Vampire films and the social construction of whiteness

This thesis explores the manner in which whiteness is represented and constructed in Western media through analysis of six narrative films about vampires. The study hypothesizes that vampire films have been underexamined as a site of contestation over the meanings of racial differences because they have been considered a "white" genre. Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model is used as the principal methodology, but other theories (e.g. semiotics) are used to explore the subtexts of the films. The study pays attention to the historical moment of the films' production and explores instances where race works in tandem with gender to construct Others.