Papers by Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska
Landscapes of (Un)Belonging: Reflections of Strangeness and Self, 2012
This unique study explores the vampire as host and guest, captor and hostage: a perfect lover and... more This unique study explores the vampire as host and guest, captor and hostage: a perfect lover and force of seductive predation. From Dracula and Carmilla, to True Blood and The Originals, the figure of the vampire embodies taboos and desires about hospitality, rape and consent. The first section welcomes the reader into ominous spaces of home, examining the vampire through concepts of hospitality and power, the metaphor of threshold, and the blurred boundaries between visitation, invasion and confinement. Section two reflects upon the historical development of vampire narratives and the monster as oppressed, alienated Other. Section three discusses cultural anxieties of youth, (im)maturity, childhood agency, abuse and the age of consent. The final section addresses vampire as intimate partner, mapping boundaries between invitation, passion and coercion. With its fresh insight into vampire genre, this book will appeal to academics, students and general public alike.
Landscapes of (Un)Belonging: Reflections of Strangeness and Self, 2012
eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 2017
The landscapes and cityscapes of the sub-tropical Southern United States, with their opulent natu... more The landscapes and cityscapes of the sub-tropical Southern United States, with their opulent nature, exuberant cities, boisterous cultural diversity and troubled history of conflict and violence have long offered an alluring locale for Gothic narratives. This article explores the ways in which <em>The Southern Vampire Mysteries</em> (2001–2013) – the best-selling literary series by Charlaine Harris and the basis for the HBO TV series <em>True Blood</em> – construct the Gothicised imageries of the American South as the terrain of confusing ambivalences; of glamour and exoticism, death and the uncanny. Informed by the discourses of tropicality, Tropical and Urban Gothic and exotic tourism – and the ways they interweave with the concept of Otherness – the paper seeks to illuminate the process of interrelating and consequently exoticising the figure of the Other and Southern sub-tropical land- and cityscapes. It also examines the tropes of urban interspecies rela...
eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 2019
The eTropic special issue on the theme Tropical Gothic was first conceived in 2017. From the begi... more The eTropic special issue on the theme Tropical Gothic was first conceived in 2017. From the beginning there was a sense of how the theme had a certain resonance. By 2018, the term had appeared as a hashtag in social media for new music album entitled Tropical Gothic.These resonances are important as they reveal the build up of an idea at a particular time. This paper follows a rhizomatic path as it traces Tropical Gothic through the creative works of a music album, its cover art, and further to other influences including film and literature.These literary and creative works likewise resonate with the papers brought together in this second issue on the theme Tropical Gothic. Keywords: Tropical Gothic, literature, creative works, music, cover art, film, rhizomatics, demon
Continuum, 2021
This article examines the representations of mental and mood disorders, self-harming and suicide ... more This article examines the representations of mental and mood disorders, self-harming and suicide in the twenty-first-century vampire narratives, with a primary focus on Vampire Academy and Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. Through the fantastic world of vampires, dhampirs and other supernatural creatures, these internationally acclaimed literary series deliver a powerful account of young people struggling with mental challenges and explore a wide spectrum of mental and mood disorders typically veiled as magical conditions. Focusing on the experiences of both those afflicted and their loved ones, this essay looks into the ways in which the vampire tale speaks to the notion of ‘madness’, negotiating, reflecting and/or resisting its Romantic(ized) connections to the concepts of love, artistic creativity, gender and vampirism. Themes of mental illness, altered mental states and suicide continue to hold a fascination for the vampire genre today, bearing testimony to its Romantic origins. This...
This chapter brings into the spotlight the narratives of girl bodies in vampire fiction marketed ... more This chapter brings into the spotlight the narratives of girl bodies in vampire fiction marketed to adolescent women. Contemplating the body as one of the central themes of the genre and a prime construction site of girlhood within Western culture, it examines the meanings of body modification through the Gothic trope of the tattooed skin and looks into the interplays between vampirism and feminine beauty, with an emphasis on the discourses of ageing, “fatness” and thin-thinking. The chapter also draws attention to the dynamics between vampirism, girlhood, style and consumerism, and explores the trope of the feminine makeover in YA vampire fiction as a site of resistance and the performance of subversive girl identities.
Continuum, 2021
Vampiric Transformations emerged from an ongoing research collaboration, through which the editor... more Vampiric Transformations emerged from an ongoing research collaboration, through which the editors and contributors to this Special Issue explored the idealism that surrounds the figure of the vampire in relation to the persistence of – and resistance to – (post) Romanticist ideas within the genres of the fantastic. Our earlier research pursued pathways of inquiry relating to changing representations of the vampire in popular fiction and entertainment culture, such as tropes of hospitality and violation, the formation of vampiric identity, taste and fan culture, conventions of desire and the tensions between death and longevity that the figure of the vampire so frequently invokes (Baker, Green, Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska 2017). In Vampiric Transformations we set out to take a fresh approach; to consider the vampire as a social and political figure, one that encapsulates an ambivalent idealism forged partly from its European lateRomanticist formation as a popular monster/hero. The vampire...
The new millennium has witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of the vampire figure in adolesce... more The new millennium has witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of the vampire figure in adolescent popular culture, with the tremendous commercial success of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (2005–2008) bringing the narratives of girls and vampires into the cultural spotlight. Today, as Mia Franck suggests, the vampire phenomenon is no longer primarily about horror, but about “the reading girls” (Franck, Mia. 2013. Skamlig flicklasning. Flickvampyrer pa internatskola i House of Night-serien. In Flicktion. Perspektiv pa flickan i fiktionen, pp. 208–221. Universus Academic Press, Malmo). Yet, despite their mass-market appeal, vampire stories for young women are often marginalised and narrated as inextricably connected to shame. This introductory chapter considers the reasons behind this widespread critique and provides a brief review of the scholarship on vampire fiction for girls, as well as explaining the focus and organisation of the rest of the volume.
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Papers by Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska
“The essays in this volume offer astute and complex readings of the vampire legend; they frequently challenge traditional approaches while offering new, original and creative interpretations. What happens when the vampire is the “wrong” one for its victim but potentially the “right” one for the viewer or reader? To what extent is the vampire a catalyst or an agent of transformation, one whose horrific actions challenge the viewer/reader to explore his or her own beliefs, values, fears and fantasies? This is a stimulating and challenging collection that opens up new questions just when we thought that there was very little left that could be said about our troubled relationship with vampires and what might occur when we invite the wrong one in.” (Professor Barbara Anne Creed, University of Melbourne, Australia)
vampire figure in Young Adult (YA) culture. Spearheaded by the phenomenon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (The WB, 1997–2001) and L. J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries
(1991–1992), the YA vampire has been brought into the spotlight by Stephenie
Meyer’s Twilight (2005–2008, 2020) and its franchise. Ever since, bookstore
shelves have been buckling under the weight of vampire stories addressed to
adolescent consumers, particularly young women.
This chapter offers a concise overview of YA vampire fiction in the twenty-first century, and explores some of its central themes, focusing on the narratives of
romantic relationships, violence against women, and the meanings and practices
of consent. Drawing on the post-Twilight popular vampire series for girls,
particularly Vampire Academy and Bloodlines by Richelle Mead, and Crave by
Tracy Wolff, it explores the ways in which vampire stories for teens interact with
the concerns and aspirations surrounding present-day girlhood, and examines
how they engage with the new millennium conversations on the figure of the
vampire.