Bite Me: An Exploration into the Queer Temporality and Space of Vampire Lore

Abstract

Bite Me: An Exploration into the Queer Temporalities and Space of Vampire Lore follows the figure of the vampire, starting from the general narrative of a monster, progressing into the origins of the folklore and transformation into a literary fixture in entrainment to become its current reclamation as an iconic figure of queerness. This paper is written and submitted through the Theater & Performance conservatory but also written in combination of Anthropology and Queer Theory. Content and analysis is built on the work of Edward Ingebretsen, J. Jack Halberstam, Theresa Bane, Charles & Crofty from The Histocrats, and Kent Brintnall. Through a queering of linear time, labor identity, and familial bonds, the campy Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch from 1984 is a prime example of how the fictional vampire icon can exist in the contemporary human society.