“Because I live in the real world where vampires burn in the sun.” -
Damon Salvatore, Vampire Dairies.
Why is there a
widespread fascination of the vampire genre, with particular focus on The Twilight Saga, and how influential is
this in youth culture?
The word ‘genre’
cannot be completely defined due to the fact that many aspects have combined
together to: “blur genre definitions[1]”.
There are overall definitions however: “Genres can be defined as
patterns/forms/styles/structures which transcend individual art products, and
which supervise both their construction by artist and their reading by
audiences.”[2]
However, over time every ‘fixed’ genre has been twisted and turned to create
new genres which we now call hybrids. The vampire genre has been around since
the 19th century and is a ‘sub genre’ element of the genre; horror. Over
the last four years the vampire genre has become increasingly popular once
again, hitting its peak with the Twilight
Saga by Stephanie Meyer. The saga is series of four novels which have been
converted into five Hollywood films (one of which is still to be released). The
saga looks at the “unorthodox romance between human, Bella, and vampire,
Edward, as well as the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob, a
werewolf.”It portrays the struggles they go through to finally be together in
harmony. The primary audience for this particular text are young teenage girls,
aged 12-18, from a C1C2D social economic group. The course of this essay will
explore why there has been a rapid demand for this genre and how it is affected
today’s youth culture, through the ideologies being portrayed.
To understand why the vampire genre
is so popular in today’s society, we first need to understand what it is, its
codes and conventions, and how and/or why it has changed over decades. Dracula
is a horror film which can be: “categorised as a vampire film”[3],
because it has typical convention that are presented in the horror genre but
the sub genre: “has conventions specific to itself”[4],
which involve: “vampire’s aversion to garlic, sunlight and crucifixes”[5].
Before the outbreak of the Twilight
Saga when we heard the term ‘vampire’ we immediately thought of someone like
Dracula. An immortal deadly creature of the nights that was vicious. The
vampire genre has gone through drastic changes and: “has been far from static,
as vampire narratives changed and evolved with the appetites of their viewing
public.”[6]
and the character of “the vampire has undergone many transformations in recent
years” [7]from
bad to good. Edward in comparison to Dracula
is more of a ‘tragic hero’ rather than what a vampire used to be, ‘perfect villain’.
Vampires like Dracula enjoyed being
inhuman, causing and inflicting pain onto their pray however, in today’s world
vampires like Edward are becoming opposites and wanting to fight the urge to
drink human blood. “People used to be scared of the undead. Vampires used to
frighten the hell out of people[8].
One could say that: "vampires themselves change so much, and reflect
contemporary society"[9]. There is no real defining of vampire genre as
“'genres are instances of repetition and difference'[10].
However “difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre, mere
repetition would not attract an audience”[11].
Today’s vampires are glamorous and sexy, and have an emotional side thus making
them more appealing to the female audience; “now vampires are little more than
sensitive glittery emo types who enjoy poetry and actually like people[12]”,
thus adapting to the economy of genre . As society has changed it has forced:
“genre to adapt”[13]
thus making the vampire fiction less frightening and there has been a growth in:
“paranormal romance”[14]
across this popular culture. The change in codes and conventions of the genre
connote to why audiences are now so attracted to the genre. The main consumer
of these vampire texts are females, so stereotypically we associate the genre
of romance and fantasy with them thus creating a greater appeal to the vampire
genre. The genre now romanticises the
vampires and puts them on an unreadable pedestal which creates an image of so
called perfection amongst impressionable teens.
After years of
having ‘scary’ vampires, we were blown away when the Twilight Saga hit the screens. The novels became more popular
between the younger audiences through the mass coverage of the films. Elements
of different genres where brought together through the film, from genres such
as fantasy, horror, romance. Genre is: “constantly evolving”[15]
trying to fit the zeitgeist today, so no wonder when Twilight came out it started a moral panic within teenage girls. The
genre calmed down after films like Dracula
and Interview with a Vampire, but
then was brought back in the 21st century as there was little
recognition of the genre. For example when Twilight
was realised it was a reinvigorated genre as it was bring back the idea of
vampires and the undead, this was through the novels and films but then as they
became to gain popularity. “With all the recent interest in vampires, it seems
essential to note that the vampire character is one of the most ubiquitous in
the history of cinema, extending from the earliest days of cinema to
present-day manifestations.”[16]There
was an outburst from the vampire genre; more text from the same genre became to
gain popularity and the genre as a whole entered its second stage of the genre
cycle, where other institutions were able to re use their old texts like Vampire Dairies and True Blood to increase capital for themselves. Even though the young female audience can be seen as
passive viewers where Vampire films: “brainwash its audience with base,
deceptive promises and appeals, designed to promote materialism”[17]After hitting its
peak the genre begun to die down and to keep it alive then genre itself was
turn on itself and entered into a new genre of comedy, for example Vampires Suck. Parodies are an important
part of the genre cycle as it allows the genre to be kept alive to a certain
extent and thus still creating a need for it. Some may argue that the genre has
died down again like it first did and is nor waiting for new reinvigoration. The
reinvigoration captures the zeitgeist, like it did back in the 1980’s, vampire
genre was used to warn audiences from aids and the transferring of blood
through sex. The genre has played on moral panic back then and in today’s
society reflecting virginity/sexuality and adulthood with the Twilight saga.
“Another
possible reason why vampires have become more popular in recent years is the
artistic creativity that writers are taking with this character.”[18]
The idea of sex and sexuality in now present in everyday life, surrounding young
adults through every form of media; music videos, TV programmes, internet etc. Twilight was able to put into question
the idea of abstinence and has been able to promote it through the two main
characters Bella and Edward. “Ideologically,
Edward Cullen’s passion for blood is a metaphor for the sexual urge.”[19]
This becomes clearer when we see Edward does not pressure Bella to lose her
virginity, infact he refuses to take it until after marriage, thus putting
traditionalist views into place and embedding the idea in young females today.
