Lesbian: Carmilla (1872) 3 The Curse of the Film Adaptations of Carmilla 4 Carmilla (2014): A Feminist Retelling 5 Conclusions 6 Discussion Questions Notes References 7. “We’re Different to Others of Our Kind”: Meyer’s Vampires and the Complications 1 The Sympathetic vs Hedonistic Vampire 2 Discussion Questions References 8. Fragments of Queerness and the Post-Modern Family in Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1 Introduction: An Overview of Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2 Situating Buffy: From Dracula to Lestat 3 Buffy, Willow, Tara, and the Creation of the Queered Family 4 Millennium Rising: Carmilla to Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5 Queer Families: The Chosen One and a Chosen Family 6 Concluding: Wrapping-Up Family Matters 7 Discussion Questions Note References 9. The Irony That Kills Us: The (Un)life and Death of Possibility in Anne Rice’s The Vampire 1 Introduction 2 Blood and Water: Reproductive Norming 3 Everything in Its Place: Gender Conformity 4 Conclusion: Making Vampires Great Again 5 Discussion Questions Notes References 10. Escaping Capitalism and Toxic Masculinity through Vampiric Transformations in Vampire’s Kiss 1 Discussion Questions References 11. To Be Young and a Man: Age and Emasculation in Tony Scott’s The Hunger 1 Discussion Questions References 12. The Argenti Beast Abstract Universal Bureau of Investigation: UBOI Document Analyzation Records Hxstory of Document Discussion Questions 13. Queering the Classroom 1 Questions & Activities by Theme 1.1 Monstrous Bodies 2 Queering the Family 2.1 Challenging Heteronormativity and Race 2.2 Unsteadying Gender 2.3 Writing Activities 2.4 Other Activities Note