In this article, I argue that the vampires in Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels illustrate clearly the posthuman self in its connection beyond itself to other vampires, humans, and non-humans. Learning to co-exist becomes problematic in Harris’ series, where we encounter a “new” representation of vampire. These vampires have come out of the coffin, and their revelation allows us to explore how they can be viewed in connection to the human world and how their transcendence can be seen as a move toward posthumanism, as its particular blend of body and community help demonstrate what the self expanded could be. As a species that differs from us “typical” humans and yet must co-exist with us and other non-humans, the posthuman provides a theoretical framework for how we can approach this new representation as a disembodied non-unitary subject. Through their transcendence from the world of the living to the life of the undead, these vampires let us see humanity as a distinct moment in evolution that is a continuous process, not a resolution. There are six areas where we see these common characteristics between posthumanism and Harris’ vampires. The first is the vampire being represented as an other. Like the posthuman, Harris’ vampires are juxtaposed against the human population and because vampires are marked as other this creates tension where they must co-exist with humans and yet still be examined from an anthropocentric perspective. Another way the posthuman allows us to interpret this fear of vampires is from the position of the de-centered human. Because humans prior to the “great revelation” in Harris’ fictional world, believed themselves to be what defined humanism versus their non-human others; they must shift in where they are located on the species podium due to vampires and that creates a fear. Another correlation is that of immortality; which is what vampires inherit when they become a member of the undead, but for the posthuman it is encoding and dematerialization that allows us to transcend these mortal bodies. This notion of disembodiment demonstrates the body being a rhetorical strategy to create an effect, such as manipulation. Since the body for the posthuman is seen as materiality and therefore they are not embedded to only exist within it, the vampire likewise is able to exploit the body in order to accomplish its purpose. Next for the posthuman, transcendence is the way they not only become immortal, but also how they move from identifying as individuals to identifying as part of a larger community. For the vampires in the Stackhouse series, their consciousness lies in their information and not in their material bodies, thus they are able to situate themselves within the larger network with other vampires, humans, and non-humans. And lastly the connection through the exchange of blood, which for the vampire is a literal connection, but for the posthuman is instead an ideal network which removes individuality.

This essay takes a closer look at femininity/masculinity, sexuality and queer time and place in Charlaine Harris’ novel Dead Until Dark (2001). The essay’s theoretical framework consists of queer theory and skev theory. Skev is a Swedish word that translates loosely into strange or twisted. Skev theory has queer roots but is used to search for and question forms of normativity other than sexuality. This essay examines Bill and Sookie, the two main characters in Dead Until Dark, with the main aim of analyzing the different ways in which they are portrayed that makes them challenge (and sometimes confirm) norms concerning femininity/masculinity, sexuality and the use of  time and place. The analysis talks about Proper Girls and Proper Boys and how Sookie and Bill may or may not be able and/or willing to be Proper. Monsters and how being a monster impacts Bill’s and Sookie’s Properness is also central to the analysis. In short the essay shows that Bill and Sookie exist in a state of (in)betweenness and that this makes their characters subversive in that they are both skeva.

In recent years, the figure of the vampire has proliferated in American literature and media. According to Stephen King, creatures of horror such as vampires appear cyclically in cultural representations to exorcise social anxieties and to cope with periods of acute crisis. In Nina Auerbach’s view, vampires are powerful representations of social critique who adapt themselves to different cultures and historical times. Against this background, I will analyze how the modern American vampire intersects with contemporary American culture in the TV series True Blood. Because the setting of this media text is the American South, my approach will be regional. I will highlight the characteristics of this area of the United States by discussing the different cultural values embodied by the Southern vampires. I will investigate how the representation of these modern vampires is an expression of the American regional past due to its connections with an important historical moment: the American Civil War. This framework will help me explain why regional vampires embody specific cultural values, and I will show how these characters are peculiar because they offer opposite portrayals simultaneously produced within the same culture. In order to highlight the cultural aspects emerging from True Blood, I will frame my analysis through the lenses of capitalism and race. These two focal points will allow me to discuss contemporary American culture and its contradictions.