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Stripping The Vampire. Erotic Imaginations and Sexual Fantasies In Paranormal Romances (A Study Of Selected Examples)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2023

By
Ksenia Olkusz
Edited by
Renata Iwicka
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Summary

Abstract: In paranormal romances, one can witness a significant transformation of a vampire from a multifaceted monstrosity into the figure of an adorer who becomes an object of desire, fascination, and an object of erotic imagining. This very transition seems to have been triggered by a shift in the literary convention regarding vampires. So, it no longer contributes to a typical gothic narrative, but to a form of romance seasoned with a little fantasy, thereby depriving this archetypical blood-sucker of their nefarious image and qualifying them unequivocally as adorers. In that regard, any traditional means of defining vampirism become secondary to those less associated with gothic and more with romance narratives. Consequently, vampiric sexuality emerges as a substantial part of the plot, along with descriptions of physical intercourses that are even wont to verge on pornography.

Keywords: paranormal romance, vampires, sexuality, pornography, romance, gothic narratives

Paranormal romance is a variant of romantic narrative with elements of fantasy and as such has been popular since the beginning of the 21st century, but its sources date to the preceding one. Leigh M. McLennon writes:

Although it emerged only in the 1990s, (…) and paranormal romance genre now exerts a powerful influence on representations of monsters and the supernatural in popular culture. Over the last 25 years or so, urban fantasy and paranormal romance (hereafter abbreviated as UF/PR) has developed into a new, easily recognisable genre formula: sympathetic vampires (and/or other monsters) join magic-wielding (often leather-clad) heroines to solve mysteries and/or consummate transgressive romances.

The basic component which classifies a narrative of this type is including figures associated explicitly with fantastical conventions, such as (mainly) horror, fantasy and even science fiction among the protagonists and antagonists. The flourishing and multiplication of literary and extra-literary realisations of vampire themes are acknowledged to be the initiation moment for the development of this sub-genre of romance. Still, one of the first works which fell within this subtype is Sweet Startfire by Jayne Ann Krentz (part of the Lost Colony trilogy), published in 1986.

Love and/or eroticism are central to literature of popular paranormal romance. It is rendered as an emotional relation between a human and a being of supernatural provenance, like a vampire, shape-shifter, ghost, demon, magus, fairy, elf, etc.

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Manifestations of Male Image in the World's Cultures , pp. 137 - 156
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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