LGBTQ themes in horror fiction

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LGBTQ themes in horror fiction refers to sexuality in horror fiction that can often focus on LGBTQ+ characters and themes within various forms of media. It may deal with characters who are coded as or who are openly LGBTQ+, or it may deal with themes or plots that are specific to gender and sexual minorities.

Contents

Illustration of painter Basil Hallward and aristocrat Lord Henry Wotton observing the picture of Dorian Gray. Doriangray.jpg
Illustration of painter Basil Hallward and aristocrat Lord Henry Wotton observing the picture of Dorian Gray.

Depending on when it was made, it may contain open statements of gender variance, sexuality, same-sex sexual imagery, same-sex love or affection or simply a sensibility that has special meaning to LGBTQ+ people.

History

Overview and origins

Illustration by D. H. Friston from the first publication of the lesbian vampire novella Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu Carmilla.jpg
Illustration by D. H. Friston from the first publication of the lesbian vampire novella Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu
Illustration from the inside cover of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Revised Edition, 1831). Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Revised Edition, 1831) 006.jpg
Illustration from the inside cover of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (Revised Edition, 1831).

The relation between LGBTQ fiction and horror is often attributed to the Gothic novels of the 1790s and early 1800s. [4] [5] Many Gothic authors, like Matthew Lewis, William Thomas Beckford, and Francis Lathom, were homosexual. LGBTQ horror publisher and general editor James Jenkins offered that "the traditional explanation for the gay/horror connection is that it was impossible for them to write openly about gay themes back then (or even perhaps express them, since words like 'gay' and 'homosexual' didn't exist), so they sublimated them and expressed them in more acceptable forms, using the medium of a transgressive genre like horror fiction." [4] Early works with clear gay subtext include Lewis's The Monk (1796) and both Charles Maturin's The Fatal Revenge (1807) and Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). [4] Influential and controversial entries in the genre include the lesbian vampire novella Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu [1] [2] [3] and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde, which shocked readers with its sensuality and overtly homosexual characters. [6] Jenkins also points out what he sees as gay subtext in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), as the titular character wards off other female vampires and claims Jonathan Harker, stating "This man belongs to me!" [4] Richard S. Primuth of The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide writes that Stoker, a closeted gay man and close friend of Oscar Wilde, began writing Dracula just as Wilde was sentenced to hard labor after his conviction for gross indecency. [7] Talia Schaffer writes in ELH that "Dracula explores Stoker's fear and anxiety as a closeted homosexual man during Oscar Wilde's trial... This peculiar tonality of horror derives from Stoker's emotions at this unique moment in gay history." [7] [8]

In the following century, the control of the book industry by larger publishers made it difficult to distribute the increasingly overt gay content being produced. [9] Queer horror got a boost with the advent of the pulp novel in the 20th century, [10] a cheap way to manufacture paperback novels that became popularized during World War II. [11] Three on a Broomstick (1967) by Don Holliday is an early example of the gay horror pulp. [10]

Themes

Vampirism and homosexual desire

Author James R. Keller writes that in particular, "Gay and lesbian readers have been quick to identify with the representation of the vampire, suggesting its experiences parallel those of the sexual outsider." [12] Richard Dyer discusses the recurring homoerotic motifs of vampire fiction in his article "Children of the Night", primarily "the necessity of secrecy, the persistence of a forbidden passion, and the fear of discovery." [12] [13] With the vampire having been a recurring metaphor for same-sex desire from before Stoker's Dracula, Dyer observes that historically earlier representations of vampires tend to evoke horror and later ones turn that horror into celebration. [12] [13] The homoerotic overtones of Anne Rice's celebrated The Vampire Chronicles series (1976–2018) are well-documented, [12] [14] [15] [16] and its publication reinforced the "widely recognized parallel between the queer and the vampire." [12]

