“This Girl Changed the Story of the World”

This article investigates the intersection of adaptations of narrative content and form as exemplified in the KindaTV YouTube series Carmilla (2014–2016), a contemporary revisioning of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 vampire novella of the same name. By contextualizing Le Fanu’s text within the emerging medicalized discourse around so-called deviant sexualities and close reading the invocations of medical, legal, and narrative authority within Carmilla, I reveal an approach to authority which upholds hegemony. Consequently, in engaging with KindaTV’s YouTube adaptation, the rehabilitating of queer feelings and connections reframes authority within the narrative, while the interactive platform and active fan communities resist the idea of a single textual authority. By considering the source text and adaptation through the lens of authority, it becomes clear that, as part of addressing the homophobic history of the Gothic, KindaTV’s Carmilla presents a world full of possibilities that directly opposes the way authorities like legal, medical, and academic systems have historically pathologized queer people

Aesthetics · Art · Gossip · Hegemony · Human sexuality · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Novella · Political science · Politics · Queer · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

• A Theory of Adaptation

  Linda Hutcheon•A theory of adaptation•2012

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• Revamping Carmilla

  Caroline Duvezin-Caubet•Polysèmes•2020

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• "Carmilla" fandom as a lesbian community of feeling

  Open Access•Sneha Kumar•Transformative Works and Cultures•2021

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