Queer vampires

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Vampires have historically been connected with queerness because both have been culturally defined by secrecy, transgression, and the disruption of norms.[1] In both literature and film, scholars have noted that writers have used vampires as a metaphor for forbidden desire, gender fluidity, and the social construction of deviance due to their non-conforming tendencies.[2] Authors have remained interested in vampires because it allows them to explore how desire crosses boundaries in life and death, gender and sexuality, purity and corruption, without straightforwardly stating what society forbids: queer relationships.

Literary scholars have argued that in early Gothic texts like Carmilla (1872) and Dracula (1897), the vampire represented anxieties about same-sex attraction and gender inversion, coding queerness as both seductive and dangerous.[3][4][5] Modern queer and feminist critics have expanded this analysis by demonstrating how the vampire’s symbolic "otherness" has been reclaimed by queer writers, especially writers of color, who position the vampire not as a monster but as a figure of resilience, community, and chosen kinship.[1][6][7]

Victorian literature

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In early Gothic fiction, queerness was encrypted through vampirism as a way to express same-sex desire within the constraints of 19th-century censorship. Carmilla (Le Fanu, 1872) and Dracula (Stoker, 1897) use the vampire as a literary substitution for socially forbidden intimacy framing lesbian and homoerotic desire as both seductive and something to be avoided.[3][5][8]

In the 20th century

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By the 1970s, queer representation shifted from subtext to open visibility in works like Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (1976), where vampirism symbolizes fluid sexuality and queer kinship structures.[1][4]

Contemporary media and visibility

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In 21st-century film and television, the vampire is often openly queer, reflecting broader social acceptance. Series like True Blood (2008–2014) and What We Do in the Shadows (2019–2024) abandon allegory entirely, depicting vampires who "come out of the coffin" and navigate civil-rights-style debates about identity.[1]

Reinterpretations

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Writers such as Jewelle Gomez and Terri de la Peña have reworked the vampire myth to center Black and Latina lesbian desire, transforming the vampire from a symbol of something to attack, to an example of care and resistance among communities who can relate and restructure the negative connotations previously imposed.[6][7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Drummond, Bailey (2024), Coming Out of the Coffin: The History and Present of Queerness in the Vampire Genre, Bowling Green State University
  2. ^ Hobson, Amanda Jo, and U. Melissa Anyiwo. 2023. “Queer Vampires, Queering the Vampire, and the Transgressive Undead: An Introduction.” In Queering the Vampire Narrative. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004688889_001.
  3. ^ a b Craft, Christopher (1984-10-01). ""Kiss Me with those Red Lips": Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker's Dracula". Representations. 8: 107–133. doi:10.2307/2928560. ISSN 0734-6018.
  4. ^ a b Howes, M. (1988). "The Mediation of the Feminine: Bisexuality, Homoerotic Desire, and Self-Expression in Bram Stoker's Dracula". Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 30 (1): 104–119.
  5. ^ a b Rigby, M. (2006). Monstrous desire : Frankenstein and the queer gothic (Order No. U584824 (Thesis). Cardiff University – via ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
  6. ^ a b Amador, V. (2013). "Dark Ladies". Gothic Studies. 15 (1): 8–20.
  7. ^ a b Jenkins, J.R. (2013). "Race, Freedom, and the Black Vampire in Jewelle Gomez's The Gilda Stories". African American Review. 46 (2): 313–328.
  8. ^ Nee, C. (2020). "The Haunt of Injustice: Exploring Homophobia in Vampire Literature". Digital Literature Review. 7.