The Universal Vampire Series, 2 Vols.

Vol. 1 – The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend

Vol. 2 – The Hip and the Atavistic: Images of the Modern Vampire

Editors

Barbara Brodman, Nova Southeastern University
James E. Doan, Nova Southeastern University

Project Overview

For almost 200 years, since the publication of John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819), the vampire has been a mainstay of Western culture, appearing consistently in literature, art, music (notably opera), film, television, graphic novels and popular culture in general. Even before its entrance into the realm of arts and letters in the early 19th century, the vampire was a feared creature of Eastern European folklore and legend, rising from the grave at night to consume its living loved ones and neighbors, often converting them at the same time into fellow vampires. A major question exists within vampire scholarship: to what extent is this creature a product of European cultural forms, or is the vampire indeed a universal, perhaps even archetypal figure?

In Volume I, Part 1 of the collection, Origins of a Legend: Early Mythic Images of the Vampire, we hope to shed light on this question. By tracing the development of the early Norse draugr figure into later European lore, we may see the underpinnings of Dracula who, of course, first appears as a vampire in Anglo-Irish Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, published in 1897. The Romantic vampire, upon which we focus in Part 2 of this volume of the collection, first coalesced around the figure of Lord Byron and his associates in the early 1800s; but what were its earlier sources? Could these have included the legendary Spanish “lady-killer,” Don Juan? And did they constitute resistance to the dominant culture of the time? As several of the essays in this collection deal with these literary connections, others will move outside Europe to explore vampire figures in Native American and Mesoamerican myth and ritual and the existence of similar or identical vampiric traditions in Asian and other non-European settings.

Volume I, Part II, A Tradition Takes Form: The Imprint of the Romantic Vampire, will focus on various aspects of the classic Dracula of Bram Stoker, including the author’s use of colonized language and colonial discourse and manifestations of the Stoker image in film, literature andlore around the world. This set of essays will also examine from various perspectives the relations between other hallmark works of 19th-century vampire literature, such as J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, and modern films, including Interview with the Vampire and Let the Right One In.

Volume II of the Universal Vampire Series, The Hip and the Atavistic: Images of the Modern Vampire, will be an eclectic mélange of essays, including a discussion of evolution and atavism in the vampire film, The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998); critical pieces that examine the modern Asian vampire, on stage, in graphic novels and in film; images of the Vampire in contemporary Japan (where, according to its author, vampires should be “beautiful”); an analysis of the vampire in popular Russian culture; and the obligatory studies of vampires in The Twilight Saga and the True Blood series.

Each volume in the collection will contain 15 original, thought-provoking essays, chosen to both augment and challenge the classical vampire corpus and examine the evolutionary path the legend has taken in modern arts and letters.

Audience

The book is intended for an informed popular audience interested in the vampire legend and its manifestations in literature, film, visual arts and popular culture. Given the popularity of the vampire and the almost insane pace at which authors, artists and film makers strive to present newer and more innovative takes on the legend, we anticipate that the book will appeal to a broad readership throughout the English-speaking world. With the growing number of academic conferences that focus on the theme of the vampire, and the proliferation of courses dealing with the vampire legend in colleges and universities, we are confident that a large academic audience exists as well.

Competition

Two recent studies have endeavored to trace the development of the Vampire in literature, film and popular culture: John Edgar Browning and Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart’s Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms: Essays on Gender, Race, and Culture (Scarecrow Press, 2009) and Matthew Beresford’s From Demons to Dracula: The Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth (Reaktion Books, 2008). Both of these collections are devoted largely to the Dracula mythos, the subject as well of Elizabeth Kostova’s 2005 The Historian: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company). In our proposed collection, we plan to extend this discussion outwards from a focus primarily on Dracula to the notion that the vampire is truly universal, with the literary Count only one manifestation.

Anticipated date of completion: September 2012

About the Editors

Barbara Brodman is Professor of Humanities at Nova Southeastern University, where she teaches courses in international history and literature. With graduate degrees from the University of New Hampshire and the University of Florida in both literature and the social sciences, her research favors interdisciplinary studies of topics ranging from the Mexican cult of death to the Don Juan legend to the universal legend of the vampire.

