Session 10(b): Wicked Undead

Session 10b: Wicked Undead
Chair: Kiki Benzon

Sublime Evil and Human Wickedness
Anne-Lise Perotto
University of Savoie, Chambéry Cedex, France

Reverend Charles Maturin is the author of two collections of sermons but is better known as the writer of the gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer. His first novel — Fatal Revenge ; or The Family of Montorio — belongs to the same genre.
It may seem paradoxical for a preacher to write horror tales. However, in his preface to Melmoth the Wanderer, Maturin states that the idea of the novel came from a passage in one of his sermons : « At this moment is there one of us present, however we may have departed from the Lord, disobeyed his will, and disregarded his word […] who would […] accept all that man could bestow, or earth afford, to resign the hope of his salvation ? — No, there is not one — not such a fool on earth, were the enemy of mankind traverse it with the offer ! ».
Melmoth the Wanderer is thus identified as the enemy of mankind. He comes to tempt the victims of human wickedness and relies on their own sinful nature to do so.
In Fatal Revenge a lesson on the inherent wickedness of human nature is also taught. The novel explores the dreadful consequences of jealousy and envy.
The message Maturin tries to convey through his novels or sermons is that no redemption is possible, but through faith. Furthermore, the two novels express the author’s need to represent evil as a well-delineated, easy to grasp, reassuringly personified notion. The very structure of his stories is meant to contain evil : they are made of embedded narratives that place evil at a safe distance, in a safe frame.
Yet, however clear Maturin’s aim in writing and his wish to circumscribe evil, a disquieting contradiction emerges from Melmoth the Wanderer. The answer to the Reverend’s rhetorical question in the sermon is that at least one human being, Melmoth himself, was ready to resign the hope of salvation. Therefore, others might be tempted to do the same.
Indeed, the characters in the novels cannot but be fascinated by sublime transgressors like Orazio or Melmoth, as is the reader. The novels, in spite of the author, transcribe an unnameable fascination for evil and point to its irreparably infectious nature.

1976: The Duality of Post-Modern Vampiric Evil and Identity in A. Rice’s Interview With a Vampire and G. Romero’s Martin
Sorcha Ni Fhlainn

In this paper I wish to discuss the post-modern vampire through the revisionist approaches of George A Romero in his film Martin and Anne Rice’s book Interview with a Vampire. Both of these critiques place the vampire in his post-modern place and identity crisis, which coincides with the demise of the vampire’s previous famous outings- the Hammer horror movies.
The status of the post-modern vampire is unique. The revisionist material from 1975 onwards (marking the beginning of the post-modern movement in vampire identity) creates and places the vampire at the core of his/her own story. This role dismisses the previous role of the vampire in literature and film as ‘the other’.
The role of the vampire is also treated in a sympathetic fashion. Rice offers a perspective that allows for historical revisionism and Romero explores the dualistic role of Vampire/Human. In the same year, two very different perspectives offer both similar post-modern vampire traits and exceptionally different explorations into vampirism as internalised evil, sexual frustration and severe isolation.
It is important in any field of study focusing on evil to focus on the correlation between God, Man and Vampire. While both Romero and Rice’s vampires encounter the clergy on their journey through vampire life, they regard their encounters very differently. The year 1976 has proven to be of supreme vampiric importance for political, social and cult-status reasons. Revisionist approaches to the vampire have leant themselves to the particular power and exploration of what the true nature of vampire evil is and offers many interpretation and answers. An important answer on the identity and crisis is found in these two cult critiques on post-modern vampires.

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Angels and Evil in Turkish Society and Postmodern Representations of Them Through Popular Television Texts
Ferruh Mutlu Binark
Gazi University Faculty of Communication, Ankara, Turkey

Recently on Turkish media it is a boom of new program format, focuses on mysterious cases and things. These programmes are named such as “Hearth File”, “Secrets Files” etc. Mostly, the narration is based on the struggle among the evil forces and the good human beings. By the aid of God and its angels, the good human beings survive from difficult situations and re-build their lives in the context of moral principles, which are described by Islamic doctrine. This paper will examine the reason of the boom of this type of programmes in Turkish popular television texts, and will try to grasp the reason of consuming by audiences by questioning the their texts. In the beginning of the story, the main characters are introduced in difficult situations such as poverty, sickness or hopelessness. These characters are also presented as human beings who are in essentially having good manner, but, because of grown up and living in consumption culture and decadent society they lost this good manner. On the other hand there are wicked human being who are leading the control of this decadent society and encouraging the expansion of the consumption culture in the society. These wicked human beings not only lead the social life, but also have a power to rule the political sphere by establishing social networks with politicians and pressure groups. These human beings are represented in the story as a partner of evil in the earth. Therefore their ruling power is recognized as wicked and immoral. As the story goes on, there is a struggle among the wicked and good human beings is developed. By the enlightenment progression, which is based on Islamic doctrine, carried by angels, the good human beings will gain the victory over the wicked forces at the end of, and will be awarded a prize, such as property, a good health or even serenity etc. In this paper it is claimed that the recent boom of this type programmes are related with the uneasiness of people in Turkish society due to unequal social and economical distribution of welfare and income, growing rate of unemployment and a lack of accessing cultural and social capital. Thus, these programmes play a role as both revealing the ongoing unequal relations in the social and political realms, and guide the audience to believe in justice, based on moral and religious doctrines, and carried by angels, not by either the legislators neither code of law.