Abstract
This chapter explores contemporary fascination with the vampire, looking at the popular fictional vampire of the twenty-first century—Stephenie Meyer’s (Twilight) and Charlaine Harris’ (True Blood) often conservative use of a radical figure. This emphasises the return of the vampire romance, management of cultural values, the power of the family and social normativity. The Gothic vampire has been mainstreamed and some of the energies used earlier to critique the conventional are now, in YA fiction in particular, also used to reinforce it. Twenty-first century vampires are our neighbours, they live amongst us and offer the opportunity to critique or reinforce certain beliefs about conformity, education, romance, families, sisterhood and neighbourliness. The author argues that Moira Buffini’s vampires represent a new turn, however, challenging patriarchal violence in the film Byzantium, and drama, A Vampire Story, in which historically abused vampire mother and daughter have the last word, escape, resilient, devious and entrepreneurial even when faced with the stranglehold of neoliberalism and remnants of the welfare state.
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Wisker, G. (2016). Vampire Kisses. In: Contemporary Women's Gothic Fiction. Palgrave Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-30349-3_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-30349-3_8
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