James E. Doan is Professor of Humanities at Nova Southeastern University, where he teaches courses in literature, the arts, folklore and mythology. With an M.A. in Folklore and Mythology from U.C.L.A. and a Ph.D. in Folklore and Celtic Studies from Harvard University, he has long been interested in the relation between folklore and literature, including the development of
the vampire legend from its mythic origins to modern film and other cultural productions.

Both Brodman and Doan have published extensively in their fields of research and present fresh research regularly at conference. Their collaboration on this collection derives from a co-authored paper on the Don Juan and vampire legends, which they successfully presented at conference and to their peers in 2009.

Q: You were once embarrassed to admit that you enjoyed BTVS. How does a once-closeted Buffy watcher make the leap to writing a book about the show?

A: Now I’m just embarrassed that I was ever embarrassed. I proudly proclaim that Buffy is the best show that’s ever appeared on television. The first time I saw it, I was surprised by its depth and taken in by its clever, rapid-fire dialogue. I thought, “I’m supposed to be a scholar! How can I love something as unlikely as Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” Then, I realized that some of the best conversations that my friends and I had about ethics, spirituality, and religion were sparked by scenes from Buffy. I read some of the tremendous interpretive work that’s been done on the show, and realized that I had something to contribute.

Q: What are some of the spiritual themes you’ve identified in the show?

A: Buffy is a complex and nuanced series, full of ambiguity. It offers no clear-cut answers, but it takes moral and spiritual issues very seriously. I’m particularly interested in the theme of self-sacrifice in the series. Buffy is a superhero who continually subjugates her own desires to serve the greater good and save the world. And she’s not the only one: Xander, Angel and even Spike teach us how such sacrificial love is the core of morality.

Forgiveness, redemption, consequences, and the role of humor, are a few other themes. My favorite chapter is about how death is our gift. It draws on the show and on Buddhist and Christian spirituality to demonstrate that the unavoidable reality of death should add joy and meaning to our lives and relationships.

Q: Which episodes impressed you the most with their handling of spiritual or moral issues?

A: Some of the season finales—“Prophecy Girl” (1.12), “The Gift” (5.22) and “Chosen” (7.22)—explore what it means to lay down our lives for others. The season six finale “Grave” (6.22) is the most gorgeous expression of the Christian Passion that I’ve ever seen on TV: Xander saves the world through stubborn unconditional love and a willingness to endure ritual wounding to express that love. I also appreciate the episodes that address redemption, which on Buffy and Angel is something that we create for ourselves through the selfless deeds we do for others. Willow’s quest for redemption in season seven, and Faith’s earlier struggle, are unforgettable story arcs. It’s no accident that the one who helps Faith on the road to atonement is Angel, whose whole life is defined by his struggle to make amends.

Q: How prominent are Buddhist themes in the show?

A: Although Buffy creator Joss Whedon is a self-professed atheist, I think he might also be a Buddhist, and those two things are not incompatible. I see strong Buddhist themes in Buffy and in Angel—the shifting nature of reality as perceived by the self, the tension between attachment and non-attachment, the privileging of direct experience over received tradition. Both Buffy and Angel are bodhisattvas, individuals who forsake their own chance at nirvana in order to save others. They’re all about mindful compassion and service.

Q: How is organized religion portrayed on the show?

A: The show takes an eclectic and cheeky approach to religion, mixing Christian symbols, Buddhist themes, Wiccan ethics, and sprinkled references to Judaism. While not religious per se, Buffy is deeply spiritual, and understands the real purpose of religion. More than creeds, dogmas and institutions, religion is about community— something Joss Whedon understands remarkably well.

Organized religion is not always portrayed positively—as Buffy says, “Note to self: religion freaky.” The show mirrors the approach of Generations X and Y, standing aloof from institutional religion, but maintaining a fascination with personal spirituality. In season four, for example, Buffy is asked whether she’s accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior. She answers that she meant to, but got too busy. Well, she’s been busy saving us from demons night after night! She never stops acting as salt and light, though she rejects the outer trappings of religion.

Q: Is Buffy a moral exemplar?

A: Buffy is usually an outstanding role model. At times she descends into her own selfishness or pain, as we all do, and makes poor choices. What makes the show so real is that Buffy makes mistakes, learns from them, moves on . . . and then may make the same mistakes again. The flaws in her character speak to me just as much as her nobility does. But when the chips are down – and are they ever up in Sunnydale? – Buffy comes through every time. She dies twice to save humanity, and sacrifices her time and talents 24/7 to fight our monsters. I’m glad she’s on our side.