Frankenstein and gender

Gender studies scholar Judith Butler asserts that Frankenstein's creature exists in a gray area of gender, tying his monstrosity to his subversion of gendered expectations. [17] Professor of English Jolene Zigarovich expands Butler's somewhat binary lens, bringing in Susan Stryker's explicitly transgender analysis of the creature. Stryker likens the creature's construction with the process of medically transitioning, and draws parallels between the subsequent ostracism the creature faced with experience of marginalization experienced by transgender individuals. Zigarovich credits Stryker's work as a catalyst for subsequent queer and trans approaches to Gothic literary analysis, particularly amongst those seeking to reappropriate the maligned imagery of the "unnatural" and variant with regards to gender. [5]

Contemporary horror fiction with LGBT themes

A plethora of more recent horror fiction includes LGBTQ themes, as the genre's focus on the body, desire, and fear places it in a prime position to tackle issues of normativity and social identity. [18] José Luis Zárate's The Route of Ice and Salt, a groundbreaking 1998 retelling of the voyage of the Demeter in Dracula, brings the subtextual queerness of the novel to the surface by making such themes explicit in his depiction of the ship's captain as gay. [19] Author Billy Martin's horror novels of the 1990's and 2000's are known for featuring gay male characters, as he incorporates his own experiences as a gay trans man into the themes of his work. [20] Emily Danforth's 2020 novel Plain Bad Heroines is a gothic story led entirely by queer female main characters, and references numerous other works of horror fiction. [21] T. Kingfisher's 2022 novella What Moves The Dead is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher with a non-binary protagonist. [22] Lee Mandelo's 2021 debut novel Summer Sons explores gender identity and queerness in the subgenre of Southern Gothic, as does his 2024 novella The Woods All Black. [23]

Transgender body horror

There have been many recent commercially successful novels that center body horror as an allegory or expansion on ideas of bodily dysphoria and transphobia, like 2022's Hell Followed with Us. Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt received critical praise for her 'gory' and brutal' debut novel. [24] Liam McBain of NPR wrote, "Manhunt is a paragon of body horror...it's obvious the point Felker-Martin is making with the Legion: While everything is heightened within the apocalyptic setting, enforcing gender kills people, That's true today; Manhunt just takes it to an extreme." [25] Alison Rumfitt's 2021 debut novel Tell Me I'm Worthless is a gothic twist on the horrors of marginalization, told from the perspective of a trans woman and her transphobic former friend. [26]

Author Jude Ellison S. Doyle, in It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, [27] drew a connection between traditional body horror depictions, which capitalize on a fear of feminine sexuality, and anti-transition rhetoric, which frames medical transition as a form of bodily mutilation. He emphasized that he hoped to see more mainstream body horror written from non-cis perspectives, writing

There is a difference between feeling uncomfortable with your own body and having others proclaim how uncomfortable they are with you, between the horror felt by a person and the horror caused by a monster. [28]

Novels with unintentional LGBT theming

Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs follows the investigation surrounding serial killer Buffalo Bill, who claims to be a transsexual woman. Transgenderism is not one of the novel's main themes, and a physician in the book clarified that the character is not actually transgender, simply mentally ill. However, after the novel was adapted to film, there was extensive criticism of the portrayal as being damaging to the public perception of transgender people. [29]

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Dracula</i> 1897 novel by Bram Stoker

Dracula is a 1897 gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. An epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, investigate, hunt and kill Dracula.

These lists of television programs with LGBT characters include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT themes in speculative fiction</span>

LGBT themes in speculative fiction include lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBTQ) themes in science fiction, fantasy, horror fiction and related genres.[a] Such elements may include an LGBT character as the protagonist or a major character, or explorations of sexuality or gender that deviate from the heteronormative.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) characters have been depicted in video games since the 1980s. Throughout the history of video games, LGBTQ characters have been almost nonexistent for a long time, reflecting the overall heteronormativity of the medium. While there has been a trend towards greater representation of LGBTQ people in video games, they are frequently identified as LGBTQ in secondary material, such as comics, rather than in the games themselves. Often, LGBTQ characters and themes, when they are included, are underrepresented, minimized, or watered down. Queer games and characters have also often found themselves being the subjects of cultural crossfires or moral panics. In 2018, Sam Greer of GamesRadar+ found only 179 games commercially released games with any LGBTQ representation, only 83 of which have queer characters who are playable characters, and only 8 of those games feature a main character who is pre-written as queer as opposed to them being queer as an option.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay literature</span> Literary genre

Gay literature is a collective term for literature produced by or for the gay community which involves characters, plot lines, and/or themes portraying male homosexual behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vampire film</span> Film genre

Vampire films have been a staple in world cinema since the era of silent films, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptation of vampire fiction has been from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, with over 170 versions to date. Running a distant second are adaptations of the 1872 novel Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. By 2005, the Dracula character had been the subject of more films than any other fictional character except Sherlock Holmes.

