History of Gender Commons^™

Defining Ambiguous: Lesbianism And The Vampire In “Christabel” And Carmilla, Holly E. Reynolds

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Within vampire fiction, there exists a common narrative of a wide-eyed, innocent victim being pursued and then corrupted by a mysterious figure. At first glance, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Christabel" (1816) and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella Carmilla (1872) seem to adhere to this narrative. Both works feature young women, Christabel in "Christabel" and Laura in Carmilla, being pursued by vampires: specifically, female vampires. However, it can be argued that the young women in Coleridge's and Le Fanu's works are not victims; rather, they are liberated agents acting independently in their sexual lives. An analysis of ...