Q: Would Buffy read your book?

A: Nah. She’s far too busy with the slayage. But this book can help the rest of us to understand our own mission and calling. We are “chosen ones” too—chosen to live meaningfully and to contribute something to this world.

Join us for the 33rd Annual Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Conference, February 8-11, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Area Chairs of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Associations (www.swtxpca.org) invites paper or panel proposals about the television series True Blood.

Proposal submission deadline: December 1, 2011.

Any and all topics will be considered, although we especially encourage proposals on:

- The series’ vampire mythos in relation to other vampire archetypes/popular constructions of vampires
- The construction of the American South
- Socioeconomic class
- Sexuality & Gender Performance
- Race & Ethnicity
- Violence, Sex, & Eroticism
- The Music of True Blood
- The adaptation/transformation of the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris into the television series
- Fan culture
- Any topics exploring the intersections of True Blood and this year’s theme “Food and Culture.”

Submit 250 word paper or 500 word panel proposals to:

http://conference2012.swtxpca.org/ (Choose the area “Science Fiction & Fantasy – True Blood.” Online submission will be available after September 1. If you are experiencing difficulties with the website, please email your proposal to the address listed below.)

Direction questions to: Tamy Burnett, tamy.burnett@gmail.com

Deadline for proposal submissions: December 1, 2011. Earlier proposals are welcomed and will be responded to with all due haste. The registration deadline is December 31, 2011. All participants must register by that date or they will not be permitted to present or appear in the program.

Conference hotel:

Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
330 Tijeras
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Phone: 1.505.842.1234
Fax: 1.505.766.6710

For Conference Rate Reservations and other details on the conference, please visit the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association: www.swtxpca.org.

Follow us on Facebook & Twitter: www.facebook.com/swtxsff and @swtxsffchairs,

More about the SF&F Area:

With an average of 70+ presenters annually, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Area of the Southwest and Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association is one of the most dynamic and well attended areas at the conference. Numerous book and article publications have originated from our panels.

The Area was founded in 1995 by Prof. Richard Tuerk of the Texas A&M University-Commerce (formerly East Texas State University) and author of Oz in Perspective (McFarland, 2007). The Area is currently chaired by Ximena Gallardo C. of the City University of New York-LaGuardia and co-author of Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ripley (Continuum: 2004), Alyson Buckman of the California State University-Sacramento and winner of the 2011 Mr. Pointy Award for best essay in Whedon Studies; Tamy Burnett of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, co-editor of The Literary Angel (McFarland, 2010); and Brian Cowlishaw of Northeastern State University, author of No Future Shock Here: The Jetsons, Happy Tech, and the Patriarchy (The Galaxy is Rated G, McFarland: 2011). Though the co-chairs consult on submissions, Ximena is primarily responsible for the general organization of the conference panels and coordinates special panels, Alyson and Tamy coordinate the Whedonverse panels (Buffy, Firefly, Angel, and etc.), Tamy coordinates annual special topics related to SFF television, and Brian reviews and organizes the literature panels and other special topics (this year Twilight and Game of Thrones).

Kim Paffenroth and John W. Morehead, editors

The academy and pop culture alike recognize the great symbolic and pedagogical value of the undead (or reanimated dead). Vampires, zombies, and other creatures possess an important ability to enable reflection in a variety of personal and cultural ways. This has been explored variously from critiques of consumerism and racism, explorations of gender and sexuality, consideration of the breakdown of the nuclear family; such academic examinations of the undead have been done from the perspectives of philosophy and political theory. But another important avenue of exploration these monstrous icons can lead us is theology.

This anthology volume on the undead and theology is similar in format to those that have looked at various expressions of horror in pop culture and philosophy, such as Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy (Open Court Press, 2010), True Blood and Philosophy (Wiley, 2010), and Twilight and Philosophy (Wiley, 2009). Submissions address a variety of theological issues by drawing upon the undead as objects of critical reflection.

Contents

“When You’re Undead, the Whole World is Jewish”
Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg; Visiting professor at University of Baltimore

The Jewish myth of the Golem is usually remembered as a magically animated clay construct, but there are Golem stories that shatter the misconception that there are no Jewish zombies…apart from a certain carpenter. Golem folklore often features reanimated corpses in stories of injustice, vengeance, and the search for the soul, with the addition of the Jewish respect for the dead (K’vod HaMes). The creature is impelled by belief in God but a danger to its creator and its intended victims. Tales of the Golem are often overlooked in our expanding exploration of the cultural impact of the undead.

