Abstract
Vampires populate our culture and have become a recurrent presence in fiction and the media. In all cases the inclusion of the vampire has given voice to “socio-culture issues faced in particular times and places; issues that may otherwise remain repressed” (Dillon and Lundberg 2017, 47). This socio-cultural subtext is complicated when the vampire is female, for she is now doubly othered by her gender. Her monstrosity is seen as twofold: as a vampire and as a transgressive woman. While many studies address female vampires in popular culture, their portrayal in videogames has been recurrently overlooked. Games potentially help shape gender attitudes in thousands of players; therefore, it is particularly relevant to examine the varied representations of these monstrous or othered female figures and to understand how they adhere to or challenge misogynistic readings of women and their bodies. In light of this, and interpreting videogames as a narrative medium, this article provides an analysis of significant vampiric videogames and discusses the female vampire in relation to violence against women and postfeminist agendas, following a narrative rather than ludology approach.
Highlights
Vampires populate our culture and have become a recurrent presence in fiction and the media
Interpreting videogames as a narrative medium, this article provides an analysis of significant vampiric videogames and discusses the female vampire in relation to violence against women and postfeminist agendas, following a narrative rather than ludology approach
Bram Stoker created with Dracula (1897) a male vampire that embodied Victorian England’s xenophobic fears, but who was the “hyper-masculine male” (DuRocher 2016, 45) with a heightened lust for young girls
Summary
The current analysis of the presence and representation of female vampires in videogames mainly addresses the aesthetic construction and narrative weight of these characters within the game. The absence of back stories and individual personalities in such narratives hinders any possibility of a motivation behind the vampires’ actions: their only function is to incarnate the ultimate threat, which falls in line with traditional Western narratives of the temptation of the female body, as well as the warnings against the dangers of women’s excessive sexuality or thirst for power These games miss the chance to question popular narratives of the female vampire, and, perpetuate the male gaze and prejudiced reading of these characters. The female vampire here is presented as a survivor of abuse, complicating her representation as a mere foe or an object of consumption, yet, paradoxically, still commodified to be marketed to a mainly male audience
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