Whiteness, Vampires and Humanity in Contemporary Film and Television

Abstract

In his seminal 1997 study White, Richard Dyer argues that in contrast to other groups which have been historically constructed and represented as defined by their racial qualities, the hegemonic power of Whiteness emerges from the extent to which White people are not defined by their race and are consequently positioned as being able to speak from ‘the commonality of humanity’ (Dyer, 1997, p. 2). Black people are Black, Asian people are Asian, while White people are simply people. White identity is a construction which has its own specific qualities, characteristics, narratives, histories and cultures; it is also an aspect of the White disposition to see none of these as in any way expressive of a subjective White identity but rather typical of humanity in general. Through this sense of non-particularity, Whiteness presents itself as the default point zero against which all other groups are measured as deviating from an unraced model of human normativity.