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  • The Atlantic

    At Its Core, the ‘Twilight’ Saga Is a Story About ________

    A field guide to the many, many intellectual movements that have laid claim to “Twilight”
    by Ashley Fetters Nov 15, 2012 5 minutes

    banner_bella.jpg

    Summit Entertainment

    TO THE NAKED EYE, IT MAY APPEAR THAT: The Twilight saga is a story about love. And vampires. And family. And abstinence. And racism. And the founding of the Mormon faith. And orphans, in a really weird way.

    BUT ACCORDING TO SOME EXPERTS WHO THOUGHT REALLY HARD ABOUT THIS: Twilight is a story about all of these things. And more things.

    Since the series’ debut in 2005, multitudes of thinkers and scholars have claimed to know the real, profound meaning behind Stephenie Meyer’s famous vampire-romance novel series. This tends to happen sometimes when books ignite widespread consumption and discussion: Just run a quick Google search on “The Great Gatsby is a story about” if you need further proof. But the degree to which Twilight has been analyzed, re-analyzed, reframed, and close-read makes it something of a lit-crit Choose Your Own Adventure story.

    So because Breaking Dawn—Part 2, the final film in the mega-selling Twilight movie franchise, comes to theaters this weekend, it might be wise to decide just what strain of liberal arts-y interpretation you subscribe to. Take your pick: Twilight and its sequels are one big story about …

    The power (and powerlessness) of women.

    It’s arguably the most notorious complaint about : That meek, indecisive teenager Bella Swan may be something of a sketchyexpressed some concern in a story called (amazingly) “.”

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