Queer Imag(in)Ing: Liminality As Resistance In Lindqvist's Let The Right One In

This essay explores queer imag(in)ing by analyzing a contemporary vampire text, Let The Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist. As I argue, the rhetorical act of humanizing vampires is inherently limiting for (queer) audiences and indicative of processes that seek to clarify, assimilate, and tame*in short, normalize, which as Michel Foucault states imposes homogeneity by stamping out difference. Furthermore, I argue that a text can actively resist moments of normalization with the strategic use of what Victor Turner calls liminality*a (queer) rhetorical tactic that resists while seemingly/simultaneously buttressing a liberal humanist belief wherein difference is denied thus displacing and denying the significance of the Other.