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This article explores the trend in contemporary vampire media to highlight racially-charged issues, demonstrating a consciousness of the way the vampire has been used in conjunction with racial stigmatisation. While the traditional figure of the vampire spoke strongly to late nineteenth-,and early twentieth-century white American fears of miscegenation, I argue that some contemporary vampire narratives, such as Blade (1998), Underworld (2003), and True Blood (2008-), rewrite the figure in order to question and/or undo,the link between ‘monstrosity’ and racial otherness. Central to this task is not only the repositioning and characterisation of the vampire, but also — considering that the female body was once perceived as the locus for racial purity — that of the heroine.
Metaphorically set in a border town, the darkly lit, libidinous urban topography of Orson Welles’ classic late film noir, Touch of Evil (1958), harbours primal fears and partially clads criminal activities, underscoring the fact that in the 1950s miscegenation was still illegal in a number of US states. This article juxtaposes Charlton Heston‘s leading role in two interracial romances, Touch of Evil and Diamond Head (1963), which takes place in the new border state of Hawaii. The historical foregrounding of the Civil Rights movement in the United States during the 1950s and ‘60s with respect to the interracial romances growing popularity is discussed, and the relevance of recent genetic research into the appeal of difference and the way it functions within a ‘primal drama’.
Gothic, in a sense, has always been 'queer'. This book illustrates the rich critical complexity which is involved in reading texts through queer theories. It provides a queer reading of such early Gothic romances as William Beckford's Vathek, Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk, and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer. Building upon critical trend of desire between men, the book examines Frankenstein's engagement with sexual rhetoric in the early nineteenth century. It explores some ways in which the signifying practices of queerness are written into the language and, therefore, the signifying practices of Gothic fiction. Teleny's apparently medicalised representation of homosexual erotic love contains some strikingly Gothic elements. The book examines how the courtroom drama of the E. M. Forster's A Passage to India focuses on the monstrous possibility of miscegenation, an Indian accused of raping an Englishwoman. Antonia White's Frost in May can be contextualised to the concept of the 'lesbian Gothic', which helpfully illuminates the representation of adolescent female subjectivity and sexuality. Same-sex desire is represented indirectly through sensuous descriptions of the female body and intertextual allusions to other erotic texts. The book considers how the vampire has become an ambivalent emblem of gay sexuality in late twentieth-century Gothic fiction by examining Interview with the Vampire and Lost Souls. The understanding of the Gothic and queer theory in a pop video is achieved by considering how Michael Jackson's use of the Gothic in Thriller and Ghosts queers the temporality of childhood.
This book looks at the highly publicised, sensational trials of several young female protagonists in the period 1918-1924. These cases, all presented by the press as morality tales involving drugs, murder, adultery, miscegenation and sexual perversion, are used as a prism through which to identify concerns about modern femininity. The book first examines a libel case, brought by a well-known female dancer against a maverick right-wing MP for the accusation of lesbianism. One aspect of this libel trial involved the drawing up of battle-lines in relation to the construction of a new, post-war womanhood. The book then looks at two inquests and three magistrate-court trials that involved women and drugs; young women in relationships with Chinese men were also effectively in the dock. One way of accessing court proceedings has been via the account of the trial published as part of the Notable British Trial Series. There are no extant trial transcripts. But there are prosecution depositions lodged at the National Archives, much press reportage, and a number of relevant memoirs, all giving a keen sense of the key issues raised by the trial. The book also focuses on an extraordinary divorce case, that of Christabel Russell, involving cross-dressing, claims of a virgin birth, extreme sexual ignorance, and a particular brand of eccentric modern femininity.
’ traditional household and reproductive roles within Muslim society. This was traditional education mobilised in opposition to the values that French educators hoped to transmit. 79 Miscegenation No discussion of gender issues in the French empire can overlook the so-called ‘métis problem’ of miscegenation. Colonial
-Mapuche miscegenation are usually called, for better and for worse – be about? ‘Mismatches’ such as the ones just mentioned are what motivate the writing of this text. R ECAPITULATIONS It is a fact that not all Mapuche, or Mapuche- champurria , who have been born and lived most of their lives in the city of Santiago, far from their territory of origin or Wallmapu , have the same shared experiences of their mapuchidad , and neither have their experiences shaped their identity in the same way. While some have
assess quantitatively the scale of Scottish involvement in miscegenation, it is less difficult to determine the ways in which Scots reacted to fathering illegitimate mixed-race children. The location The term ‘West Indies’ implies a coherence and uniformity among a number of British-owned islands located in the Caribbean Sea. The islands were geographically scattered, however, and
monstrosity of Victor’s inchoate monster’s mate. Anxiety over miscegenation is one of the reasons why Victor Frankenstein decided to destroy her, fearing that she might procreate with man rather than with her fellow monster. Her subsequent fragmentation resonates with that of the famous Hottentot Venus, who was regarded by many as a female monster and whose body parts were exhibited after her death. Public
4 Mme Fahmy’s vindication: Orientalism, miscegenation fears and female fantasy T he autobiography of Mrs Kate Meyrick, 1920s Soho nightclub owner, is peppered with references to club visits from famous names – entertainers, actresses, artists, writers. Royalty too make an appearance – the Crown Prince of Sweden, Prince Nicholas of Romania, and ‘one princely signature in the visitors’ book … associated with a grim tragedy … that of Fahmy Bey’.1 The ‘grim tragedy’ to which she referred was his untimely death, for in the early hours of 10th July 1923, in the
’s homeland, and since Chang is a Chinese American citizen, the staging of a marriage performance in Shangri-La raises the issue of legislative laws throughout US history surrounding the nationalized rules of marriage, especially the first immigration law in 1875 prohibiting China’s wives from emigrating to the United States. Heteronormative citizenship names and accounts for marriage as legislated and inextricable from citizenship, a norm that underlies the same-sex and miscegenation prohibitions in the history of legislated marriage discriminations. The third and last