The Twilight of Vampires158Verbeia2017ISSN 2444-1333Año III,Número 2,158-173The Twilight of Vampires:Byronic Heroes and the Evolution of Vampire Fiction in The Vampire Diariesand Twilight
ISSN: 2444-1333
Year of publication: 2017
Issue: 2
Pages: 158-173
Type: Article
More publications in: Verbeia: Journal of English and Spanish Studies = revista de estudios filológicos
Abstract
Contemporary teenage vampire fiction has helped revitalize the genre by attracting a new generation of readers. In so doing, some changes have been introduced so as to make the figure of the vampire more appealing to a largely female teenage readership. Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the publication of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, this article analyzes how the Twilightseries and the earlier The Vampire Diariesby L. J. Smith update and modernize the Byronic hero on which vampires are largely modeled. It also explores the possible effects of this new characterization on readers’ minds and the alarm it has created.