Eve Sedgwick paranoid Gothic is described as homosexual anxiety which infuses power through a fear of being discovered. This is a central theme in Polidori's The Vampyre. Polidori's novel revolves around the travels and interactions between two men. Furthermore, they share an oath; an aspect that is apparent in Sedgwick's paranoid Gothic. "This oath - to preserve Ruthven's honor by concealing his predatory life and apparent death - has absolute binding power..." This oath has power because it is a concealing factor for not only Ruthven's life and death, but his homosexual transgressions as well. It is a shared promise between two men to keep their bond secretive. It is also interesting to note that these factors of paranoid Gothic are mimicked in Palidori's real life. He, like Ruthven, has a male travelling partner with a shared oath to uphold their, although rocky, friendship.
I also found the notion of the moon interesting. This was not a crucial aspect to Palidori's vampyre. He even goes as far as to disregard the commonality that vampires cannot be exposed to the sun. This evolution to the vampire character can be attributed to Planche. Night is often thought of as a nonhuman realm. It is fitting that a not fully human entity, a vampire, would fit best in a nonhuman realm.
This secretive bond that is intertwined between that of predatory life, apparent death and homosexuality, I felt that they way this concept was woven was not made entirely apparent until reading, Giving Up the Ghost. I did not really get the homosexuality of the piece until it was pointed out in the second piece, and it really helped to piece the work together and make greater sense out the piece. Upon further thinking it brought me to wonder if a vampire is a homosexual if they drink the blood of the same gender, as drinking blood in an intimate act in itself or if intercourse has to be involved?
ReplyDeleteThe concept of night is intriguing. As children monsters are only under the bad at night, and that is when the dead rise from their graves, right? It is this preconceived notion that we are born into that of being afraid of the dark. No one tells scary stories during the day they do not pack as much power. The night is for the creatures of the other realm. A vampire walks the line as you said between the two realms, the are almost a bridge between the two.
"Upon further thinking it brought me to wonder if a vampire is a homosexual if they drink the blood of the same gender, as drinking blood in an intimate act in itself or if intercourse has to be involved?"
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting question. I think vampires allow us as readers to explore aspects of our own sexuality that we may find taboo. For instance, I saw Interview with the Vampire years and years ago, but when I watched it again while teaching a literature course I was so struck by how...well..."gay" it is. Similarly, on a recent episode of True Blood, one of the main characters Eric Northman kisses another male vampire, and I found it interesting that him kissing another man was so easily "accepted" in the vampire world as something that vampires just "do." Maybe that's the lure of the vampire figure in popular culture. In our society our sexual and gender roles are so constricted and policed, but the sexuality of vampires is so much more fluid. Perhaps vampires allow us to explore that fluidity in ways that are not possible in our own lives.