Media Erotics & Adaptation: A Comparative Textual Analysis of Carmilla

This project is concerned with understanding the different ways in which Carmilla (1872), a gothic novella, and it’s 2014 web series adaptation differently approach the same basic narrative, especially with regards to their respective representations of individuals who identify as sexual and gender minorities. One of the major functions of importance in this study was to understand the temporality and cultural conditions, which lead to the perceived need for a postmodern adaptation of a pre-modernist text. Through textual analysis, the author compared J. Sheridan Le Fanu\u27s Carmilla (1872) to Jordan Hall\u27s adaptation (2014). In this analysis, significant differences existed between the original text and the adaptation of Carmilla. This paper argues that with an understanding of media erotics and queer narrative theory, critical audiences can better identify the arguments media creators make about the nature of queerness and marginalized identity within the media products they consume. Implications for further research include the recognition of Carmilla (2014) as an example for the ways in which media representations of queerness are changing, as well as a call for further research on the current state of queer representations in more mainstream media outlets