Steve Berman is an American editor, novelist and short story writer. He writes in the field of queer speculative fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotic horror</span> Subgenre of horror fiction

Erotic horror, alternately called horror erotica or dark erotica, is a genre of fiction in which sensual or sexual imagery are blended with horrific overtones or story elements for the purpose of sexual titillation. Horror fiction of this type is most common in literature and film. Erotic horror films are a cornerstone of Spanish and French horror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian vampire</span> Literary trope

Lesbian vampirism is a trope in early gothic horror and 20th century exploitation film. The archetype of a lesbian vampire used the fantasy genre to circumvent the heavy censorship of lesbian characters in the realm of social realism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisexual erasure</span> Dismissing or misrepresenting bisexuals in the public perception

Bisexual erasure, also called bisexual invisibility, is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay pulp fiction</span> Genre of pulp fiction literature

Gay pulp fiction, or gay pulps, refers to printed works, primarily fiction, that include references to male homosexuality, specifically male gay sex, and that are cheaply produced, typically in paperback books made of wood pulp paper; lesbian pulp fiction is similar work about women. Michael Bronski, the editor of an anthology of gay pulp writing, notes in his introduction, "Gay pulp is not an exact term, and it is used somewhat loosely to refer to a variety of books that had very different origins and markets". People often use the term to refer to the "classic" gay pulps that were produced before about 1970, but it may also be used to refer to the gay erotica or pornography in paperback book or digest magazine form produced since that date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian literature</span> Subgenre of literature with lesbian themes

Lesbian literature is a subgenre of literature addressing lesbian themes. It includes poetry, plays, fiction addressing lesbian characters, and non-fiction about lesbian-interest topics. A similar term is sapphic literature, encompassing works that feature love between women that are not necessarily lesbian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Stryker</span> American professor, historian, author, and filmmaker

Susan O'Neal Stryker is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, and founder of the Transgender Studies Initiative at the University of Arizona, and is currently on leave while holding an appointment as Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women's Leadership at Mills College. Stryker serves on the Advisory Council of METI and the Advisory Board of the Digital Transgender Archive. Stryker, who is a transgender woman, is the author of several books about LGBT history and culture. She is a leading scholar of transgender history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monster erotica</span> Erotic literature involving monsters

Monster erotica, also referred to as monster porn or cryptozoological erotica is a subgenre of erotic horror that involves sexual encounters between humans and monsters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of LGBTQ topics</span>

The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBTQ topics:

Bisexual literature is a subgenre of LGBTQ literature that includes literary works and authors that address the topic of bisexuality or biromanticism. This includes characters, plot lines, and/or themes portraying bisexual behavior in both men and women.

Homonormativity is the adoption of heteronormative ideals and constructs onto LGBT culture and identity. It is predicated on the assumption that the norms and values of heterosexuality should be replicated and performed among homosexual people. Those who assert this theory claim homonormativity selectively privileges cisgender homosexuality as worthy of social acceptance.

This is an index list of various lists of LGBT films split by decade, storyline and those made-for-television. Films directed by women, animated films as well as an alphabetical list of such movies are also included.

