IMPORTANT NOTE: I have disabled comments on this post deliberately.
Romance VII: Romancing Vampires: Toothsome Heroes and Happy Endings
Session Chair: Sarah S. G. Frantz, Fayetteville State University
“Sexual Exchange and Submission in Dracula: A Precursor to Gay Erotica Romance”‖ Haley Stokes
Homoerotic sexual exchange in Dracula as precursor to paranormal romance
Hard to fulfill genre requirements with two men. Tendency to write chicks with dicks, due to need for binary opposition between partners.
Conservative ideals of the genre – one partner, one true love, lifetime satisfaction with one partner – pose unique challenges for m/m romance.
Heteronormative space is still what is being negotiated.
Close textual analysis of Dracula, emphasizing homoeroticism of Dracula.
Story of Harker as story of bondage, homoerotic desire (cites several studies)
Dynamic of Harker and Dracula’s relationship does not require penetration, even if he wants to be bitten.
It’s about submission. Everything that happens to him in Dracula’s castle depends on the fact of his submission and his willingness/desire to submit.
Harker and Dracula experience a parody of married life that Harker is resisting. Harker cooks. Shared clothing. Etc.
Texts demonstrate a series of power exchanges stand in for sexual acts. Today, romance writers don’t have to do this.
Read Dracula as early attempt at sexual negotiation, creating a couple where the familiar binary does not exist.
“Twilight and Romeo And Juliet: The Portrayal of Love and Narrative Perspective”‖ Brent Gibson, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Language of Twilight puts it in tradition of the religion of love, a phrase coined by CS Lewis. Language of Christianity transferred to courtly love.
Escape v. rivalry
Escapism is fine, but if values of Christianity are taken seriously within story, love and God are rivals. One has to be subordinated to the other.
Talks about how battle between Godly and courtly love is worked out in literature of the medieval period, such as Tristan and Isolde, Troilus and Cressida, Paolo and Francesca
Continues through Renaissance, this battle between the two religions, Christianity and love.
Romeo and Juliet. This one’s a little different. They get married before consummating their love which suggests a proper subordination of religion of love to religion of God. But in other ways increases tension between two sets of values. Audience would have seen suicide as sending the victim to hell, yet they are pictured as entering paradise of lovers.
Twilight. One of many romances influenced by Romeo and Juliet and exemplifies another alteration in this tradition. Both religions are taken seriously. Not kept separate nor kept in tension. Two lovers literally idolize on another, language is very clear on this. Ex. Edward saying his lie to Bella in New Moon was “blackest kind of blasphemy”.
Meyer brings in actual religion. Edward says he is going to hell, the literal hell of Christian theology. Later he states he believes in a creator. We are told Carlyle is a Christian, he believes in God.
In Twilight, romance is elevated above religion in inversion of Medieval tactic. Ex. In Eclipse Edward agrees to make love to Bella prior to marriage, despite his earlier claim that he wouldn’t because it was the one Commandment he didn’t break. See also his views on Bella’s soul and making her a vampire.
Basically his Godly love goes out the window when Bella wants something.
Interesting that within the world of the story religion is taken seriously, and Meyer herself takes it seriously, but it is still subordinated to romance.
[A good comment on this from Margaret Toscano, Angela’s mom, who knows what she is talking about, the issue of Mormonism, and how in the Mormon version of heaven you have a big loving family,inclusive of romantic love, such that for a Mormon writer like Meyer, these two kinds of love are not so much in tension.]
“Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing: Christine Feehan’sCarpathian Heroes:”‖ Kat Schroeder, University of Washington
She wrote this paper for a class on gender studies in the media.
Who is reading the books? Younger and younger, girls as young as 10.
By age 14 reading adult series romance fiction.
Children consume media as a method to develop own views of intimate relationships in lieu of parental models.
Feehan claims all her heroines are “strong women”
CS defines strong in comparison to their male counterparts.
She focuses on full length novels where heroine started as human or believed themselves ot be human.
She describes Carpathians. Race of “not vampires”—turn into vampires unless they find their “light”, their mates.
Research Question 1 – do they reflect a relative parity of romance partners?
–age, maturity level, finances, career, sexual experience, general maturity
Research Question 11—DO novels give actual equivalent voice and agency to both the hero and heroines. Does one partner have power over the other?
Results:
Age – men much older (very funny chart here). Men b/t ages of 600-2000, women b/t age 23-27
Wealth – All but one of the women are either destitute or unemployed or the narrative doesn’t tell us; all of the men are vastly wealthy
Childhoods – all heroines had profoundly troubled childhoods while men, except one, were treasured
Sexual experience – only 3 not virgins, 2 excused by rape, 1 was widow but had marriage to a man with whom she didn’t enjoy sex
Her voice leads to his agency. Ex. She is upset, he seduces her, sometimes with force. She is angrym, he laughs.
Also TSTL heroines. Describes one heroine as being brilliant (surgeon at 18) but they aren’t (the surgeon has all the signd of being a vampire and has no idea what is happenign to her, for example. Also she jumps out a window instead of seeking help.)
Control dynamics:
–homicidal jealousy as a measure for love
–possessive controlling behaviors
Naming convention (enfant, bebe, little one, diminutizing to a profound degree, unlike “dear”)
In one book, Darius renames heroine, was called Rusty, he renames her Tempest. From that point forward, Feehan writes heroine from point of view of hero’s idealized version of her “Tempest”.
[Audience member notes in discussion that all of this is true in JR Ward’s BDB as well, and asks “what do we get from this?”.]
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