The abstinence allows audience to feel better about themselves and gives them a
sense of escapism from pressure in today’s society about pre martial sex. “Although
vampires are generally associated with the horror genre, vampire films may also
fall into the science fiction, romance, comedy or fantasy genres, among
others.”[20] Twilight fits nearly all these genres
with the romance between characters and tom foolery. The character of Edward
Cullen creates the image of an ideal boyfriend amongst the female audience thus
attracting them to the genre. The idea of a strong loving male figure gives the
female audience a false sense of security that there are partners out there who
resemble: “an impossibly beautiful, porcelain-skinned teen with a loving soul
who refuses to drink human blood.”[21]
Twilight imports Bathes cultural myth
theory as we assume the females
watching the text are ‘waiting to be rescued from their miserable life by the
love of a rich, handsome man.’ Twilight
plays on the idea as Bella is ‘rescued’ from her life by the love of a
‘handsome man’- Edward, who even though he is a vampire, he is still rich. It is not only the personality of the ‘vampire
character’ but also their physical appearance. The text gives its female
audience sexual pleasure by seeing attractive actors in roles which fit thus
attracting them to the genre. Instead of being scary and revolting like
Dracula, todays: “vampire became humanised”[22]
and more physically appealing. Twilight
puts into question Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze, as it emphases the male characters more so than the female. For
example, when we see the ‘wolf pack’ we see them topless and it is usual a
medium shot. We can see again with Edward and Jacob, the two most appealing
male characters, the camera lingers on them longer than the other male
characters. However, it is not completely thrown away as the male gaze theory is reinforced when we see the female
vampire characters. This is done to keep the male audience entertained as well
as the female as they would aspire to be like them. It allows both female and
male audiences to connote to the character, only the male on a more sexual
level where as the female on a mental level. Twilight further implies Lacan’s theory- psychoanalysis and ‘the
mirror’- as audiences, especially females,
would become a lot more fearful of the way they look, just to attract partners
like Edward or Jacob.
If we take a
closer look we can see that the institution has helped to be a catalyst in the widespread
for the vampire genre. “Twilight are
blunted and represented in a more generic way to avoid disengaging a mass
audience, while the codes and conventions of romance are promoted to attract
them. This also has the effect of making the film’s ideological messages
more far-reaching.”[23] Institutions
change the genre to constantly fit the audience’s preference which sells. Twilight was created by an American
institution and immediately we can know that there will be vast amount of
American values within the film and example of capital imperialism. The main
aim for institutions are to make money so be rein acting the novels into books
and only concentrating on the most impacting parts it attracts the audiences to
come to watch: Thanks to films such as Twilight making a truckload of money
from the undead, it's only natural that everyone else would want in. That
explains why the entertainment industry's fascination with these creatures is
quickly reaching saturation point[24].”Furthermore
the institution has picked out certain characters who would be appealing to the
younger audience, physically. This is
done so to allow merchandise of the text to be sold. For instance, the Twilight saga has created a divide
between the audiences and categorised them in ‘teams’. Team Edward and Team
Jacob. Most of the merchandise such as t shirt and bags has the actor’s
appearance on them thus look more appealing to its target audience. We also see that America at the time Twilight was realised and as the saga
continues to do so, the economy is currently struggling. Therefore it allows older audience a sense of:
“escapism from dark economics times”[25]
which is lead to a: “boom in vampire themed entertainment”[26]. Furthermore there has been a moral panic
within America about growing old and cosmetics have been created to try and
keep people younger, such as botox. "Current vampires – like the eternally
teenage Edward of Twilight – reflect
the scientific debate about preserving youth and living forever. It is no
surprise that vampires tend to become prominent during times of social change –
like last year's recession – because they are escapist and let you think about
society in a very different setting.”[27]
In conclusion we
can see that the genre we now call vampire genre/fiction has adapted from its
original horror genre and has become its own separate hybrid genre with its own
conventions. Genre is a forever changing concept within media and as the
society changes it will continue to do so too. The fact it changes is to relate
to its audience and to capture the spirit of society thus the only way in which
institutions are able to gain profit as the feed off audience’s preferences. As
this is a text targeted at younger audience, institutions want to gain loyalty
from the audience so as they grow older they will still continue to watch film
created from the same company as they would know it is catered to their liking.
[1]
Sanders, J. (2009). p.7.
[2]
Ryall. (1975). p.28
[3]
Lacey, N. (2000). P. 135
[4] ibid
[5] ibid
[6]
Kane, T. (2006)
[7]
Aldiss, B. Gordon, J. Veronica, H. (1997)
[8]Heritage,
S. (2012). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/04/being-human-true-blood-twilight
[10] (Neale
1980, 48).
[12]
Heritage, S (2012). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/04/being-human-true-blood-twilight
[13] Fulton,
H. (2005) pg. 138
[14]
Hill, A. (2010). Media Magazine. P, 140
[15]
Lacey, N. (2000). P. 142
[17]
James C. (1997)
[18]
Thomas, E. (2010)
[19]
Media Magazine. http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/index.html
[20]
Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. (2011)
[21]
Ruberto, T. (2010)
[22]
Media Magazine. http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/index.html
[23]
Media magazine. http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/index.html
[24]
Heritage, S (2012). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/04/being-human-true-blood-twilight
[25]
Hill, A. (2010) p. 14
[26] abid
[27]
Tobin, L (2010)- http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/06/vampire-conference-literature-hertfordshire
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