Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
doi:10.22028/D291-32032
Title: | Gender and sexuality in paranormal romance : the postfeminist agenda of contemporary vampire narratives |
Author(s): | Gerhards, Lea |
Language: | English |
Year of Publication: | 2020 |
SWD key words: | Vampir Eclipse Feminismus Geschlechterforschung Geschlecht Sexualität Gothic novel Horror Trivialroman Liebesroman Kulturwissenschaften Romance Repräsentation <Soziologie> Massenkultur Feministische Filmtheorie Subjektivität Gaze Körper Gothic True Blood Breaking Dawn New Moon The Vampire Diaries Twilight (Film) Twilight saga series |
Free key words: | Postfeminismus cultural politics |
DDC notations: | 420 English 791 Public performances, film, radio, television 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism 810 American literature in English 970 History of North America |
Publikation type: | Dissertation |
Abstract: | Since the mid-2000s, American popular culture has fallen under the reign of the vampire, and the bloodsucker is only slowly releasing its grip. In particular, recent years have seen the expansion of a massive vampire romance industry. By tracing the connections between three recent vampire romance series possessing tremendous discursive and ideological power, the “Twilight” film series (2008-2012) as well as the TV series “The Vampire Diaries” (2009-2017) and “True Blood” (2008-2014), this dissertation sets out to determine the cultural politics of these extraordinarily popular texts. In this research, contemporary vampire romance is understood and examined as a locus for the articulation of postfeminist ideologies, and a host to current discourses about gender, sexuality, subjectivity, agency and the body. Discussing a range of conflicting meanings contained in the narratives, this dissertation critically looks at the hybrid paranormal romance genre’s engagement with postfeminist issues, such as everyday sexism and violence against women, power relations in heterosexual relationships, sexual autonomy and pleasure, (self-)empowerment, and (self-)surveillance. As this research shows, the liminal figure of the vampire is ideally suited to incorporate postfeminism’s contradictions, working as a projection surface for postfeminist discourses surrounding gender, sexuality, subjectivation, self-discipline and the management of the body. Providing a discursive and ideological textual analysis of contemporary vampire romance, this study asks: Why are these genre texts so popular right now, what specific desires, issues and fears are addressed and negotiated by them, and what kinds of pleasures do they offer? |
Link to this record: | urn:nbn:de:bsz:291--ds-320320 hdl:20.500.11880/29816 http://dx.doi.org/10.22028/D291-32032 |
Advisor: | Fellner, Astrid M. |
Date of oral examination: | 7-Nov-2018 |
Date of registration: | 6-Oct-2020 |
Faculty: | P - Philosophische Fakultät |
Department: | P - Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Anglophone Kulturen |
Professorship: | P - Prof. Dr. Astrid M. Fellner |
Collections: | SciDok - Der Wissenschaftsserver der Universität des Saarlandes |
Files for this record:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Gerhards_Gender and Sexuality in Paranormal Romance_Dissertation.pdf | Dissertation | 2,9 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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