“The Living Christ and The Walking Dead: Karl Barth and the Theological Zombie”
Jessica DeCou, PhD Candidate in Theology at University of Chicago Divinity School

Stepping into the world of The Walking Dead, this chapter considers the “theological zombie” through a Barthian lens. Unlike the philosophical zombie, indistinguishable from us in appearance and behavior, the theological zombie is the recalcitrant corpse of popular imagination, shuffling about in sluggish but relentless pursuit, consuming the living for the sake of the dead. What are the implications of this zombie infestation for a theological understanding of genuine humanity? Can this apocalyptic outbreak serve to “reanimate” theological contemplation of the eschatological promise of bodily resurrection?

“’You have to have faith’: Science, belief and slaying vampires”
Dr. Hannah Gilbert, Visiting lecturer at York St. John University

The vampire and vampire slayer have generally been situated as nemeses, where the expertise of the slayer ultimately destroys the malevolent vampire. This chapter will look at their representations as characters of belief in a Christianity that endorses supernatural evil, and how they deal with supernatural scepticism. Like Hess’ (1993) case studies of supernatural fiction involving similar malevolent supernatural threats, explicit importance is placed on accepting the reality of – believing in – the supernatural if a malevolent supernatural threat is to be defeated. Furthermore, it will consider the significance of a new branch of vampire fiction that has redefined the vampire as anti-hero (rather than villain), and consider this implication for vampire slayers.

“Vampires, and Female Spiritual Transformation”
Dr. Vicky Gilpin, Millikin University

An originator of the “urban fantasy” genre, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series encouraged new pop cultural interpretations of vampire existence and the effects vampires have on humans and other paranormal creatures. Through the mostly human protagonist’s psychological, magical, and spiritual growth as a result of her paranormal connections, the works explore the question “what is the definition of monsterhood?” A character with strong religious identification, Anita’s increasingly sex-based powers and proclivities often cause her to question her spiritual standing. The depictions of religion and spirituality in the Anita Blake series, as well as the constant themes of sexual power, demonstrate the importance of a character’s spiritual and reflective journey as another lens through which to view theology and the undead.

“Crossing the Spiritual Wasteland in Priest”
Joseph Laycock, PhD Candidate at Boston University’s Department of Religion and Theological Studies

Scott Stewart directed Legion and Priest. Both films work by turning the traditional heroes of religious horror films––angels and the Church––into antagonists. This is one of the classic “sociophobics” discussed in Douglas Cowan’s Sacred Terror: the fear of a change in the sacred order. This article explores how Priest attempts to disturb and fascinate by challenging audience expectations regarding spiritual good and evil. The vampire-hunting protagonist experiences moral uncertainty about his Church and these doubts are inflicted on the audience as well. The film’s post-apocalyptic setting is explored as a potent metaphor for a broken sacred order.

“Vampires are People, too: Personalism in the Buffyverse”
Jarrod Longbons, PhD Candidate at the University of Nottingham

Buffy the Vampire Slayer puts forward an interesting image of the vampire: a dead body in which a demon has taken the place of the soul. Moreover, a vampire in the Buffyverse may elect to win back its soul. Though they remain “un-dead,” these “en-souled” vampires display only one significant change: they transform from diabolical parasites into persons for others. Because of its immanent perspective, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s vision of the soul is a secular parody of Catholic personalism, as explicated in this essay via an analysis of the character arc of the vampire “Spike.”

“Zombie Jesus, Zombie Walks, and the Eschatology of Postmodern Flesh”
John W. Morehead, MA from Salt Lake Theological Seminary

This chapter will describe the origins and expressions of the zombie walk, and Zombie Jesus phenomena, and how these phenomena incorporate postmodern conceptions of the body, and perhaps hint at a critique of the frequent Evangelical Christian emphasis on the soul/spirit to the neglect of the physical body. Finally, this chapter will consider that the mass gatherings of zombies rising from the grave, coupled with the presence of Zombie Jesus, may be understood in part as a form of resurrection without immortal bodily transformation as well as a reflection of critique of Christian eschatology, and the incorporation of postmodern nondualist metphaphysics.

