Virtue as Adventure and Excess: Intertextuality, Masculinity, and Desire in the Twilight Series
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.135213Keywords:
Twilight Series, Stephenie Meyer, masculinity, vampires, werewolves, Midnight Sun, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, feminist theory, queer theory, gothic.Abstract
The vampire is still primarily a literary figure. The vampires we have seen on TV and cinema in recent years are all based on literary models. The vampire is at the same time a popular cultural icon and a figure that, especially women writers, use to problematize gender, sexuality and power. As a vampire story the Twilight series both produces and problematizes norms in regard to gender, class and ethnici-ty. As the main romantic character in Twilight, Edward Cullen becomes interesting both as a vampire of our time and as a man. In a similar way as in the 19th century novel the terms of relationship are negotiated and like his namesake Edward Rochester, Edward Cullen has to change in important ways for the “happy end-ing” to take place. In spite of a strong interest in sexuality and gender norms in relation to vampires very few studies have focused exclusively on masculinity. This article examines the construction of masculinity in relation to vampirism in the Twilight series. It offers an interpretation of Stephenie Meyer’s novels and the character of Edward as part of a broader field of feminist (re-)uses of the vampire in modern literature with its roots in the literary tradition from Austen and the Brontë-sisters as well as from classic Gothic fiction.
References
Auerbach, Nina (1995): Our Vampires, Ourselves, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226056180.001.0001
Bealer, Tracy L. (2011): “Of Monsters and Men: Toxic Masculinity and the Twenty-first Century Vampire in the Twilight Saga”, Giselle Liza Anatol (ed.): Bringing Light to Twilight: Perspectives on the Pop Culture Phenomenon, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Diamond, Fleur (2011): “Beauty and the Beautiful Beast: Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight Series’ and the Quest for a Transgressive Female Desire”, Australian Feminist Studies, 26: 67, 41-55. DOI: 10.1080/08164649.2010.546327
Deffenbacher, Kristina & Mikayla Zagoria-Moffet (2011): “Textual Vampirism in the Twilight Saga: Drawing Feminist Life from Jane Eyre and Teen Fantasy-Fiction”, Giselle Liza Anatol (ed.): Bringing Light to Twilight: Perspectives on the Pop Culture Phenomenon, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Donelly, Ashley (2011): “Denial and Salvation: The Twilight Series and Heteronormative Patriarchy”, Maggie Parker & Natalie Wilson (eds): Theorizing Twilight: Critical Essays on What’s at Stake in a Post-Vampire World, Jefferson, N.C & London: McFarland & Company.
Foucault, Michel (1990): The History of Sexuality Vol. 3: The Care of Self, London: Penguin.
Groper, Jessica, (2011): “Rewriting the Byronic Hero: How the Twilight Series Turned ‘Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know’ into a Teen Fiction Phenomen”, Maggie Parker & Natalie Wilson (eds): Theorizing Twilight: Critical Essays on What’s at Stake in a Post-Vampire World, Jefferson, N.C & London: McFarland & Company.
Halberstam, Judith (1995): Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, Durham: Duke University Press.
Hamilton, Laurell K. (1993): Guilty Pleasures, New York: Penguin.
Harris, Charlaine (2001-2012): Sookie Stackhouse Novels 1–12,New York: Ace Books.
Hendershot, Cyndy (1998): The Animal Within: Masculinity and the Gothic, Ann Arbour, University of Michigan Press
Housel, Rebecca (2009): “The ‘Real’ Danger: Fact vs Fiction for the Girl Audience”, Rebecca Housel & J. Jeremy Wisnewski (eds): Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality, Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Hoeveler, Diane Long (1998). Gothic feminism: the professionalization of gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontës. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Hughes, William & Andrew Smith (2009): “Introduction”, Queering the Gothic, William Hughes & Andrew Smith (eds), Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press.
Höglund, Anna (2009): Vampyrer. En kulturkritisk studie av den västerländska vampyrberättelsen från 1700-talet till 2000-talet, Växjö: Växjö University Press.
Kane, Kathyryn, (2010): “A very Queer Refusal: The Chilling Effect of the Cullens’ Heteronormative Embrace”, Melisa A Click, Jennifer Stevens Aubrey & Elsabeth Behm Morawitz (eds): Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, & the Vampire Franchise, New York: Peter Lang, 103-134.
Leffler, Yvonne (2011): “Reading for Plot, Character, and Pleasure”, Mariah Larsson & Steiner, Ann (eds): Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media and a Contemporary Cultural Experience, Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Liliequist, Jonas (2006): “Sexualiteten”, Jørgen Lorentzen & Claes Ekenstam (eds): Män i Norden. Manlighet och modernitet 1840–1940, Möklinta: Gidlund,
Lindén, Claudia (2011): “Vampyren som Mr Darcy, Maskulinitet och begär i Twilightserien”, Maria Andersson, Elina Druker och Kristin Hallberg (eds): I litteraturens underland. Festskrift till Boel Westin, Stockholm: Makadam.
Lindqvist, John Ajvide, (2004/2007) Let the Right One In, New York Thomas Dunne Books.
Lorentzen, Jørgen (2004): Maskulinitet. Blikk på mannen gjennom litteratur og film, Oslo: Spartacus.
