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An Intersectional Excavation of the Literary Vampire in Neoliberal Discourse Jessica Elizabeth Birch Purdue University

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An Intersectional Excavation of the Literary Vampire in Neoliberal Discourse Jessica Elizabeth Birch Purdue University Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Open Access Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1-1-2014 Blood, Tears, and Sweat: An Intersectional Excavation of the Literary Vampire in Neoliberal Discourse Jessica Elizabeth Birch Purdue University Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations Recommended Citation Birch, Jessica Elizabeth, "Blood, Tears, and Sweat: An Intersectional Excavation of the Literary Vampire in Neoliberal Discourse" (2014). Open Access Dissertations. 1483. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1483 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. BLOOD, TEARS, AND SWEAT: AN INTERSECTIONAL EXCAVATION OF THE LITERARY VAMPIRE IN NEOLIBERAL DISCOURSE A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Jessica Elizabeth Birch In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2014 Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana ii For Benjamin, who’s had my back since before I was born. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I’ve never been prone to public outpourings of emotion, even on Facebook, and that makes writing these acknowledgments is difficult. What makes writing these almost impossible is that there is no way to adequately thank the people who made it possible for me to complete this dissertation and my Ph.D. As you read these words of thanks, please remember that any limitation of gratitude is due to the limits of text, and also to my efforts to avoid having this go on until it feels like an Oscar acceptance speech. Thank you to my committee members, without whom this work would not exist: to Dino Felluga, who was willing to sign on to this project based on a short conversation and a prospectus, and whose critique was instrumental in shaping the theory chapter; to Samantha Blackmon, whose courses shaped a great deal of my academic and pedagogical outlook and whose advice sometimes kept me sane; and to Marlo David, whose practical input and theoretical critique made this a much more coherent project. Bill Mullen has influenced every part of this project, from the moment that he convinced me to come to Purdue for my Ph.D. over tacos in the PMU basement to the moment that he came out into the hallway while I was waiting after my defense. In between those moments were dozens of others, including his willingness to sign on to supervise a cultural studies class because we didn’t have one available. His critique, questions, and comments on this project have guided me throughout this project; I can’t even imagine how I would have conceptualized this without the discussions he had with me. Words cannot express my gratitude to or admiration of April Lidinsky. Her unwavering and enthusiastic encouragement, support, and guidance mean more to me than I could ever possibly say. To put it very simply, April is one of the most amazing iv people I have ever met in my life. She brings light and joy to every life she touches, and is a role model for the kind of academic—and the kind of person—I want to be. Delayne Graham’s endless willingness to answer questions about anything and everything related to American Studies at Purdue made this process infinitely easier to cope with—and much more enjoyable. The Directors of American Studies during my time here—Bill Mullen, Susan Curtis, Nancy Gabin, and Rayvon Fouché—have been incredible, and each of them has given me a hand up when I truly needed it. I also would like to thank Indiana University and its negotiating staff for providing IU students and faculty with free copies of EndNote (without which these references would be distressingly shady) and of Photoshop. Finally, I want to thank my family. Thank you to my parents for supporting me and for believing in me, for telling me to do what matters, for always being there when I need them. Thank you to Benjamin for supporting and helping me, whether he had to swing a sledgehammer at a nine-foot plaster ceiling, kick people out of my kitchen, or teach me how to drive. Thank you to Stephen for not moving, for never complaining about the dog’s sock-eating propensities, and for refusing to give me space. Thank you to Timothy for moving, for moving back, for converting half of my citations, and for fixing everything, including me. Thank you to both of you for listening to me talk interminably about teaching, my dissertation, and neoliberalism; for calmly saying, “Pizza then?” when questions like “What do you want for dinner?” left me in tears; for always believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself; and for never, ever, not even once, asking why I wasn’t done yet. Thank you for who and what you help me be. I love you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ viii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 Statement of Argument ................................................................................................1 Speculative Fiction in the Academy .............................................................................4 Analysis of the Literary Vampire .................................................................................9 A Textual Introduction ............................................................................................... 15 The Novels and Their Reception ................................................................................ 17 Jewelle Gomez, The Gilda Stories ......................................................................... 17 Charlaine Harris, Dead Until Dark......................................................................... 19 L.A. Banks, Minion ............................................................................................... 21 Chapter Summary ...................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL APPROACH ......................................................... 31 Theoretical Introduction ............................................................................................. 31 A Definition of Neoliberal Discourse and a Brief History of Neoliberalism ............... 33 Gender and Race Today; or, Neoliberalism and the Other .......................................... 42 Class: The Basis of Everything .................................................................................. 52 The Neoliberal Vampire: A Reading Strategy ............................................................ 55 CHAPTER TWO: NO VAMPIRE IS WITHOUT A COUNTRY .................................. 62 Introduction and Hypothesis ...................................................................................... 62 Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 66 vi Page Anne Rice: Creating the Gentleman Vampire......................................................... 66 Charlaine Harris’s Confederate Nationalist ............................................................ 74 L.A. Banks’s Globalization Hell and Transnational Resistance .............................. 81 Jewelle Gomez and the Limitations of Flipping the Script ...................................... 83 Discussion ................................................................................................................. 87 CHAPTER THREE: EATING THE OTHER, OR IS THE OTHER EATING?.............. 94 Introduction and Hypothesis ...................................................................................... 94 Analysis ................................................................................................................... 100 Harris; or, All You Minorities Are the Same Anyway .......................................... 100 Gomez’s Separate (but Equal?) Vampires ............................................................ 108 Banks: Privilege, Power, and the Hatred of Homosexuality .................................. 114 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 117 CHAPTER FOUR: LOVE FLOWS THROUGH WOMEN’S VEINS ......................... 120 Introduction and Hypothesis .................................................................................... 120 Analysis ................................................................................................................... 126 Sookie’s Need to Not Know ................................................................................ 126 Damali: Black Is Beautifully Strong..................................................................... 132 Gilda: Masculinist Protection and Ambivalent Lust ............................................. 138 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 145 vii Page CHAPTER FIVE: THE VAMPIRE FAMILY—NO MOTHERS NECESSARY ......... 148 Introduction and Hypothesis .................................................................................... 148 Analysis ................................................................................................................... 152 Mothering and Caretaking in The Gilda Stories ................................................... 152 Mothering in Dead Until Dark
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