“When All is Lost, Gather ‘Round: Exploring the Theologies of Grief and Hope in The Walking Dead”
Ashley Moyse; Sessional Instructor, Faculty of Science, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, BC; Ethics Tutor, Undergraduate medical program, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

This essay will explore the theology of grief and hope as illumined in the debut season of The Walking Dead. Specifically, the essay will argue that The Walking Dead tells the story of how one must rely upon the community, not only for strength but also hope during times of crisis and of grief. In support of this thesis, I will rely upon the theological writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth and Paul Tillich who may help explore how communities are constructed, how they labor together in times of grief, and where they may encounter hope.

“Negotiating (Non)Existence: Justifications of Violence in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead”
Dr. J. Ryan Parker

The religious aspects of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead chiefly concern morality and ethics, particularly regarding the brutal violence within various communities of survivors and between these communities and the zombies that plague them. From moral or physical superiority to survival needs to revenge, survivors of the zombie plague attempt to justify their violent actions. Drawing from studies of not only violence in film, television, and video games, but also the ways in which it is defended within such media, this essay further reveals ways in which narratives of the undead speak to the living. In our own world where unthinkable acts of violence (and violent reactions to them) are often cloaked in moral/religious/theological armor, Kirkman’s narrative sheds light on the hypocrisy of one individual or group claiming superiority over another, even if that other is a zombie.

“’The Devil is Born Anew’: The Satanic Turn in the Vampire Legend and the Creation of a Popular Theology of Evil”
Dr. Scott Poole, Associate Professor of History at the College of Charleston, author of Satan in America: The Devil We Know (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), and Monsters in America (Baylor University Press, 2011)

This essay examines how Hammer Studio films use of satanic metaphors in the late 60’s and early 70s reflected an increased fascination with the Devil as a new kind of horror film monster, as well as anxieties about “real” Devil worship. My analysis includes the work of several significant evangelical and Pentecostal theologians whose work touched on the role of the demonic such as Carl F.H. Henry, Gordon Fee and John Christopher Thomas. The essay will show the links between moral panics, modern folklore, theology and film audiences.

“’Eat of My Body and Drink of My Blood’: Johannine Metaphor, Gothic Subculture, and the Undead”
Beth Stovell, PhD Candidate at St. Thomas University, Assistant Professor in Biblical Studies

Using conceptual metaphor theory, this essay examines inclusion and exclusion in the Johannine literature, Gothic subculture, and modern “undead” literature, suggesting three critical ways that apocalyptic metaphors are used in these contexts: 1) as a reaction against mainstream culture, 2) as a reaction against exploitation, and 3) as a form of paradox and irony that subverts expectation. By creating a group of insiders and rejecting the culture of its time, these “undead” literatures, like the Johannine corpus, provide solace and a community for their readers, reinterpreting apocalyptic metaphor, and informing social identity.

“Fire, Brimstone and PVC: Clive Barker’s Cenobites as Agents of Hell”
Andrea Subissati, MA from Carleton University with a thesis on the sociology of the living dead

In Clive Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart, Frank Cotton’s search for the ultimate carnal experience leads him to discover a gateway into hell. Far from the orgiastic pleasures he had hoped for, Frank is dragged into hell by cenobites for an eternity of corporeal torture. Barker’s novella and the resulting films are laden with theological concepts, particularly the Christian distinction between body and soul. This chapter will seek to analyze Barker’s version of hell, looking at how it relates to traditional Christian conceptions. Sources will include the original text, comic books and franchise of films.

Titus Hjelm’s “Celluloid Vampires, Scientization, and the Decline of Religion,” is a fascinating analysis of the changing standards of vampires in movies. The classic Hollywood vampire of the early twentieth century was a manifestation of spiritual evil whereas more modern vampires are often explained scientifically by genetic mutations or viruses. Comparing classic Hammer Studio vampire movies with the Blade and Underworld series, Hjelm argues that the “migration of the vampire soul” (118) follows the decline in religious belief in society. The vital role of blood and the means of destroying vampires reflect this shift. If caught in a dark, Transylvanian street it is better to have a gun with ultraviolet bullets than to go armed with a crucifix. Recent developments further confirm Hjelm’s thesis: Justin Cronin’s new novel The Passage features viral vampires and word is out that Tim Burton is working on a Dark Shadows movie to be released next year. It will be worth observing how the conflicted soul of Barnabas Collins will fit into this mix of modern vampires.

