Fanpire: The Twilight Saga and the Women Who Love it

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Description

An author immerses herself in the frenzied fandom of Twilight, the young-adult vampire romance series that has captivated women of all ages Twilight, Stephenie Meyer's young-adult vampire romance series, has captivated women of all ages, from teenagers who swoon over the film adaptations to college-educated women who devour the novels as a guilty pleasure. All told, over 110 million copies of the books have been sold worldwide, with translations into 37 languages, and the movies are some of the highest-grossing of all time. Twilight is a bona fide cultural phenomenon that has inspired a vast and unimaginably fertile fan subculture-the "fanpire," as the members describe it. Just what is it about Twilight that has enchanted so many women Tanya Erzen-herself no stranger to the allure of the series-sets out to explore the irresistible pull of Twilight by immersing herself in the vibrant and diverse world of "Twi-hards," from Edward-addition groups and "Twi-rock" music to Cullenism, a religion based on the values of Edward's family of vegetarian vampires. Erzen interviews hundreds of fans online and in person, attends thousand-strong conventions, and watches the film premiere of New Moon with Twilight moms in Utah. Along the way, she joins a tour bus on a pilgrimage to Twilight-inspired sites, struggles through a Bella self-defense class, and surveys the sub-universe of Twilight fan-fiction (including E. L. James's enormously popular "Master of the Universe" story, the basis for her erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey). Erzen also takes a deeper look at the appeal of traditional gender roles in a postfeminist era saturated with narratives of girl power. If Twilight's fantasies of romance and power reflect the fears, insecurities, and longings of the women who love it, the fanpire itself, Erzen shows, offers a space for meaningful bonding, mutual understanding, and friendship. Part journalistic investigation and part cultural analysis, Fanpire will appeal to obsessed fans, Twilight haters, and bemused onlookers alike.

Reviews

A thought-provoking and entertaining take on the Twilight phenomenon.
Publishers Weekly

Tanya Erzen ventures into the Twilight zone in this compelling and ultimately sympathetic foray into fan culture, exploring the appeal of Stephenie Meyers Twilight books and movies in a postfeminist age. Erzen argues that what fans do with a text is as important as, or even more important than, the text itself. Part Cinderella Ate My Daughter and part Reviving Ophelia, Erzens book is my own personal brand of heroin.
Jana Riess, author of What Would Buffy Do and Flunking Sainthood

Tanya Erzens Fanpire provides a much-needed portrait of the girls and women who love Twilight. From how the series appeals to girls and womens ideas of pleasure, power, and romance to the ways in which the love of these books has forged communities and friendships among women, Erzens window onto these subjects is both sympathetic and critical. Fanpire is sure to fascinate and, at times, trouble anyone interested in the lives of girls and women today.
Donna Freitas, author of Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on Americas College Campuses

In this carefully researched and insightful account of Twilighters, TwiMoms, WussPerv writers, and other participants in the Twilight universe,Tanya Erzen explores the complicated waterways of Twilight fandom. Listening and engaging with fans of all ages, Erzens account of the Twilight empire and the girls and women who love it opens up new ways of thinking about the gendered dimensions of romance, the persistence of the genre among female fans, and the perils and potential of online and offline female fandom.
Carol Stabile, author of White Victims, Black Villains: Gender, Race, and Crime News in US Culture

The Twilightphenomenon is too vast and strange to be ignored. Tanya Erzen digs deep into the fandom and finds the confused, the grasping, and even the self-assured amongthem. Its always odd, like a horror book should be, but never boring.
Amanda Marcotte, author of Its a Jungle Out There

Author Bio

Tanya Erzen is an associate professor of comparative religious studies at Ohio State University. Her work has appeared in the Nation, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post. She is the author of Straight to Jesus- Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement, which won the Gustave O. Arlt Award and the Ruth Benedict Prize.She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and a visiting scholar at the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. She lives in Seattle.