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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk University of Southampton Faculty of Humanities ‘God is (un)dead: Religion and Identity in Post-9/11 Vampire Narratives’ by Christina Wilkins, BA, MA For the award of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) September 2015 1 2 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES English Doctor of Philosophy GOD IS (UN)DEAD: RELIGION AND IDENTITY IN POST 9/11 VAMPIRE NARRATIVES By Christina Wilkins Cultural narratives have long played a valuable role in mediating difficult and politically sensitive topics. Investing metaphorical tropes with cultural significance offers audiences the opportunity to consider new perspectives and prompt important discussions. One of these tropes that has become ever more prominent in the last decade is that of the vampire. This thesis is concerned with the questions of how the figure of the vampire is used in modern narratives, and how it has changed from previous incarnations, particularly in American narratives. The rise of the modern vampire coincides with the aftermath of 9/11 and it is this link that is primarily explored here. Through an examination of three texts, Being Human, True Blood and The Strain, these chapters construct an argument for the vampire as a key figure in post-9/11 narratives and imbued with a religious significance. Being Human establishes the difference between the UK and US interpretation of the figure through a direct comparison of an original series and its American remake. This highlights the religious aspect to the figure, along with reinforcing the Americanisation of the vampire, discussed in relation to the series. With this established, the argument moves on to True Blood, looking at patriotism, terrorism and the presentation of the ‘other’ onscreen in the series. Particularly, it posits the vampire in True Blood as being representative of the Muslim other, providing a unique method for discussing post- 9/11 issues of religion and identity. The argument then moves on to looking at The Strain, which presents a more explicit link between vampires and 9/11, and argues for a need for narratives that do this. By looking at theoretical research on the issues raised in the texts, particularly those of trauma and faith, it highlights a change in perspectives. Ultimately, the exploration of these texts shows a valuable use of the vampire in working through the trauma of 9/11, a need for an American vampire and the importance of religion (in its many forms) in cultural narratives. 3 4 Contents Author’s declaration 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 Chapter 1: Comparing Influence: Religion and Authority Across the Transatlantic 31 Chapter 2: ‘Muslim Buffy with a dick’: Post-9/11 interpretations of fundamentalism in True Blood 93 Chapter 3: Fear, infection and the aftermath: Del 151 Toro’s The Strain and its violent vampires Conclusion 201 Bibliography 207 Filmography 232 5 6 Academic Thesis: Declaration Of Authorship I, CHRISTINA WILKINS declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. ‘God is (un)dead: Religion and Identity in Post-9/11 Vampire Narratives’ I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Either none of this work has been published before submission, or parts of this work have been published as: [please list references below]: Signed:………………………………………………………………………………… Date: ………………………………………………………………………………… 7 8 Acknowledgements Thanks go to my supervisor, Linda Ruth Williams, for helping me steer this thesis in the direction it needed to go, James Jordan for useful advice and keeping me calm, the postgrad community at Southampton for moral support and my parents for supporting me through this (sometimes trying) time. 9 10 Introduction The rise of the vampire reached its peak in the year 2009. Riding on the waves of a tumultuous decade, the figure was dominating screens big and small, along with bookshelves and magazines. The popularity of the figure presents an interesting puzzle: why the vampire, and why at that point? Arguably, its ability to embody evil and the idea of new beginnings, along with its defiance of death and the quasi- religious status vampires hold found a niche in a post-9/11 society. This is the underlying argument of this thesis – the vampire’s popularity, particularly in the US, surged due to the ways in which it could be used to represent politically and culturally sensitive topics, and in turn, the consumption of vampire narratives in the US in the decade following 9/11 exhibits a need to confront issues of identity, belief and belonging. It is this year, 2009, in which the textual pillars of this argument - True Blood, Being Human and The Strain – began to establish themselves.1 Yet, this millennial conception of the vampire differs dramatically from its predecessors. Unlike the umbrous Nosferatu or the shapeshifting figure that is Dracula, the twenty-first century vampire seems to be remarkably human. The vampire has emerged from the shadows of the horror genre and has found a keen market across various genres and media. They are now linked to teenage romance novels (Twilight) and Southern Gothic tales (True Blood) amongst other things, fulfilling a role that is closer to angel than demon. Articles discussing the change in the figure, such as a 2009 piece by Joan Acocella in the New Yorker comparing the new recruits to Stoker’s Dracula, merely illustrated the surface differences rather than probing deeper into why the vampire had changed.2 Changes in culturally embedded figures happen due to societal need; in the case of the vampire, as Nina Auerbach argues ‘every age embraces the vampire it needs.’3 In the post-millennial age, we’ve created and embraced a vampire that embodies a religious impulse and questions how we construct our identity. The vampire has been firmly Americanised, as is discussed in Chapter 1, and thus the focus of culture and society across these chapters is primarily American. This thesis pieces together the social (the aftermath of trauma), 1 True Blood began season 2, looked at here, in 2009. Being Human began in 2008, with the US version coming at a later date, but the UK version was available via BBC America. The Strain was released in 2009. 2 Joan Acocella, ‘In the Blood’, The New Yorker, (16 March 2009) <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/03/16/in-the-blood> [accessed 5 January 2013] 3 Nina Auerbach, Our Vampires, Ourselves (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995) p.145 11 political (the George W. Bush administration) and spiritual (the state of religion in the US) factors that surround the conception of the modern vampire, showing how it arose due to a need for a metaphorical figure to mediate these struggles in that cultural moment. The positioning of the vampire in culture and its history are key to its importance; it is at once marked by its spiritual foundations and ability to recast itself in numerous roles. This comes perhaps from the nature of the figure itself, that of a perpetual remake; turning humans into something more and altering their very nature enables the cycle to continue. The vampire’s lack of boundaries – when compared to the social, physical and metaphysical boundaries of the human - means endless possibilities for exploration of identities, meaning and experience. It is this absence of human limitations that facilitates the copious changes made over the years to the figure. The vampire is no longer merely ‘other’ – its history and current use have created a new figure that appears to be an amalgamation of aspects of previous incarnations, which exemplifies its flexibility. In a world where, as Shannon Winnubst asserts, an ‘obsession with strictly defined and rigidly upheld boundaries haunts Western concepts of subjectivity,’ then ‘the figure who lives by crossing these boundaries tells us something about how they are made and how they might be dismantled.’4 Through this defiance of boundaries, vampires give the opportunity to symbolically use death to an advantage and explore what it means to be human by watching a figure that is defined as ‘inhuman’ struggle to attain a sense of humanity. This sense of humanity, evident in the texts under discussion, includes religious belief; this has become increasingly prevalent in the figure within the last decade, indicating a cultural resurgence in the importance of religion.