Suicide, depression and mental disorder in vampire fiction: when the world starts crumbling

ABSTRACT

This article examines the representations of mental and mood disorders, self-harming and suicide in the twenty-first-century vampire narratives, with a primary focus on Vampire Academy and Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. Through the fantastic world of vampires, dhampirs and other supernatural creatures, these internationally acclaimed literary series deliver a powerful account of young people struggling with mental challenges and explore a wide spectrum of mental and mood disorders typically veiled as magical conditions. Focusing on the experiences of both those afflicted and their loved ones, this essay looks into the ways in which the vampire tale speaks to the notion of ‘madness’, negotiating, reflecting and/or resisting its Romantic(ized) connections to the concepts of love, artistic creativity, gender and vampirism. Themes of mental illness, altered mental states and suicide continue to hold a fascination for the vampire genre today, bearing testimony to its Romantic origins. This article traces their presence in Mead’s series, exploring the ways in which the trope of ‘madness’ has been revamped and adapted to the needs of contemporary reader.

KEYWORDS:

• Vampire
• young adult
• suicide
• depression
• mental disorder
• Richelle Mead
• horror
• fantasy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for suggesting this addition, and for their valuable feedback on the earlier draft of this essay.

2. Both Reynolds (2007) and Kokkola (2011) offer astute analyses of non-fantasy literature for young readers regarding depression and self-harming.

3. For a detailed list of recent scholarly works considering mental health problems in YA literature, see Richmond (2019, 5–7). Furthermore, Packer (2017) contains various representations of mental illness in popular culture; however, texts marketed to young audiences are scarcely addressed.

4. On the therapeutic value of such stories, see e.g. (Bowman 2000). Other scholars, however, point to the potential triggering effect, e.g. of the depictions of self-harming (Kokkola 2011, 38).

5. Following the example of Richmond (2019), in this article mental disorder and illness are used interchangeably.

6. In her chapter in Girls’ Series Fiction and American Popular Culture, Darragh (2016) examines the figures of Lissa and her friend Rose as Third-Wave Feminism heroines. Although mental health does not function as the primary focus of Darragh’s study, a part of it is devoted to Lissa’s illness and Rose’s drug addiction.

7. Further emphasizing the urgency and relevance of mental health themes, in 2016 Mead published a short story ‘From the Journal of Vasilisa Dragomir’, offering readers a direct insight into Lissa’s mind through the entries in her diary.

8. In doing so, Rose fulfils what Kokkola identifies as one of the key objectives of self-harming literature for youth – ‘explaining the seemingly incomprehensible to bystanders who do not self-harm’ (Kokkola 2011, 35).

9. Adrian is explicitly described as a ‘brooding artist’ by several characters, with his college friend teasingly calling him ‘a poster boy’ for this archetype and wondering whether he takes classes to learn it (FH 44, 325).

10. Here, Faubert and Reynolds draw on Andrew Elfenbein’s Romantic Genius: The Prehistory of a Homosexual Role. New York: Columbia UP, 1999.

11. The trope of a vampiric creature attending therapy emerges also, e.g., in the first season of The Originals where the vampire lead compels himself a counsellor; or in the literary series Darkblood Academy by G.K. DeRosa, where a soul-sucking demon Ryder is admitted into a rehab facility with severe depression after having gone on a killing spree (Demons 2019).

12. In The Fiery Heart, Adrian himself unpacks the metaphor of ‘spirit’, wondering whether spirit-wielders become susceptible to mental illness because of their magic or whether they are drawn to spirit through already existing disorders (183–184).

13. On the Romantic understandings of suicide, see e.g. (Barry 2012 [1994], 73–77; Colt 2006 [1991], 174–176); Literature Compass 12 (12) (2015), special issue on Romanticism and suicide.

14. With the emergence of the highly popular, and equally controversial, teen drama 13 Reasons Why (Netflix 2017–present), the topic of suicide has gained more visibility within adolescent popular culture.

15. Complying with the rules of the genre, these and other vampire narratives revolve around the trope of resurrection. Hence, the characters who attempt suicide often do so with the intention of coming back, and/or are shown in parallel realities.

16. Years before, future vampire and Edward’s adoptive mother Esme jumped off of the cliff after the death of her baby – a suicide attempt that she ‘matter-of-factly’ relates to Bella in Twilight (Meyer 2007a[2005], 321).

17. The New Moon’s scene on the cliff, and its implied Romantic idea of a love-triggered suicide as the seductive ‘ultimate thrill’ (Colt 2006 [1991], 174–175), have resonated with other vampire stories for youth; see Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska, 2021, ch.3.).

18. A tendency otherwise widespread in YA novels considering self-harming (Kokkola 2011).

19. See Packer’s distinction between ‘madness’ as a social construct and mental illness as a medical category (2017, xx).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska

Dr Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska is a researcher and a lecturer at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her academic interests comprise young adult and popular culture, girlhood studies, gender representations, and the fantastic. Her recent publications includeGirls in Contemporary Vampire Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan 2021); ‘Lustful Ladies, She-Demons and Good Little Girls: Female Agency and Desire in the Universes of Sookie Stackhouse’ Continuum 33.2 (2019); Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture (Palgrave-Macmillan 2017; co-edited with Stephanie Green and David Baker).