References

  1. 1 2 Garber, Eric; Lyn Paleo (1983). "Carmilla". Uranian Worlds: A Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror . G K Hall. p.  125. ISBN   978-0-8161-1832-8.
  2. 1 2 LeFanu, J[oseph] Sheridan (1872). "Carmilla". In a Glass Darkly . London: R. Bentley & Son.
  3. 1 2 LeFanu, J[oseph] Sheridan (1993). "Carmilla". In Pam Keesey (ed.). Daughters of Darkness: Lesbian Vampire Stories . Pittsburgh, PA: Cleis Press.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Healey, Trebor (May 28, 2014). "Early Gay Literature Rediscovered". Huffington Post . Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Jolene Zigarovich (2018). "The Trans Legacy of Frankenstein". Science Fiction Studies. 45 (2): 260. doi:10.5621/sciefictstud.45.2.0260.
  6. ↑ Garber & Paleo (1983). "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Uranian Worlds. p. 148.
  7. 1 2 Primuth, Richard S. (February 11, 2014). "Vampires Are Us". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide . Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  8. ↑ Schaffer, Talia (Summer 1994). "A Wilde Desire Took Me: The Homoerotic History of Dracula". ELH . 61 (2): 381–425. doi:10.1353/elh.1994.0019. S2CID   161888586.
  9. ↑ Stryker, Susan (2001). Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback . San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN   9780811830201.
  10. 1 2 Doyle, Dave (2009). "Conquering the Demon Within". In Drewey Wayne Gunn (ed.). The Golden Age of Gay Fiction. MLR Press. ISBN   978-1-60820-048-1.
  11. ↑ Michael Bronski, ed. (2003). Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps . New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN   9780312252670.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Keller, James R. (2000). Anne Rice and Sexual Politics: The Early Novels. McFarland. pp. 12–14. ISBN   978-0786408467.
  13. 1 2 Dyer, Richard (1988). "Children of the Night: Vampirism as Homosexuality, Homosexuality as Vampirism". In Susannah Radstone (ed.). Sweet Dreams: Sexuality, Gender, and Popular Fiction. London: Lawrence & Wishart Ltd. p. 64.
  14. ↑ "Submit to Anne". Salon.com. September 16, 1996. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  15. ↑ Maslin, Janet (November 11, 1994). "Film Review: Interview with the Vampire; Rapture and Terror, Bound by Blood". The New York Times . Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  16. ↑ James, Caryn (November 13, 1994). "In Search of the Man Within the Monster". The New York Times . Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  17. ↑ Butler, Judith (2014). "Animating Autobiography: Barbara Johnson and Mary Shelley's Monster". A Life with Mary Shelley. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford UP. pp. 37–50. ISBN   9780804791267.
  18. ↑ Cooper, Melody (2018-01-01). "Some-ness in No-When: Queer Temporalities in the Horror Genre". Theses, Dissertations and Capstones.
  19. ↑ May 2021, Marisa Mercurio Issue: 24 (2021-05-24). "The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate, translated by David Bowles". Strange Horizons. Retrieved 2024-04-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ admin (2021-06-22). "A Point of Pride: Interview with Billy Martin". Horror Writers Association. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
  21. ↑ Kelly, Hillary (2020-10-21). "Review: Not your average queer, meta-fictional spooky Victorian romp". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
  22. ↑ Baugher Milas, Lacy (July 15, 2022). "What Moves the Dead Is Delicate, Atmospheric, and Thoroughly Creepy". Paste Magazine.
  23. ↑ September 2021, Linda H. Codega Issue: 20 (2021-09-20). "Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo". Strange Horizons. Retrieved 2024-04-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ Gretchen, Felker-Martin. "Manhunt". Library Journal. Retrieved 2024-10-03.
  25. ↑ McBain, Liam (March 4, 2022). "In 'Manhunt,' a virus turns anyone with enough testosterone into a feral beast". NPR. Retrieved October 3, 2024.
  26. ↑ TheGothicLibrarian (2023-04-03). "Review of Tell Me I'm Worthless". The Gothic Library. Retrieved 2024-04-24.
  27. ↑ Vallese, Joe (October 4, 2022). It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror. The Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN   978-1952177798.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  28. ↑ "The Healed Body | The Conversationalist". www.conversationalist.org. Retrieved 2024-10-03.
  29. ↑ Romano, Aja (2021-02-16). "Understanding Silence of the Lambs' complicated cultural legacy". Vox. Retrieved 2024-10-03.
  30. ↑ "The Queer Horror Awards" . Retrieved 25 February 2018.
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