Written for Handbook of the Vampire by S. Brooke Cameron, the Chapter Page can be found here.
This was another HotV chapter looking at Le Fanu’s Carmilla, this time looking at the original text and specifically around the queer context and the political reading as it pertains to the Irish politics of the time. There is no doubt that the text has a very obvious queer reading but the chapter explores that within its historical context. On the Irish question there is a full discourse on the Protestant/Catholic tensions, the question of home rule and Le Fanu’s own political positioning, which the author suggests was, at best, uncertain.
The author looks comparatively at Carmilla against the other stories within In a Glass Darkly, touching also on Le Fanu’s Spalatro, from the notes of Fra Giacomo and looking briefly at the forward influence on with Dracula. By looking firmly at the nineteenth century the chapter proves an excellent companion to the Carmilla and the Daughters of Darkness chapter.
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