As this positive review concludes it does not one shortcoming in the bibliography in the absence of Douglas Cowan’s Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2008), described as another example of work “demonstrating the close connection of religion and horror.”

Related posts:

“Titus Hjelm – From Demonic to Genetic: The Rise and Fall of Religion in Vampire Film”

“Interview with Douglas Cowan: The Unholy Human, Fanaticism, and Fear of the Flesh”

Joseph Laycock, author of Vampires Today: The Truth About Modern Vampires (Praeger, 2009), discusses the “Top 10 Misconceptions of Vampires” at Buzznet.

The Vampire Defanged approaches the fictional vampire with an eye toward recapturing the creature as an object of theological reflection. With this perspective in mind, Clements looks at various depictions of the vampire over the course of history, and documents how the Christian tradition has been influential in shaping the theological elements of the vampire, and how this has changed as the vampire developed in changing cultural contexts. Clemens begins her analysis with a look at Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and then moves to the work of Anne Rice, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sookie Stackhouse of Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries, and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Along the way Clements notes a shift from a vampire mythology with strong roots in the Christian tradition and theological explorations or implications, to more contemporary postmodern depictions with interests in guilt, existential angst, sex, and romance.

Two aspects of Clements’s treatment of the vampire are very helpful. First, she avoids the frequent responses of evangelicals in either ignoring the vampire in pop culture, or perhaps more frequently, the equation of the vampire with evil, the occult, and the satanic. In Clements’s view this perspective is inappropriate and shortsighted. She 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.

Clements is not naive in regards to depictions of the vampire. She recognizes that at times this figure has embodied aspects that are at odds with Christian theology and ethics. Nevertheless, she navigates a balanced position that finds value in this monstrous icon as a figure for theological reflection through careful cultural analysis.

The second helpful element in Clements’s work is her analysis of Stoker’s Dracula where she reminds the reader of the significance of Christian elements in the work which arise from Stoker’s background as an Irish Protestant.  She notes that many contemporary critical analyses of Dracula tends to approach the novel from psychoanalytical and postcolonial frameworks, in addition to much of the sexual and Freudian analysis of the recent past. Perhaps even more curious, is the tendency of biographers of Stoker to ignore or downplay the presence of his Irish Protestantism and its possible influence on his best known literary work. While Dracula should certainly be approached from a variety of analytical perspectives, the neglect of the theological elements is tragic, and demonstrates the biases of contemporary critics. Clements’s volume provides a helpful corrective to this situation, and provides a refreshing insight into Dracula studies, and a major starting point for the vampire in pop culture.

There are two criticisms to be offered to this volume. First, in her sampling of the vampire in pop culture as an object of theological reflection, Clements provides an overview of some of the more important works, and includes vampire films from the 1930s and 1940s. She then jumps to more recent depictions of the vampire in literature and film. In so doing she ignores significant additional examples that would have strengthened her thesis, particularly the Hammer Studios vampire films of the 1950s through 1970s. These films include symbols, rituals, and ideas, including a strong linking of the vampire to the satanic from the Christian tradition. Surely these films were influential in the depiction and evolution of the theological aspects of the vampire.

The second critique is Clements’s treatment of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. In her view, “[i]n Meyer’s Twilight Saga, we can see the end result of the process of secularization. Although Meyer herself is a Mormon, spirituality and religion are not genuinely explored in the books.” She continues and says that while “religion is not completely absent in the books,” nevertheless “it certainly is not a dominant interest…” Here Clements makes the mistake of viewing Meyers’ Mormonism through the framework of Protestant evangelicalism where doctrinal considerations are most important. However, in Mormonism it is the ethical dimension that is significant, summarized by the phrase “choose the right.” This failure to appreciate Mormonism on its own terms is evident in a later statement Clements makes in her analysis of the Twilight series:

Instead of using the vampire to explore theological or metaphysical themes, the major themes in the Twilight saga are explicitly human: family and destined, romantic love.

Given the significance of the human connection to the divine in Mormonism, which includes the importance of eternal family and love, these elements are theological and metaphysical themes in Mormonism, even though they may not be in Protestant evangelicalism. Thus, it can hardly be said that in the Twilight series we see an “irrelevance of a theological framework for Meyer’s narrative” as Clements would have us believe. Through a misinterpretation of Mormonism, Meyer’s misses an important element in understanding the Twilight Saga, and consideration of it not so much as a result of secularization, but rather through the influence of a different religious framework.

