!!!This blog post will spoil both the story and real world context behind Le Fanu’s Carmilla!!!
( If you’d like to read the story as well as the context regarding the real story it was based on please find an edited copy, for example mine is the version edited by Carmen Maria Machado, I highly recommend it, pictures are included and the editing is lovely).
Carmilla, a vampire novella published in 1872, depicts the transgression of gender binaries, love between two women, and foreign culture and people as monstrous. Carmilla, a centuries old vampire who returns with a new identity to hunt young women, embodies the antithesis of proper womanhood and poses an active threat to innocent unmarried young women. The main character, Laura, expresses both an unexpected desire to be close to Carmilla and deep disgust with her assertive and masculine nature. Laura, who now lives in a country foreign to her, ascribes Carmilla’s odd behavior (hatred of christianity, sharp teeth, waking very late into the afternoon) to cultural differences.
It was discovered in 1973 that the author had stolen real letters written by a woman recounting her tumultuous romantic relationship with another woman, who in the end is killed for doing so. The real world “Laura” expresses sadness following her lover's death. Her letters make it clear that their relationship was consensual, romantic, and sexual, information that Le Fanu does not include in his stolen version of her story. Instead their romance is depicted as unnatural and predatory on Carmilla’s part and is reinforced by her biological need to prey on others to survive. Similarly to Lilith, Carmilla disrupts God’s intention for women as mothers. She takes their innocence while engaging in an intimate relationship that cannot produce offspring. In the end when Carmilla dies Laura is relieved, this contributes to the long list of queer love stories that (must) end in tragedy.
Carmilla is such an interesting story because of the real people behind it and its influence on vampires as a genre after. The predatory queer woman Carmilla is presented as is such an old stereotype, but it also features a lot of monster tropes, such as the taboo as desire. Vampires are often portrayed as creatures of lust and desire that will ultimately hurt those they prey upon. It's not hard to draw parallels between Carmilla and the lesbian pulp novels decades later that portray queer women as hunting to corrupt women (Like Satan is a Lesbian for example). As a lesbian myself, Carmilla is fascinating as its a perversion of a real love story, but it also was and remains so monumental to monsters and queer stories as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThis was really interesting. I've heard of the story of Carmilla before and seen her depicted in other shows but I never read the source material. Once again a man writes a book about something he stole from a woman and ruins it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing me to Carmilla! I had never heard of this story before, but I find the letters specifically interesting. I really like how you added the must in your description in parentheses because I totally agree with the fact that in most love stories with queer main characters, we find that they almost all end in tragedy.
ReplyDelete