Fantasising Masculinity in Buffyverse Slash Fiction: Sexuality Violence, and the Vampire | Virginia Keft-Kennedy

Summary: Vampires, Vamps and Va Va Voom | Virginia Keft-Kennedy <a name="virginia-keft-kennedy" id="virginia-keft-kennedy"><strong>Fantasising Masculinity in Buffyverse Slash Fiction: Sexuality, Violence, and the Vampire</strong></a> The phenomenon of homoerotic fiction known as 'slash' is a form of fan-generated erotic literature which centres on the relationship between two or more same sex characters appropriated from the realm of popular television. This paper concentrates specifically on the slash fictions derived from Joss Whedon's cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. In particular, it explores the ways in which the authors of "Buffyverse" slash discursively conceptualise masculinity, male desire, and sexuality. My chief concern here is to examine how masculinity is constructed and constituted at a textual level through the trope of the vampiric. In doing so, I address the complex issues surrounding the ways in which writers of slash convey the figure of the vampire through the lenses of romance, sexual violence, and homosocial bonding in the representation of the television series two vampire protagonists, Angel and Spike. Virginia Keft-Kennedy holds a PhD from the University of Wollongong, NSW Australia. Her research focuses on the representation of gender and sexuality in popular culture with a particular emphasis on the dancing body. Virginia recently published her article “‘How does she do that?’ Belly Dancing and the Horror of a Flexible Woman” in Women’s Studies (Vol 34, No.3-4, 2005: 279-300). Her other research interests include the intersections between gender and race in literature, theories of the grotesque, queer theory and sexuality studies, popular culture and television studies, and vampire studies.