Despite these two minor criticisms, Clements’s book is highly recommended for evangelicals willing to consider the positive aspects of the vampire for theological reflection, as well as for those outside of this religious tradition who want to understand the place of the Christian tradition in shaping the vampire mythology.

Related posts:

“Leonard Primiano: True Bood, Post-9/11 Spirituality, and ‘Vernacular Religion’”

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

“Christians and Vampire Mythology”

“Mary Y. Hallab: Vampire God”

“Titus Hjelm – From Demonic to Genetic: The Rise and Fall of Religion in Vampire Film”

“Twilight Movie Review – Sacred Tribes Journal by John W. Morehead”

Arnold T. Blumberg
Jessica DeCou
Hannah Gilbert
Vicky Sue Gilpin
Joseph Laycock
Jarrod Longbons
John W. Morehead
Ashley John Moyse
J. Ryan Parker
Brian Solomon
Ben Stovell
Andrea Subissati

My own contribution will be a chapter tentatively titled “Zombie Jesus, Zombie Walks, and the Eschatology of Postmodern Flesh.” Publisher and release date TBA in the weeks to come.

While researching Burning Man Festival for my MA thesis a few years ago the book God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture, edited by Eric Michael Mazur and Kate McCarthy (London and New York: Routledge), was helpful with one of its chapters. The second edition from 2010 includes new material, including the intriguing essay “I Wanna Do Bad Things With You: Fantasia on Themes of American Religion from the Title Sequence of HBO’s True Blood,” by Leonard Norman Primiano.

Dr. Leonard Norman Primiano is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Cabrini College. He came to Cabrini’s Religious Studies department in 1993 with a foundation in religious studies and folklore and folklife studies, and a desire to teach courses on the history of Christianity, vernacular religion, religious folklife, contemporary moral problems and contemporary American religion. Throughout his years at the College, he has dedicated himself to teaching students about the relationship of these exciting fields.

Dr. Primiano discusses a few of the aspects of his chapter on True Blood in this interview.

TheoFantastique: Leonard, thank you for helping me get a copy of your chapter from the new edition of God in the Details. How did you come to develop an interest in the religious aspects of True Blood, and how does your academic work in folklore help shed light on this?

Leonard Norman Primiano: Believe it or not, John, I did not watch True Blood in its first episodes of broadcast. I only watched several months after the conclusion of the first season when in December 2008 HBO broadcast the season over many hours of one broadcast day. I was looking for a topic to stimulate me for a new contribution to the second edition of the collected essays titled God in the Details. I believe that I began watching the show mid-way through episode two of season one. I was initially fascinated with the way religious material culture had been used on the program, but something also intrigued me with the opening credits montage and the way they represented religion, religious people, religious practices. My scholarly life has centered on the study of what I call “vernacular religion,” or the way people practice their religion in their everyday lives. I am equally fascinated with ways that “popular” or mass media culture represents religion in America and elsewhere. As I watched the second season of the series, I began to develop a better sense of the role that religion played in the series, and what the series was expressing about contemporary religiosity.

TheoFantastique: How does True Blood add to the depiction of the vampire as sympathetic anti-heroes?

Leonard Norman Primiano: The length of the series allows for a richer characterization of the vampires on screen and this development of them as “undead individuals,” if you will, and not merely as spirits with no personalities, definitely assists viewers’ appreciation of them as sympathetic, frightening, intelligent, sexual, heroic, anti-heroic familiars.

TheoFantastique: The thrust of your essay addresses how the series depicts organized religion. I found your discussion of the series’ opening title sequence in this regard of great interest. How did you come to see this as significant, perhaps almost as much as the ongoing depictions of religion in other aspects of the series?

