""Blood Read" is a fresh look at an old form, offering lively,
lucid insights into the contemporary explosion of vampire fiction.
Nothing else like it exists. This book should set the terms for
discussion about vampires for some time to come."--Brian Attebery,
Idaho State University 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. Joan Gordon is Associate Professor of English at Nassau
Community College in New York. Veronica Hollinger is Associate
Professor in the Cultural Studies Program at Trent University in
Peterborough, Ontario.
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