Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture

by Joan Gordon (Editor), Brian W. Aldiss (Contributor), Veronica Hollinger (Editor)

The vampire is one of the nineteenth century's most powerful surviving archetypes, owing largely to Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula, the Bram Stoker creation. Yet the figure of the vampire has undergone many transformations in recent years, thanks to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and other works, and many young people now identify with vampires in complex ways.

Blood Read explores these transformations and shows how they reflect and illuminate ongoing changes in postmodern culture. It focuses on the metaphorical roles played by vampires in contemporary fiction and film, revealing what they can tell us about sexuality and power, power and alienation, attitudes toward illness, and the definition of evil in a secular age.

Scholars and writers from the United States, Canada, England, and Japan examine how today's vampire has evolved from that of the last century, consider the vampire as a metaphor for consumption within the context of social concerns, and discuss the vampire figure in terms of contemporary literary theory. In addition, three writers of vampire fiction—Suzy McKee Charnas (author of the now-classic Vampire Tapestry), Brian Stableford (writer of the lively and erudite novels Empire of Fear and Young Blood), and Jewelle Gomez (creator of the dazzling Gilda stories)—discuss their own uses of the vampire, focusing on race and gender politics, eroticism, and the nature of evil.

The first book to examine a wide range of vampire narratives from the perspective of both writers and scholars, Blood Read offers a variety of styles that will keep readers thoroughly engaged, inviting them to participate in a dialogue between fiction and analysis that shows the vampire to be a cultural necessity of our age. For, contrary to legends in which Dracula has no reflection, we can see reflections of ourselves in the vampire as it stands before us cloaked not in black but in metaphor.

Genres: Nonfiction, Vampires, Essays, Horror, Literary Criticism, Research

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Isabella]

3.5, close read some essays and skimmed others that didn't pertain to my thesis research. gordon and hollinger's essays aren't particularly groundbreaking which is disappointing considering they're the editors. i loved gomez's essay and analysis of her work by other scholars in this collection. i found the other essays analyzing or mentioning anne rice's vampire chronicles to be flawed, almost as if many of these scholars are upset by rice's transfiguration of the vampire figure and her dominance in the literary marketplace during the 80s and 90s.

[Reader]

Jewelle Gomez相关的两篇，还有日本学者Mari Kotani的这篇，比起其他的对我来说更有意义。大部分吸血鬼题材的创作与分析，还紧紧围绕着白人男性，无论是讨论他者、性别叙事还是流行文化，都并没有让我感受到这个题材创建之初的那种逾越……只有当与其他文化碰撞，这一形象被用来重述覆写边缘群体的故事，我想才更符合这一不断被文化重新解释的隐喻。Gomez自己写的那篇写得非常坦诚，从她如何构思出黑人les吸血鬼的形象，再到她自知自己的书写对整个群体有着重要的意义。在一切都可以被rewrite的现在，我想自己作为读者追逐的其实也是一种可能性：早已被经典化的形象与叙事，仍然能够在新的叙述者手中被重新打开，去容纳那些原本不属于它的历史与经验。

[S117]

Part one is fangtastic! The rest of the book is also good, but looses some of its bite when following the so incredible part one. But still relevant even today!

[Anttoni]

Interesting viewpoints to ages old topic

[˗ ˏ ˋ Lili ˎ ˊ ˗]

Read chapter 15- Fantasies of Absence: The Postmodern Vampire by Veronica Hollinger
Brilliant!
(skimmed the rest)

[Jonathan]

Wonderful book for academics that want to explore how the vampire is being used today as an archetype. It explores literature, movies, and the history of the vampire myth and how the vampire is still shaping our culture today. The book also contains a reading list of books in the unofficial vampire canon, you just have to read all of the essays to get it. Which is not as bad as it sounds. The essays written here maintain a good balance between academic and being readable.

[Sara]

I found most of these essays to be somewhat lackluster. I did enjoy "Dieting and Damnation: Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire."