Department of English

This project examines how gender shapes the representation and critical reception of queer narratives in Dracula and Carmilla, asking why male-coded queer narratives have historically received greater scholarly and cultural attention than female-coded queer narratives. Through close reading, the project identifies queer subtexts in scenes of desire and transgression, while a comparative analysis places the two texts in conversation to examine differences in tone, narrative framing, and characterization. A reception study further analyzes critical scholarship and cultural engagement to investigate disparities in academic and popular responses. The analysis suggests that both texts construct the vampire as a queer, destabilizing figure that threatens Victorian heteropatriarchal order; however, female and male queerness are represented unequally. In Carmilla, female queer desire is hyper-visible and punished, whereas in Dracula, male queerness is obscured and contained through narrative control and reaffirmations of masculinity. These gendered dynamics persist beyond the texts themselves, shaping their reception: Dracula is privileged while Carmilla remains comparatively marginalized. Ultimately, the project argues that the Vampiric Gothic does not represent queerness neutrally but structures it through gendered hierarchies. Recognizing how Victorian gender bias continues to shape both the texts and their reception highlights the need for a comparative, gender-conscious approach to expose ongoing imbalances within literature.