EAN: 9783954890194

IN THE TWILIGHT OF PATRIARCHAL CULTURE THE STRU...

The book investigates Meyer s popular Twilight saga from a feminist point of view  focusing on
the development of Bella s character and her quest for identity in a rigidly patriarchal world.
Bella s life is entirely determined by the two central male characters who form a polarized
axis which slowly tears her apart. Bella s low self-esteem and her strong attachment to the
over-idealized Edward Cullen are read as symptoms of her placelessness in a world that does not
grant her space to develop as an autonomous subject. Bella s wish to become a vampire can be
equalled with a woman s desire to gain access to a higher social realm via her husband and
thereby escape her marginalisation in patriarchal culture. In order to live eternally in the
idealized  capitalist  patriarchal and overly religious world that Edward represents  Bella has
to make a series of sacrifices. Leaving her mother behind  she moves into a male dominated
world which is divided into morally idealized vampires and racially devalued werewolves. She is
forced to give up her friendship with Jacob Black  who represents her autonomous self  in order
to find her patriarchal pre-defined destiny as mother and wife. Similar patterns of
stereotypical representations of femininity can be found in various characters of the saga. A
more controversial note is brought in by Bella s half-vampire child who can be seen as a
destabilizing factor of the saga s rigid dichotomy. Taking all this into consideration  we have
to ask whether it is desirable that millions of young women worldwide admire Bella and set her
up as their role model.

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