Cinematic & Televisual Portrayals of The Lesbian Vampire: The Ultimate Rejection of Reproductive Futurism

Abstract

This is a Hybrid Project that contains an essay, series bible, and the first 10 pages of my pilot script for the show. The project aims to explore the cinematic and televisual representations of the queer vampire, with a particular focus on the lesbian vampire as a figure who is able to challenge traditional notions of gender, sexuality, and temporality. The lesbian vampire embodies a powerful rejection of heteronormative imperatives and reproductive futurism, and instead, offers a radical reimagining of queer ways of living and being. Further, lesbian vampire narratives often contain feminist themes, including the monstrous feminist anti-hero trope. Also crucial in this essay is the examination of work from select queer television scholars who put forward that, while television is a mainstream medium that tends to display dominant ideologies, it holds enormous potential, for when it "synchs up with queer temporality...TV may be co-opted, refashioned, queered"� (Geller 45). Through a comprehensive analysis of key films and theoretical frameworks, this paper ultimately argues for the revival of the lesbian vampire within contemporary television.