In this book, Lea Gerhard’s traces connections between three recent vampire romance series; the Twilight film series (2008-2012), The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017) and True Blood (2008-2014), exploring their tremendous discursive and ideological power in order to understand the cultural politics of these extremely popular texts.

She uses contemporary vampire romance to examine postfeminist ideologies and discuss gender, sexuality, subjectivity, agency and the body. Discussing a range of conflicting meanings contained in the narratives, Gerhard’s critically looks genre’s engagement with everyday sexism and violence against women, power relations in heterosexual relationships, sexual autonomy and pleasure, (self-) empowerment, and (self-) surveillance. She asks: Why are these genre texts so popular right now, what specific desires, issues and fears are addressed and negotiated by them, and what kinds of pleasures do they offer?

• Methodology and Approach:
  • Gerhards adopts a critical feminist approach, analyzing the texts through the lens of postfeminism, gender theory, queer theory, and cultural studies.
  • The analysis is informed by an interdisciplinary understanding of media studies, film studies, and gender studies, considering the ideological, narrative, and visual aspects of the vampire romance genre.
• Relevance:
  • This book offers valuable insights into the intersection of gender, sexuality, and popular culture. It provides a thorough understanding of how vampire romance reflects and shapes cultural understandings of gendered power dynamics, sexual autonomy, and agency.
  • Gerhard’s’ analysis is especially timely given the continued popularity of these genres and their impact on shaping societal conversations about feminism, sexuality, and violence in contemporary media.