The vampire Spike of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the latest in a long line
of a mbiguous but sympathetic vampires which have caught the public imagination,
stretching back to Polidori’s Byronesque vampire, Lord Ruthven. This
article argues that the vampire image that circulates across contemporary vampire
fan cultures is one that exceeds any individual depiction of the vampire; the
sympathetic vampire operates as a metatext for vampire fans who draw on textual cues
to interpret vampires sympathetically, even when the text itself does not. In the
case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the text overtly encourages a sympathetic
subtextual reading of Spike by linking his glamour, sex appeal and rebellion to a
hinted-at unseen suffering, which is easily recognized by fans. Fans read
Spike’s bad-boy pose as symbolic of hidden pathos. Indeed, the text adopts
conventions associated with fan fiction in order to encourage and sustain a
surrounding fan culture.
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