“A Nice Vampire Girl”: Vampirism, Hybridity, and Symbiosis in Octavia Butler’s “Fledgling”

Octavia Butler is famous for her alternative narratives that manage to provide critical readings of the present and to be prescient about future technological and social developments. “Fledgling,” her last work, was published at the beginning of the vampire craze that took over movie, theaters, and TV slots in the 2000s. However, the novel follows no traditional plots and expectations. Her vampires are mortal, her main character is black and female, and there is no typical heteronormative love/marriage plot. Instead, she offers an Afrofuturist vision, in which vampires live harmoniously with human symbionts and hybridity is not disfavored. The aim of the present research is to evaluate the level of harmony existent in a symbiotic relationship and to uncover the many layers hybridity is endowed with.