'Homosexual vampires as metaphors for…homosexual vampires? – True Blood, Homonormativity and Vampiric Assimilation’

Citation

Elliott-Smith D (2012) 'Homosexual vampires as metaphors for…homosexual vampires? – True Blood, Homonormativity and Vampiric Assimilation’. In: True Blood: Investigating Vampires and the Southern Gothic. London/NY: IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, pp. 139-154. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/true-blood-9781848859401/

Abstract
The figure of the vampire in modern culture, like the homosexual, has arguably been so thoroughly assimilated into mainstream dominant culture that it has begun to take on normative traits, becoming conventional and even banal. Like many contemporary gay men within Western society, however the vampires of True Blood are simultaneously tolerated yet intolerable. This chapter re-reads the legacy of the vampire as homosexual metaphor in light of the show's explicit rendering of homosexual vampires.

Keywords
Vampires, Queer, LGTBQ, Horror, Television

People

Dr Darren Elliott-Smith

Senior Lecturer in Film & Gender Studies, Communications, Media and Culture