Bite Me! The Twilight Saga, a Fantasy Space of Self-Transformation as Self-Realization

Bibliographic Data

ID11372136
AuthorsCelia Jameson (Goldsmiths College, New Cross, London, UK), Julia Dane (University of East London, University Way, London, UK, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume38
Issue3
Pages243-258
Publication date2014-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Communication Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0196-8599 • E-ISSN: 1552-4612
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0196859914535953
OpenAlexW2062945369
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited24

This article seeks to challenge the conventional reading of the Twilight saga as a regressive influence on young women. We argue that by drawing on themes of governmentality and fantasy, it is possible to open up the debate to consider Twilight as a text offering a fantasy space of transcending the limitations of neoliberal subjecthood. In particular, the article focuses on the figure of the vampire Edward Cullen as the carrier of anxieties around the boundaries of the autonomous subject and highlights the ways in which Bella Swan’s desire for transformation to vampire speaks to a specific set of normative neoliberal ideals for young women in the 21 st century

Aesthetics · Art · BELLA · Epistemology · Fantasy · Governmentality · Literature · Normative · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process · Sociology · Subject (documents · Trope (literature · Twilight · Vampire · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

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