The purpose of this diploma thesis is an analysis of selected texts of three popular American authors (Stephenie Mayer, Anne Rice, Tim Burton), who develop the tradition of Gothic literature in their prose writing and film making. This thesis attempts to show how the particular Gothic elements are used in selected works (ex.: the vampire or monster character, the theme of violence or death). In the introductory theoretical chapter the specific character of Anglo-American Gothic prose is explained, and in the following chapters the separate themes are analysed. In this context the literary influences, as well as the originality of the stories, are considered (Horace Walpole, Mary Shelley, Ch. R. Maturin, Bram Stoker), and the contribution of the analysed texts for the coming development of Gothic literature is assessed.

The creatures known as vampires have inspired authors for several hundred years. These beings are stereotypically described as belonging to a “nocturnal species” who live “in shadows” and drink “our lives in secrecy” (Auerbach 1). However, they have by now appeared so often in literary works, and in so many different shapes and sizes, that they are much too nuanced to be called ‘stereotypes.’ This essay will make a historical comparison between two fictional vampires, one hundred years apart, in order to show that a change has taken place when it comes to how vampires as fictional characters have been portrayed in terms of their appearance, their psychology, and their roles in society. The first novel chosen is, for obvious reasons, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was written at the turn of the nineteenth century by a male author and is probably the first novel that comes into mind when the word vampire is mentioned. The second novel, The Vampire Lestat, was written almost a century later, in 1986, by a female author, who, to readers of vampire fiction, is a worthy successor of Stoker. Her name is Anne Rice, best known for her debut novel Interview with the Vampire (1976). The two novels are naturally chosen because of their similarities, but perhaps even more so because of their differences. Dracula is a typically Victorian Gothic novel, which is set in the remote mountains of Transylvania, and in the modern capital London, contemporary to when the novel was published. It is written in epistolary form but never allows for the main character, Count Dracula, to defend or explain himself and his actions in a first-person narrative. The Vampire Lestat, on the other hand, is a Neo-Gothic novel that focus less on conventional Gothic elements, for example gloomy settings, and more on the psychological aspects of what it is like to actually be a vampire. Unlike Dracula, it is the main character’s fictional autobiography in which he recalls his life in France, his transformation into a vampire, and his current career in the United States as a famous rock star. Nina Auerbach calls it “a series of temporal regressions in which Lestat . . . embarks on a backward quest out of the knowable world” (172). Both novels used in this analysis are thus part of the Gothic genre, one being a Victorian Gothic and the other Neo-Gothic, but there are significant differences between the two. I will investigate how these differences reveal themselves when it comes to setting and plot. However, the novels are similar in that they present two male vampires who belong to the nobility and have lived on through the centuries. The vampires both want to be where the power is, which means, in the case of Stoker’s Dracula, that he tries to conquer nineteenth-century London and seduce a young intelligent woman named Mina. Lestat, on the other hand, wants to become a famous twentieth-century rock star in the United States and simply have a good time while being a vampire (Auerbach 6). The aim of this essay is to investigate what is typical of the genres that the two novels belong to and determine what has changed in the vampires’ physical appearance, their manners and their ability to adapt to modern society. In the first section of the essay I will give a description of the typical elements of the Gothic and the Neo-Gothic genres and then compare them in order to make a generic description of the two novels, Dracula and The Vampire Lestat. Vampire fiction will be treated as a sub-genre to the Gothic genre. In the succeeding two sections I will make comparative analyses of the two novels, particularly of the main characters, in order to describe the similarities and differences between the two and study how the vampire character has changed during the last century. Much of the discussion, especially regarding Dracula, will be based on Cesare Lombroso’s concept of the ‘criminal man,’ and various modern scholars’ opinion that the vampire is seen as an outcast and a threat to society.

Devenu célèbre sous les traits de Dracula, le vampire est un monstre révélateur et résilient qui s'est fait archétype incontournable de la culture populaire et dont l'existence diégétique précède le roman de Bram Stoker. Du folklore à la fiction et de l'ombre à la lumière, son évolution est représentative des sociétés et des époques dans lequel il revient à la vie. A la fois transgressifs et normatifs, ses avatars jouent un rôle cathartique en incarnant le refus des lois humaines naturelles et divines, mais aussi la réitération de ces règles et la création de canons littéraires. Cette étude diachronique centrée sur "Carmilla" (1872), "Dracula" (1897) et les vampires d'Anne Rice démontre que leurs aventures invitent à réfléchir autant aux conséquances des fautes qu'à la validité des normes, à l'essence de la nature et des failles humaine et à la fonction libératrice des personnages de fiction et particulièrement des monstres. / Known to most as Dracula, the vampire is revealing and resilient monster whose diegetic existence predates Stoker's novel, and that has become a key figure of popular culture. From folklore to fiction and from shadow to ligjhte, its evolution is indicative of the times and societies in wich it return to life. Equally transgressive and normative, its avatars play a cathartic role aas they epitomize rejection of human, natural and divine laws, but also the reiteration of the rules and the creation of literary canons. This diachronic study focused on "Carmilla" (1872), "Dracula" (1897) and Anne Rice's vampires shows that their adventures induce reflection on both the consequences of wrongdoing and the validity of norms, on the essence of human nature and hubris, and the liberating fucntion of fictional characters, particulary monsters.

