Heroine, Avenger, Mother: The Female Vampire in 21st Century American Cinema
https://doi.org/10.58186/2782-3660-2023-3-4-196-216
Abstract
The ways in which women are represented in popular culture are a direct reflection of the history of the development of the feminist movement because cinema is a unique space where the changes in sexual politics since the Second World War are portrayed and dramatized. First and foremost, a vampire is a female figure embodying lethal danger to humans, and at times, the undead. Throughout the history of the development of the vampire image in popular culture and cinema, vampire women exist beyond the boundaries of conventional femininity, thus exposing the oppression of women and social minorities by the dominant patriarchal ideology. The author attempts to find and describe general trends in the representation of the female vampire image in American cinema of the 21st century. While in the 20th century, vampires typically played secondary roles in movies, at the beginning of the 21st century, they were granted screen time as main characters. The development of the fourth wave of the feminist movement, reevaluation of third-wave achievements, increased opportunities for women as directors and screenwriters, the emergence of female Gothic, and other factors unavoidably influenced the vampire film genre and the portrayal of female vampires. The article examines the most vivid images of vampires in American cinema of the 21st century and analyses them from the perspective of their existence beyond the boundaries of traditional femininity, (non)conformity to traditional gender roles, and from the perspective of the monstrous-feminine— aesthetic form of the embodiment of rebellion against the patriarchal system’s values.
About the Author
S. Benyaminova
National Research University — Higher School of Economics (HSE University)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Sofya Benyaminova
Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Benyaminova S. Heroine, Avenger, Mother: The Female Vampire in 21st Century American Cinema. Versus. 2023;3(4):196-216. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.58186/2782-3660-2023-3-4-196-216
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