Killing the Hot Vampire: Gender, Camp, and the Stakes of Desire in Nineteenth-Century Vampire Fiction

Authors

• Ella G. Kehr, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

First Advisor

Peter J. Capuano

Committee Members

Adrian Wisnicki, Shari Stenberg

Date of this Version

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Citation

A thesis presented to the faculty of  the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 

Major: English 

Under the supervision of Professor Peter J. Capuano 

Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2026 

Comments

Copyright 2026, Ella G. Kehr. Used by permission

Abstract

This thesis examines the representation and destruction of the Hot Vampire in nineteenth-century vampire fiction, focusing on Dracula (1897), Carmilla (1872), and The Blood of the Vampire (1897). It argues that these texts construct the female vampire as a figure of excessive sexuality, independence, and deviance which causes both societal (patriarchal) and narrative disruption. In the male-authored texts, the construction of the Hot Vampire is exaggerated beyond the neat bounds of gothic excess and monster theory. The destruction of these vampires also follows this unbound extravagance. The Hot Vampire’s death becomes the ritualized restoration of patriarchal order, which is often staged through theatrical or bureaucratic scenes of corrective violence. Drawing on Susan Sontag’s theory of camp, this thesis argues that such exaggeration transforms these narratives into unintentional camp, which reveals masculine authority as performative. By contrast, Florence Marryat’s novel rejects camp in favor of medical diagnosis, in which she presents vampirism as a gendered and hereditary condition rather than supernatural abnormality. The tragic fate of Harriet Brandt, who dies by suicide rather than phallic staking, exposes the cruelty of the patriarchal systems that these male-authored texts are reaffirming. This thesis argues that the Hot Vampire becomes the embodiment of cultural anxiety, demonstrating fears of unrestrained sexuality and medical diagnoses, and where the violence used to “correct” women reveals patriarchal insecurity rather than moral necessity.

Advisor: Peter J. Capuano