Forthcoming Book – The Vampire Defanged: How the Embodiment of Evil Became a Romantic Hero

February 17th, 2011 by admin | Posted in horror, vampire

I just became aware of a new book that is scheduled for release in April 2011 that touches on the vampire in literature and popular culture. It is titled The Vampire Defanged: How the Embodiment of Evil Became a Romantic Hero (Brazos Press, forthcoming), by Susannah Clements, an associate professor and department chair in language and literature at Regent University. The publisher’s website provides the following description and contents:

Vampires first entered the pop culture arena with Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula. Today, vampires are everywhere. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Twilight Saga to HBO’s True Blood series, pop culture can’t get enough of the vampire phenomenon.

Bringing her literary expertise to this timely subject, Susannah Clements reveals the roots of the vampire myth and shows how it was originally immersed in Christian values and symbolism. Over time, however, vampires have been “defanged” as their spiritual significance has waned, and what was once the embodiment of evil has turned into a teen idol and the ultimate romantic hero. Clements offers a close reading of selected vampire texts, explaining how this transformation occurred and helping readers discern between the variety of vampire stories presented in movies, TV shows, and novels. Her probing engagement of the vampire metaphor enables readers to make Christian sense of this popular obsession.

Contents

1. Why Vampires Matter

2. Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Sin and the Power of the Cross

3. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: Eternal Guilt and Transcendent Love

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sin and Sacrifice, Postmodern Style

5. Sookie Stackhouse: Sex and the Socialized Vampire

6. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga: The Vampire as Teenage Heartthrob

7. Vampire Sinners

8. Vampire Saviors

Conclusion

Timeline of Referenced Vampire Texts

Since the publisher is a Protestant evangelical one, albeit a good and respect one as an arm of Baker Academic which has done some good work in theological studies, I was more than a little concerned about the approach Clements might take. Evangelicals aren’t exactly known for appreciating horror or the vampire. Arriving at a judgment from the publisher, the title of the book, and the chapter titles, my initial assumption in a best case scenario was that Clements would entertain the vampire in popular culture only as a springboard for decrying the shift away from Christianity as a significant influence in the mythology. Thankfully I was able to track down an excerpt from Chapter 1 through the media arm of Baker Academic and was pleased to find Clements write the following under the subtitle “Why Should Christians Care About Vampires?”:

Christians have been slow to embrace the vampire phenomenon. Only within the last couple of years has the first Chris- tian vampire fiction been released, and many Christians find even that rather dubious. Christians often respond to the vampire phenomenon by either trivializing or demonizing it, brushing it aside as insignificant or labeling an entire century of imaginative production as evil and anti-Christian. In these pages I will seek to counter both responses.

With this approach I’m liking this author already. And she goes further in this same subsection:

Ignoring a cultural phenomenon as influential as the vampire myth makes it impossible for Christians to learn from it—to reflect on how our culture understands itself, how our worldview has transformed through time, and what it means to be human.

Describing the frequent Christian association of the vampire with the demonic in terms of being perceived as a negative cultural icon, Clements writes:

On the other hand, working from the assumption that any story that features a vampire is evil, demonic, and dangerous is an equally problematic response for Christians, as it is based on a lack of critical thinking and ignores distinctions between how the vampire is portrayed in different contexts.

This small preview is enough for me to have hope that The Vampire Defanged represents a different way forward for conservative Protestant treatments of the vampire, as well as horror and related elements of popular culture. It represents a more careful analysis that should serve the evangelical subculture well in navigating the currents surrounding one of the more popular monstrous and romantic figures in popular culture.

“Christians and Vampire Mythology”

“Matt Cardin: ‘Religion and the Vampire’ in the Encyclopedia of the Vampire”

“Mary Y. Hallab: Vampire God”