MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Jim Butcher’s best-selling Harry Dresden series currently numbers 15 books and draws on terrifying classic vampires like Dracula, rejecting more attractive undead like Lestat, Edward Cullen or Anita Blake’s lover Jean-Claude (in Laurell Hamilton’s 26-book series). Hamilton’s world develops by gradual accretion; new kinds of were-folk and vampires are added little by little to the vampires, ghouls and zombies of the first book. In contrast, the world of Butcher is complicated from the outset, with Harry Dresden defining himself amidst a rich mix of wizards, fairies, pixies and vampires. These vampires are primarily evil, grotesque members of the Red and Black courts whose modus-operandi is rape and outright violence. Later, we get to know beautiful White Court vampires, who, like fairies, are more nuanced, and, it turns out, related to our hero. In past work on vampires in Rice, Meyer and Hamilton, I used the theories of psychologist Melanie Klein to suggest the undead represent an opportunity for readers, in relating to a protagonist, to engage with the atmosphere of greed permeating our world. This also applies to Harry Dresden; his struggles with vampires have significance in their own right, but here the undead are integrated into a complex world, appearing among other vehicles transmitting the psychological struggles of the twenty-first century. Word-frequency analysis shows that Butcher represents Dresden’s development in the series through a complex ever-evolving narrative structure involving themes of anger and balance. The resulting pattern allows the author to portray growth in the hero without having him achieve perfection too early in the series. Thus, the novels incorporate a psychic structure permitting the development of the main character through his interactions with various adversaries and helpers. A study of Butcher’s vampires allows us to see the narrative patterns an author can construct across a series of books.