Leonard Norman Primiano: I was immediately struck by what I understood to be the use in the credits of what a folklorist or anthropologist would cite as film footage depicting the “ethnographic” present of the Louisiana country side, its inhabitants, and its religious environs. Wow, I thought, were these credits made in a ethnographic documentary style, and how did the creators obtain permission to film these individuals, and what did they explain was their purpose. I was especially taken by the scene in the church – which was actually filmed in Chicago — with the choir being filled with the Holy Spirit and exhibiting this Christian form of spirit possession. Were the producers of the series actually using real people and real contexts in these scenes? That is when I contacted the credits creators at Digital Kitchen in Seattle, and asked them some basic production questions, especially after reading their own statements on their web site about the opening credits. As it turns out, most of the individuals you see in the credits were “actors” or people they filmmakers know, or who agreed to be filmed in an artificially induced religious context. What I mean is that the church scene was not a documentary of a real Pentecostal service — a naturally induced context — but a church choir and musicians were hired and agreed to create a church service for the cameras, which to them it seems was still quite an authentic spiritual experience, but still not one of their regularly scheduled church services.

TheoFantastique: How do the title sequence, characters, and storylines help us understand the late modern relationship to organized religion, at least in True Blood and its vampires?

Leonard Norman Primiano: The plot lines often reference religion in a variety of forms: organized religion, institutional religion, seemingly “Mainline” Protestantism, sectarian religion in America, “folk” religion (all of the references to Vodou practice), and the vernacular religion of the characters – the myriad ways that the characters interpret and create religion and a relationship to the spiritual in their own lives. That complex constellation of religiosity in so many forms defines religion in America and the world in the twenty-first century; that is the way these characters are living their religion and expressing their spirituality. Still, organized forms of religiosity do receive the harshest judgment in the plotlines which expose them as centers for deception, greed, and hypocrisy.

TheoFantastique: What might those in traditional, organized religions take away from expressions of religion in popular culture like True Blood in terms of connecting more meaningfully or relevantly with what you call “vernacular religion”?

Leonard Norman Primiano: I think that what those in traditional, organized, institutionalized religion should take away is not that the series represents a triumph of secularization or even sacrilege in American society, but a longing for the sacred, the ritualistic, the experiential, and the sacramental in our society. That the perception and expression of religion in its organized form is changing, or should I say still developing. This idea is more complex today because of the profound religious illiteracy, aka, lack of knowledge of religious traditions, that exists in our society. Even people who describe themselves as religious or spiritual, do not seem to have a firm foundation of knowledge in the religious traditions with which they so identify. Is it surprising then that people may be more creative than ever about the beliefs and practices that make up their religious lives? I suggest in the article that this sense of illiteracy about religious and spiritual traditions, and the negotiations of religious ideas and practices, may also be extended to the way that religious material culture – religious objects and the multiple forms of the materialization of the spiritual — is perceived and employed in the series. I am not saying that there is a right or wrong here in terms of the way people are religious or the way religiosity is depicted. I am not admonishing anyone, but I am noting and analyzing this development in contemporary religion.

TheoFantastique: Leonard, thank you again for sharing your thoughts and discussing your essay.

Related posts:

“Vampire Evolution: Beyond Americanized and ‘Twilightized’ Depictions”

“HBO’s True Blood: Viral Marketing and Fact-Fiction Reversals”

CALL FOR PAPERS

Theology and the Undead

The academy and pop culture alike recognize the great symbolic and pedagogical value of the undead (or reanimated dead). Vampires and zombies possess an important ability to enable reflection in a variety of personal and cultural ways. This has been explored variously from consumerism to racism to the breakdown of the nuclear family to philosophy and even political theory. Another important facet of exploration through these monstrous icons is theology.

We are soliciting abstract submissions for an anthology volume on theology and the undead. This would be similar in format to Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy (Open Court Press, 2010), True Blood and Philosophy (Wiley, 2010), and Twilight and Philosophy (Wiley, 2009). Submissions should address a variety of theological issues and challenges by way of drawing upon the undead as objects of critical reflection. In terms of the elements of pop culture used in this process, the editors are open to classics such as Stoker and Romero, but are hoping to also include a number of items that address more recent incarnations of the undead, such as The Walking Dead, Resident Evil, True Blood, etc.

Please send electronic 250 word proposal summaries electronically. The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2011 for completed draft submissions in the summer of 2012. Proposals (and other inquiries) should be sent to both Kim Paffenroth (kimpaffenroth@msn.com) and John Morehead (johnwmorehead@msn.com).

Dr. Kim Paffenroth
Professor of Religious Studies, Iona College
Writer of Apocalyptic, Zombie Horror
Blog at gotld dot blogspot dot com

John W. Morehead
Independent Scholar
Blog at theofantastique dot com