Vampirism as a (Timeless) Image :
an Interpretation of Angela Carter´s Radio Play Vampirella

by

Sabrina Kreppel

WiSe 2001/2002

Table of contents

1. Introduction  1

2. Outer Structure  3
2.1. Main Structural Features  3
2.1.1. Time  4
2.1.2. Place  5
2.1.3. Action  7
2.1.4. Characters  8
2.2. Radiophonic Elements  10
2.2.1. Words and Voices  10
2.2.2. Non-verbal Utterances, Pauses and Silences  11
2.2.3. Music and Sound Effects proper  12
2.2.4. Technological Features  12

3. Central Themes & Conflicts  14
3.1. Introductory : Vampirella vs. Cinderella  14
3.2. The Radio Play as a Serio-Comedy  16
3.3. The Meaning of Love and Redemption  17
3.4. Vampirism as a (Timeless) Image  19

4. Conclusion  22

5. Literature List  23

1. Introduction

Thinking about the success of the scaring black-and-white movies with the famous vampire ‘Dracula’ in the 1950’s, the popularity of ‘The Small Vampire’ Rüdiger in the 1980’s or the effect of modern versions like ‘Interview with the Vampire’ or ‘Buffy – the Vampire Slayer’ nowadays, it appears that people never get enough from mystic, sometimes a little bit horrified stories about vampires, wolves and werewolves, dark castles, everlasting life & beauty and more things, which could neither be explained nor proved in reality.

The British prose author and feminist philosopher of English literature Angela Carter (*1940 – 1992) knew the great fascination of folkloric material like fairy tales and superstitious legends well; and she made it to one of her favourite subjects of her literary work. With numerous, renewed fairy tales, novels, short stories, plays and verses she satisfied peoples’ desire for gothic and surrealistic stories diverting them from every-day-life. Due to the fact that the British Broadcasting Corporation’s radio plays had flourished in Britain after the Second World War and a lot of people enjoyed listening to them, Angela Carter paid attention to this sub-genre of drama and wrote several radio plays, too. Her first radio play Vampirella - broadcasted on 20th July 1976 in Radio 3 - was born as such. Even a quick listening (or rather reading) of the radio play reveals, that the serio-comedy Vampirella offers a lot of interesting aspects which cannot be seen immediately, but should be recognised by all means. This interpretation focuses on its peculiarities, which originate from the problematic theme of Vampirism on the one hand and the composite art of the young medium radio on the other hand. Moreover, it is a text-centred interpretation that analyses the text and not the author’s intention or the individual impression.

Beginning with the obvious, the formal interpretation of structural features as time, place, action and characters and the radiophonic elements, the analysis will shift to the central themes and conflicts of the radio play. Above all the topic of Vampirism as a (Timeless) Image will appear again and again. Having been provided with various quotations from Vampirella it should be possible to get a sense of Angela Carter’s unmistakable style and to imagine the female-interpreted story in mind, although the real radio listening experience is missing.

2. Outer Structure

Like every other literary genre a radio play has - of course - an outer structure. This one is determined by a number of formal elements, which are important and integral parts of the overall meaning of the text. Usually, the main structural features to be described and interpreted are time, place, action and characters. But in case of Vampirella or any other radio play, it is advisable to add the medial aspect of the production - namely the radiophonic elements - to complete the interpretation of the outer structure.
The subsequent sections will have a closer look at these elements and if necessary, point out general remarks on radio drama, too.

2.1. Main Structural Features

For most literary scholars and critics the radio play is only a ‘minor’ version of a stage play – and yes, of course, it is a sub-genre of drama, but it is far more than that. A radio play has its own distinguishing and structural features, which have influence on the text and therefore on the interpretation as well. More than television or plays on stage, it is concentrated on the spoken word and provokes the imagination of the audience. A radio play is an exclusively auditive, a purely mental, an individual and a private experience. Referring to these points, the difference towards the classical drama, which is an audio-visual group experience performed as the idea of one inspired director, should be obvious. Because of the concentration on essentials in a radio play, it is rarely divided in many different acts or scenes, but structured within through pauses and changes of place and/or action. These feature could be found in Vampirella, too (see 2.1.3.). In order to comprehend the basic conditions, the features time, place, action and characters are analysed in greater detail, as follows.

2.1.1. Time

In contrast to narrative prose or poetry, a radio play is an experience in time. When it is performed on radio, one has to go on listening unstoppably - that demands a high degree of attention and concentration to follow radio plays. For that reason most of them do not exceed a length of 60-80 minutes discourse time, like Vampirella. Due to the fact that its concrete time takes more than one night, namely the time span from the “early evening” (Carter, 1985 : 100) over “midnight” (id.: 109) till the next “glorious morning” (id.: 115), an unity of time is not possible, because some sequences of time are skipped.

As just stated, the story plays during night time. The fragments “Night and silence.” or “…only comes out at night.” from the hero’s speech (Carter, 1985 : 86), the reference to “ a nightbird” (id.: 86) and “no moonlight” (id.: 87), the greeting “Good evening” (id.: 91) or simply the fact that the countess is awake and says : “Usually I wake about nightfall.” (id.: 101), indicate this time in the text. Every other choice of time would have been incredible, because the vampires image intends them for acting during night and darkness (see 3.4.).

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