Synopses & Reviews
Stephanie Meyers Twilight series has enjoyed astounding commercial success, not just with adolescents as originally intended but with a wide and diverse audience, yet the cultural and literary contributions of these novels have been largely overlooked. This dynamic volume reveals how the Twilight series has fundamentally altered our interpretations of vampires. These essays bring together a broad range of perspectives on the vampire series, from gender issues to the genre of Gothic fiction to environmental concerns. Ultimately, this compelling collection provides insights on how we can better “read” popular culture and loosen the restrictive boundaries between pleasure and intellectual pursuit along the way.
Review
“A timely collection of scholarly essays on Stephanie Meyers enormously popular Twilight series which, for better or for worse, has fundamentally altered our reading and understanding of vampires . . . a valuable resource for academics and non-academics alike, not only to trace the cultural and literary impact of the Twilight series, but also to help provide clear literary analysis and cultural contextualization.”--Franz J. Potter, Associate Professor, National University
“Shattering the notion that Twilight is not worthy of academic study, Bringing Light to Twilight offers diverse array of approaches to the saga from a wide range of disciplines. An illuminating analysis of the series, this anthology is a discerning response to the Twilight phenomenon and a must-read for scholars of popular culture, media studies, and literature.”--Natalie Wilson, author of Seduced by Twilight: The Allure and Contradictory Messages of the Popular Saga
Review
"This collection offers some thought-provoking and worthwhile contributions to anyone interested in Twilight scholarship . . . Some chapters will be accessible to fans and scholars alike . . . Given this mix, it seems likely that the collection will be of some interest to those beyond as well as those within academe." - Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
Synopsis
The astounding commercial success of Stephenie Meyers Twilight series, not just with adolescent girls (as originally intended), but with a large and diverse audience, makes interpreting their underlying themes vital for understanding the ways that we perceive and interact with each other in contemporary society. Literary critics have interpreted vampires from Stokers Dracula to Rices Lestat in numerous waysas symbols of deviant sexuality; as transgressive figures of sexual empowerment; as xenophobic representations of foreigners; as pop culture figures that reveal the attitudes of the masses better than any scholarly writingand the Twilight saga is no exception. The essays in this collection use these interpretative lens and others to interrogate the meanings of Meyers books, making a compelling case for the cultural relevance of Twilight and providing insights on how we can “read” popular culture to our best advantage. The volume will be of interest to academic and lay readers alike: undergraduates, graduate students, and instructors of childrens and young adult literature, contemporary U.S. literature, gothic literature, and popular culture, as well as the myriad Twilight fans who seek to explore and re-explore the novels from a variety of angles.
Synopsis
The essays in this collection use the interpretative lens to interrogate the meanings of Meyer's books, making a compelling case for the cultural relevance of Twilight and providing insights on how we can "read" popular culture to our best advantage.
About the Author
Giselle Liza Anatol is Associate Professor of English at the University of Kansas and the editor of two previous books, Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays (Praeger 2003) and Reading Harry Potter Again: New Critical Essays (Praeger 2009). She has published extensively on representations of motherhood in contemporary Caribbean literature, and representations of race and ethnicity in contemporary children's literature. She has blogged about her research into the Twilight phenomenon for the University of Stirlings web forum, “The Gothic Imagination.”
Table of Contents
Introduction—Giselle Liza Anatol *
Part I: Literary Contexts, Past and Present * The Wolf in the Woods: Representations of ‘Little Red Riding Hood in
Twilight--Margaret Kramar * Textual Vampirism in the
Twilight Saga: Drawing Feminist Life from
Jane Eyre and Teen Fantasy Fiction--Kristen Deffenbacher and Mikayla Zagoria-Moffet * Serial Experiments in Popular Culture: The Resignification of Gothic Symbology in
Anita Blake Vampire Hunter and the
Twilight Series--Carole Veldman-Genz *
Twilight, Translated--Kim Allen Gleed * Variations, Subversions and Endless Love: Fan Fiction and the
Twilight Saga--Maria Lindgren Leavenworth * True Blood Waits: The Romance of Law and Literature--Meredith Wallis *
Part II: Gender and Sexuality * Wake Up, Bella! A Personal Essay on
Twilight, Mormonism, Feminism, and Happiness--Tammy Dietz * "When you kiss me, I want to die": Arrested Feminism in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the
Twilight Series--Rhonda Nicol * One is not born a vampire, but becomes one: Motherhood, Masochism, and Male Mothering in
Twilight--Merinne Whitton * Of Monsters and Men: Toxic Masculinity and the 21st-Century Vampire in the
Twilight Saga--Tracey Bealer * The
Other Edward:
Twilights Queer Construction of the Vampire as Idealized Teenage Boyfriend--Joseph Somers and Amy L. Hume *
Part III: Class, Race, and Green Space * 'Embraced' by Consumption:
Twilight and the Modern Construction of Gender--Michael Goebel * Fashion Sucks…Blood? Clothes and Covens in
Twilight and Hollywood Culture--Angie Chau * Trailing in Jonathan Harkers Shadow: Bella as Modern-Day Ethnographer in Meyers
Twilight Novels--Joo Ok Kim and Giselle Liza Anatol * The Great American Love Affair: Indians in the
Twilight Saga--Brianna Burke * Green is the New Black: Ecophobia and the Gothic Landscape in the
Twilight Series--Tara K. Parmiter