1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Sandra Tomc (essay date 1997)

SOURCE: “Dieting and Damnation: Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire,” in Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, edited by Joan Gordon and Veronica Hollinger, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, pp. 95-113.

[In the following essay, Tomc explores the cultural significance of female body image, androgyny, and self-abnegation in Interview with the Vampire. According to Tomc, “Rice modeled the vampire's transformation on one of the most powerful narratives of gender metamorphosis available to 1970s culture: the story of successful dieting.”]

At one point in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, the vampires Louis and Claudia journey to Eastern Europe on a quest to find others like themselves. Elegant, intelligent, and beautiful, Louis and Claudia are shocked to find that the fabled vampires of Romania are little more than zombies, rotten half-eaten...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Criticism
   1. Pat Hilton (review date 19 December 1982)
   2. E. F. Bleiler (review date 6 November 1988)
   3. Laurence Coven (review date 6 November 1988)
   4. Eric Kraft (review date 27 November 1988)
   5. Frank J. Prial (review date 11 June 1989)
   6. Angela Carter (review date 1 September 1989)
   7. Patrick McGrath (review date 4 November 1990)
   8. Rita Mae Brown (review date 18 November 1990)
   9. Barbara Frey Waxman (essay date Summer 1992)
   10. Carolyn See (review date 25 October 1992)
   11. Elizabeth Hand (review date 10 October 1993)
   12. Paul West (review date 24 October 1993)
   13. Douglas E. Winter (review date 9 October 1994)
   14. Ken Gelder (essay date 1994)
   15. Anne Rice with Mikal Gilmore (interview date 13-27 July 1995)
   16. Kevin Allman (review date 6 August 1995)
   17. Daniel Mendelsohn (review date 11 August 1996)
   18. Sandra Tomc (essay date 1997)
3. Further Reading
4. Copyright