Anne Rice writes popular fiction. She is best known for her iconic Vampire Chronicles series. This thesis focuses on the first three volumes of this series: Interview with the Vampire (1976), The Vampire Lestat (1985), and The Queen of the Damned (1988). The main objective of this thesis is to show that whilst Rice's novels often seem very liberal, an examination of her subtext reveals a conservative message. This message helps entrench socio-cultural and political hegemonies because it does not challenge the status quo. In order to see how these conservative leanings are entrenched by Rice, this thesis examines archetypes of the female and the Feminine. Louis is male, but can be viewed as a Feminine character because of his meek subservience to Lestat (the protagonist of the series). Claudia is their daughter, but she is also a woman trapped in a child's body. Claudia seems to have great intellectual freedom, but she is trapped within her body and cannot mature. Gabrielle is Lestat‟s mother. When Gabrielle becomes a vampire, Rice tries to empower Gabrielle by androgynizing her character. However, we find that this androgyny is not empowering because Gabrielle returns to her role as a mother. Akasha is the ancient queen and source of vampirism. She wants to bring about a radical, gynocentric world by killing most men. But subtextually, Akasha‟s defeat represents the defeat of feminism in favour of patriarchy. Despite the seemingly liberal nature of the texts, subtextually there is a trend towards negating the power these characters carry in the text. To explore the flux between the text and the subtext, an array of post-modern reading tools and theoretical approaches have been used. The primary reading strategies include a close reading of the novels, informed by Feminist perspectives, together with other reading strategies such as, Queer Theory, Marxism, deconstruction and the role of the Fantastic. Little academic study has been devoted to Rice‟s work. Her work shows deep philosophical and artistic integrity which lends an elegance and beauty to her texts, but this is undermined by the conservative undertones of her work. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / English / unrestricted

While the term sadomasochism might conjure cursory images of whips, chains, and leather-clad fetishists, this thesis delves deeper into sadomasochistic theory to analyze dynamics of power and powerlessness represented by a chosen sample of literary relationships. Using two contemporary works of vampire literature—Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series—I examine how power is structured by and between male and female characters (and vampires and humans), and particularly emphasize the patriarchal messages these works' regressive sexual politics engender. Psychoanalysis and feminist theory are employed to support my overarching argument following the gendered dynamics of male sadism and female masochism (and vampire sadism and human masochism), as this dyad reflects men's and women's "normalized" roles of power and powerlessness, respectively, in today's society. Sadomasochistic relationships as depicted in this literature are created through mutual contracts or, what I refer to as, sociocultural sadomasochism to reflect the gendered power imbalances inherent in patriarchy. By concluding with readers' responses to these franchises, this thesis further attempts to determine why such unequal and oppressive relationships are desirable. Since vampires as Gothic figures embody what specific cultures dread yet desire, this literature possesses frightening implications—gender roles are conservative and masculinity is privileged in fiction and, by extension, in twenty-first-century American culture.

Jesus' story has been retold in various forms and fashions for centuries. Jesus novels, a subset of the historical fiction genre, are one of the latest means of not only re-imagining the man from Galilee but also of rewriting the canonical Gospels. This thesis explores the Christological portraits constructed in four of those novels while also using the novels to examine the intertextual play of these Gospel rewrites with their Gospel progenitors. Chapter 1 offers a prolegomenon to the act of fictionalizing Jesus that discusses the relationship between the person and his portraits and the hermeneutical circle created by these texts as they both rewrite the Gospels and stimulate a rereading of them. It also establishes the "preposterous" methodology that will be used when reexamining the Gospels "post" reading the novels. Chapters 2 to 5 offer four case studies of "complementing" and "competing" novels and the techniques they use to achieve these aims: Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt; Neil Boyd's The Hidden Years; Nino Ricci's Testament; and José Saramago's The Gospel according to Jesus Christ. Chapter 6 begins an examination of a specific interpretive circle based upon Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Beginning with the synoptic accounts of that event, the chapter then turns to how Jesus' testing has been reinterpreted and presented in two of the novels. Returning to the Gospel of Matthew's version of the Temptation, chapter 7 offers a "preposterous" examination of that pericope, which asks novel questions of the text and its role with Matthew's narrative context based on issues raised by the Gospel rewrites. The thesis concludes by suggesting that Jesus novels, already important examples of the reception history of the Gospels, can also play a helpful role in re-interpreting the Gospels themselves.