The last decade has been characterized by the cultural ubiquity of young adult fiction, where romanticized vampires from the Twilight saga and The Vampire Diaries play upon traditional gendered stereotypes. At once seductive and lethal in combat, Pamela falls far outside the acceptable model of womanhood: assertive, independent, bisexual. Here we meet a host of dynamic vampira, including Pamela Swynford De Beaufort, co-owner at Fangtasia, a vampire nightclub in Louisiana. ![]() Meanwhile, the television series True Blood, based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, depicts a world where vampires have “come out of the coffin” and allowed their presence to be known to mankind. Karen Jensen, a gifted haematologist who discovers the cure for vampirism. The Blade Trilogy (1998-2004) brought a diverse array of female vampira to the genre, particularly in the character of Dr. While one suitor, Kraven, believes Selene takes "this warrior business far too seriously," Selene retorts that Kraven is “a pig, a coward and an insufferable egotist.”įor More Stories Like This, Sign Up for Our Newsletterīy the 2000s, the contemporary vampire narrative was fast evolving. Not only can she withstand shotgun blasts to the stomach and survive 10-foot-story drops without sustaining a scratch, she can single-handedly cut the throats of six Lycans. One of the strongest vampires of her master Viktor’s coven, Selene possesses great physical strength and endurance, though it’s her emotional detachment and singular interest in vengeance that defies the weight of history. A cold-hearted killer clad in black spandex, Selene devotes her life to hunting the Lycans (werewolves), who she believes were responsible for murdering her family, and is capable of brutal acts of violence in her quest to exterminate the species. The Death Dealer Selene from Underworld (2003) is another prominent example of the new-age vampiress. Her emotional instability, as Onyiwo notes, offers “a stark comment on the impact of emotional abuse on the female psyche.” Meanwhile Darla, a wicked predator who spends four centuries torturing innocent people, undergoes a fascinating journey in the spin-off series Angel, where she makes the ultimate sacrifice of staking herself to save her unborn son. Tortured to insanity and sired by Angelus, Drusilla turns from a pure, innocent Christian girl to a vicious predator who terrorizes Europe and takes gleeful pleasure in torture and murder. Though not technically a vampire, Anita’s powers of necromancy in re-animating the dead, and eventual transition into a succubus, sidestepped the traditional supporting role and put female characters with vampiric instincts center-stage.īy the tail end of the decade, the villainous vampires Darla and Drusilla in Joss Whedon’s female-empowerment epic Buffy the Vampire Slayer were tackling the patriarchal genre with plenty of complex character development. ![]() ![]() Hamilton’s characterization of Anita Blake, a necromancer nicknamed "the Executioner," in the Vampire Hunter series, addressed the question of gender inequality in detective fiction head-on. Meanwhile, the vampiric Brides of Dracula that Stoker conjured exuded a monstrous, perverted femininity-existing solely to prey upon male visitors to the castle, and feed upon infants.īy the 90s, representations of vampira that possessed true agency had begun to proliferate. ![]() In the process, he created the archetypal predatory male vampire that came to dominate subsequent gothic literature and still appears in TV shows and movies today. Inspired by Carmilla’s representation of predatory female vampires and the wise vampire hunter who went after her, Stoker’s Count Dracula took those characters and put them in a more palatable, heteronormative mold. Then, a quarter of a century later, the significance of Le Fanu’s beautiful, blood-sucking immortal was further eclipsed by the tale of an aristocratic vampire residing in a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains: Bram Stoker’s now classic 1987 novel Dracula. While Carmilla is now recognized by many as the “ original vampire novel of modern Europe,” Victorian society had no place for a female-centred story of supernatural seduction-especially one with the Sapphic, homosexual undertones of bite marks on breasts. Together with the vampire hunter Baron Vordenburg, the trio uncovers Carmilla’s hidden tomb and stake her corpse. Eventually, the truth finally comes to light: Carmilla is in fact the centuries-old vampire Countess Mircalla Karnstein, and has been preying upon Laura in the night. All is well until young maidens in nearby towns begin mysteriously dying from an unknown illness, and Laura has visions of a large, cat-like creature attacking her at night.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |