Sins of the Blood: Rewriting the Family in Two Postmodern Vampire Novels

Abstract

Postmodern vampire novels often concern themselves with issues surrounding Western family life. In this article I will compare the presentation of family violence in Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls (1992) and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Sins of the Blood (1995). Brite's radical subversion contrasts interestingly with Rusch's appeal to less radically reinscribed, liberal values. These novels position their characters in sub­urban locales, where traditional family dynamics and upbringings are the accepted norm and where the inequalities of these structures are perpetuated. This traditional milieu, with its veneer of order, is often shown to be the breeding place of psychoses and antisocial behaviour, and of cycles of inherited violence. Whereas Rusch's liberal critique stops here, a key example of the genre's radical potential is Brite's ex­ploration of self-chosen and unorthodox family structures as a subversive option to the violence of the hegemonic norm. The inherently subversive, proximate, queer figure of the vampire acts as a catalyst for this interrogation, playing the role, in its chameleonic fashion, of any family member, from abusive father to alluring sister, or standing on the margins of human society and subtly making us compare it to ourselves.

Opsomming

Postmoderne vampierromans gaan dikwels oor kwessies wat op die Westerse gesinslewe betrekking het. In hierdie artikel vergelyk ek die voorstelling van gesins­geweld in Poppy Z. Brite se Lost Souls (1992) met Kristine Kathryn Rusch se Sins of the Blood (1995). Brite se radikale omverwerping kontrasteer op interessante wyse met Rusch se pleidooi vir minder radikaal heringeskrewe, liberale waardes. Hierdie romans speel af in voorstedelike gebiede, waar tradisionele gesinsdinamiek en opvoeding die aanvaarde norm is en waar die ongelykhede van hierdie strukture bly voortbestaan. Die tradisionele milieu, met sy dun lagie orde, word dikwels uitgebeeld as die bakermat van psigoses en antisosiale gedrag en van siklusse oorgeerfde geweld. Rusch se liberale kritiek eindig hier, maar Brite se verkenning van selfverkose en onortodokse gesinstrukture as 'n ondermynende opsie vir die geweld van die hegemoniese norm is 'n sleutelvoorbeeld van die genre se radikale potensi­aal. Die inherent ondermynende figuur van die vampier dien as katalisator vir hierdie verkenning, en soos 'n verkleurmannetjie speel dit die rol van enige gesinslid, van afbrekende vader tot verleidelike suster, of staan dit op die grense van die menslike samelewing wat ons subtiel dwing om dit met onsself te vergelyk.