This Pivot traces the rise of the so-called "vegetarian" vampire in popular culture and contemporary vampire fiction, while also exploring how the shift in the diet of (some) vampires, from human to animal or synthetic blood, responds to a growing ecological awareness that is rapidly reshaping our understanding of relations with others species. The book introduces the trope of the vegetarian vampire, as well as important critical contexts for its discussion: the Anthropocene, food studies, and the modern practice, politics and ideologies of vegetarianism. Drawing on references to recent historical contexts and developments in the genre more broadly, the book investigates the vegetarian vampire's relationship to other more violent and monstrous forms of the vampire in popular twenty-first century horror cinema and television. Texts discussed include
Interview with the Vampire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries and
True Blood.
Reading the Vegetarian Vampire examines a new aspect of contemporary interest in considering vampire fiction. Introduction: Of vampires and vegetarians.- Chapter 1: Rat's blood and Rice: Interview with the proto-vegetarian vampire.- Chapter 2: 'What, they were all out of boils and blinding torment?': Chips, curses and choosing the animal-blood diet in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.- Chapter 3: Soymilk, sustainability and salvation in
The Twilight Saga.- Chapter 4: Banked blood and bunnies: Ethical predation in
The Vampire Diaries.- Chapter 5:
True Blood and fake vegans: Artificiality and the Anthropocene.- Conclusion: Vampires in the Anthropocene and Beyond.
Sophie Dungan is a teaching associate at the University of Melbourne and Monash University, Australia. Her primary research interests are in vampire studies, Gothic fiction, ecocriticism, food and Anthropocene studies.
