Date of Award
Spring 4-20-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
May 2026
Department
English
College Granting Degree
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department Granting Degree
English
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Taryne Taylor
Abstract
This thesis examines how the vampire is reconstructed through a Black queer woman perspective to dissent from Eurocentric depictions of monstrosity and fear, transforming the vampire into a site of relationality, survival, and futurity in The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez and Fledgling by Octavia Butler. By focusing on three key compositions: kinship, temporality, and intimacy –this research argues that both texts reproduce the vampire through alternative modes of existence which thrive on chosen family, non-linear time, and reciprocal care. Gomez and Butler foreground ethical survival through care, pleasure, and mutual dependence rather than relying on an ideal pushed by heterocentricity –biological reproduction. Drawing on Afrofuturism, queer theory, and feminist theory, this thesis situates Black queer vampirism as a function and form of reworlding, disrupting and exceeding the confines of recognition and humanity.
Recommended Citation
Darwin, Dakota, "IMMORTAL BLACKNESS: BLACK QUEER DESIRE, KINSHIP, AND FUTURITY IN SPECULATIVE FICTION" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 298.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general/298