First UK Vampire Conference
A conference which will serve food out of coffins aims to put British vampire fiction back on the map. The event: Open Graves, Open Minds: Vampires and the Undead in Modern Culture will be held from 16-17 April 2010 at the University of Hertfordshire in a mission to encourage students of all ages to study literature.
British Vampires
According to Dr Sam George, a lecturer in English Literature at the University, the most famous vampire narrative of all, Dracula, was written by a Brit and set in London and Whitby, but now with the Twilight, saga and True Blood modern vampires have become Americanised.
“It’s amazing how many British actors have played Dracula on screen. I aim to put the British vampire back on the map,” she said. The writer Marcus Sedgwick has also been recruited to promote British vampire fiction at the conference.
MA module on Vampires
Dr George, who has just launched an MA module in vampire fiction, which will begin in September at the University, will gather with experts from all over the world, to examine these creatures in al their various manifestations and cultural meanings and relate the undead in literature, art and other media to questions concerning gender, technology and social change.
She is particularly interested in the new teen vampires. “In earlier fantasy narratives, such as C.S. Lewis’s Narnia stories, sexuality is outlawed,” she said. “Susan is prevented from ever returning to Narnia once she becomes interested in ‘nylons lipstick, invitations’. The new vampire stories it seems take up where these narratives leave off and they represent this kind of sexual awakening. The new breed of vampires are far from monstrous, they are glamorous and sexy and have an emotional side.”
Vampires and Sexuality
She believes that vampires act as a useful metaphor for teenagers’ wider anxieties about their bodies and the first stirrings of desire.
“Their attraction to vampire figures provides a safe way for them to acknowledge these desires,” she said.
Conference keynotes will be delivered by Dr Catherine Spooner, University of Lancaster, Dr Stacey Abbott, University of Roehampton and writer of young adult fiction with a vampire twist, Marcus Sedgwick.
Panel topics to be addressed during the two-day event include: ‘Dracula Lives’, ‘Appetites of the Undead’, ‘Undead Victorians’, ‘Undead Teens’, ‘Politics of the Undead’, ‘Undead Romance’, ‘The Gay Undead’ , ‘Undead TV’ , ‘Undead in the New Media’ , ‘Identity, Legality and the Undead’ and ‘Gendering the Undead’.
Gor enquiries about the MA module in vampire fiction, please contact Dr Anna Tripp at a.f.tripp@herts.ac.uk
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