Couture of the Corpse: Fashion, Class, Time, and the Undead in The Hunger

Abstract

When viewed from the lens of couture and class, the contemporary portrayal of the vampire as iconic in both sociopolitical and aesthetic spheres, and as icons of various subaltern, outsider, or what I call 'demimondeur' lifestyles, subcultures, and their attendant styles/fashions, offers an interesting analytical frame through which to examine the dialogic relationship between ideology, time, fashion, and class. Referring to Marxist thought concerning vampire capitalism and time, this chapter will discuss the issues and debates surrounding the portrayal of the figure of the vampire as what I will theorize to be a 'pure consumer', sociopolitical elite, and sociopolitical outsider, and its figuration of both the atemporality and spuriousness of ideology in The Hunger (1983). Using the Bauhaus post-punk couture or style of the undead in the film as an analytical frame, the methodology of this paper will be to perform a close reading of the film as a case study, focussing on its engagement with the sociopolitics, cultures, and phenomena of wealth, style, privilege, and time(lessnes).