Exploring Other-Than-Human Identity: A Narrative Approach to Otherkin, Therianthropes, and Vampires

• Published in: Qualitative sociology review : QSR Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 8 - 26
• Main Authors: Baldwin, Clive, Ripley, Lauren
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lodz Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego 2020; Lodz University Press; Uniwersytet Lodzki, Wydzial Ekonomiczno-Socjologiczny, Instytut Socjol
• Subjects: identity; narrative; otherkin; Social Sciences; spiritual identity; therians; Vampires; Vampires; Narrative Identity; Otherkin; Therians; Spiritual Identity
• ISSN: 1733-8077; 1733-8077
• DOI: 10.18778/1733-8077.16.3.02

Drawing on in-depth, narrative interviews with 24 self-identified Otherkin, Therianthropes, and Vampires, we explore how members of these communities navigate Bamberg’s three “dilemmatic spaces” or tensions of continuity/change, similarity/difference, and person-to-world/world-to-person fit. With regard to the first, we identify four aetiological narratives (walk-ins, reincarnation, trapped soul, and evolutionary soul), and discuss stories of shifts and awakening. For the second, we discuss how participants manage the similarity/difference tension with regard to themselves and humans, and explore categorical and renunciatory othering within the communities. Finally, we explore the ways in which members of the communities experience a barren narrative environment, and ways they seek to construct storyworlds and narrative resources as frames for establishing their identities.