Mann, Bonnie (2009): “Vampire Love. The Second Sex Negotiates the Twenty-First Century”, Rebecca Housel & J. Jeremy Wisnewski (eds): Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality, Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Miller, Melissa (2011): “Maybe Edward Is the Most Dangerous Thing Out There: The Role of Patriarchy”, Maggie Parker & Natalie Wilson (eds): Theorizing Twilight: Critical Essays on What’s at Stake in a Post-Vampire World, Jefferson, N.C & London: McFarland & Company.
Mukherjea, Ananya (2011): “Team Bella: Fans Navigating Desire, Security, and Feminism”, Maggie Parker & Natalie Wilson (eds): Theorizing Twilight: Critical Essays on What’s at Stake in a Post-Vampire World, Jefferson, N.C & London: McFarland & Company.
Meyer, Stephenie (2005): Twilight, New York: Little, Brown and Co.
Meyer, Stephenie (2006): New Moon, New York: Little, Brown and Co.
Meyer, Stephenie (2007): Eclipse, New York: Little, Brown and Co.
Meyer, Stephenie (2008): Breaking Dawn, New York: Little, Brown and Co.
Meyer, Stephenie (2008b): Midnight Sun: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/midnightsun_partial_draft4.pdf, (accessed 12 April 2013).
Myers, Abigail E., “Edward Cullen and Bella Swan: Byronic and Feminist Heroes … or not”,Rebecca Housel & J. Jeremy Wisnewski (eds): Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality, Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Nauwerck, Malin & Anna Winberg “Vi måste tala om Edward”, Dagens Nyheter, 28 September 2008.
Nietzsche, Friedrich,(1968): trans. Walter Kaufmann The will to Power, Vintage books ed. New York: Vintage
Polidori, John (2005): “The Vampyre. A Tale” and Other Writings. Edited with an Introduction by Franklin Charles Bishop, Manchester: Carcanet.
Pollack, Thalia (2011): “Salvation or Damnation: Vampire Ethics, Edward Cullen and the Byronic Hero”, Mariah Larsson & Ann Steiner (eds): Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media and a Contemporary Cultural Experience, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, Lund.
Radway, Janice A. (1984): Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy Popular Literature, Chapel Hill and London: The university of North Carolina Press.
Rice, Anne (1976): Interview with the Vampire, London: Warner Books.
Shachar, Hela (2011): “A Post-Feminist Romance: Love, Gender and Intertextuality in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Series”, Maggie Parker & Natalie Wilson (eds): Theorizing Twilight: Critical Essays on What’s at Stake in a Post-Vampire World, Jefferson, N.C & London: McFarland & Company.
Shelley, Mary (1985): Frankenstein, Penguin, London.
Silverman, Eric (2009): “Mind Reading and Morality. The Moral Hazards of Being Edward”, Rebecca Housel & J. Jeremy Wisnewski (eds): Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality, Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Smith, LJ, (1991) The Awakening, The Struggle, and The Fury, New York: Harper Books.
Steiner, Ann (2011): “Gendered Readings: Bella’s Books and Literary Consumer Culture”, Mariah Larsson & Ann Steiner (eds): Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media and a Contemporary Cultural Experience, Lund: Nordic Academic Press.
Svanström, Yvonne (2004): “En självklar efterfrågan? Om torskar och sexköpare under hundra år”, Yvonne Svanström & Kjell Österberg (eds): Än män då? Kön och feminism i Sverige under 150 år, Stockholm: Atlas akademi.
Taylor, Anthea (2012): “‘The Urge Towards Love is an Urge Towards (un)death’: Romance, Masochistic Desire and Postfeminism in the Twilight novels”, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 15: 31. DOI: 10.1177/1367877911399204
Tjeder, David (2006): “Borgerlighetens sköra manlighet”, Män i Norden. Manlighet och modernitet 1840–1940, Jørgen Lorentzen & Claes Ekenstam (eds): Möklinta: Gidlund
Torgerson, Beth (2005): Reading the Brontë Body: Disease, Desire, and the Constraints of Culture, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1057/9781403980182
Williamson, Milly (2005): The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy, London: Wallflower.
Wilson, Natalie (2010): “Civilized Vampires Versus Savage Werewolves: Race and Ethnicity in the Twilight Series”, Melissa A. Click, Jennifer Stevens Aubrey & Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, & the Vampire Franchise, New York: Lang.
Wisker, Gina (2009): “Devouring Desires: Lesbian Gothic Horror”, William Hughes & Andrew Smith (eds): Queering the Gothic, Manchester/New York, 2009.
Whitehead, Stephen M. (2002): Men and Masculinities, Malden Mass.: Polity.
Whitton, Merinne, “Motherhood and Masochism in Twilight”, Giselle Liza Anatol (ed.): Bringing Light to Twilight: Perspectives on the Pop Culture Phenomenon, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Worley, Sara (2009): ”Love and Authority among Wolves”, Rebecca Housel & J. Jeremy Wisnewski (eds): Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality, Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn (1978/2002): Hötel Transylvania, New York: Warner Books.
Zack, Naomi, “Bella Swan & Sara Palin (2009): All the Old Myths Are Not True”, Rebecca Housel & J. Jeremy Wisnewski (eds): Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality, Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2013 Lindén
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press.
Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license for new articles, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given. For older articles please see each article landing page.
