Secondary Sources:
Infectious scholarship is infected by those who thought before.
On this page, you will find bibliographic information for scholarly sources that we found provocative, useful, or infectious, as well as brief annotations describing the content of the piece and our own reactions to it.
Si(g)ns of the Fathers (Anna Huger)
Williams, Anne. "Dracula: Si(g)ns of the Fathers." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 33.4 (1991): 445-63. University of Texas Press. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40754962>.
Williams explains the patriarchal tones set throughout Dracula. Even the tools used by the vampire hunter and the vicious way of using it show a sort of male dominance on vampires who represent the woman and some cases nature. According to the author, the vampire and women can be interchangeable in the eyes of a patriarchal mind who consider both "bloody, irra- tional, soulless, almost uncontrollable". This in turn makes the destruction of the vampires a symbolism of an attempt to destroy the independence and control women obtain.
Williams, Anne. "Dracula: Si(g)ns of the Fathers." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 33.4 (1991): 445-63. University of Texas Press. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40754962>.
Williams explains the patriarchal tones set throughout Dracula. Even the tools used by the vampire hunter and the vicious way of using it show a sort of male dominance on vampires who represent the woman and some cases nature. According to the author, the vampire and women can be interchangeable in the eyes of a patriarchal mind who consider both "bloody, irra- tional, soulless, almost uncontrollable". This in turn makes the destruction of the vampires a symbolism of an attempt to destroy the independence and control women obtain.
"Dracula: Stoker's Response to the New Woman"
Senf, Carol A. "Dracula: Stoker's Response to the New Woman". Victorian Studies. Vol. 26, No. 1 (Autumn, 1982): 33-49. JSTOR. Web. 12 April 2012. <http://0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/3827492>
in Senf's text, she goes into Bram Stoker's personal history and potential associations with the "New Woman", contrasting it with New Woman writers of the period, and uses a comparison between Lucy and Mina to show Stoker's apparent response. The sexual aggressiveness of the vampires (including the newly-turned Lucy) is, as we have discussed, depicted as "bad" and immoral; however, Mina's intelligence and wit compared to her companions shows women in a positive way, and the novel seems to be Stoker arguing that, while he looks down upon the overt sexuality considered a trait of the New Woman, he approves of their greater intellectual independance -- ESPECIALLY since she remains a background, supportive figure to the men in her life.
in Senf's text, she goes into Bram Stoker's personal history and potential associations with the "New Woman", contrasting it with New Woman writers of the period, and uses a comparison between Lucy and Mina to show Stoker's apparent response. The sexual aggressiveness of the vampires (including the newly-turned Lucy) is, as we have discussed, depicted as "bad" and immoral; however, Mina's intelligence and wit compared to her companions shows women in a positive way, and the novel seems to be Stoker arguing that, while he looks down upon the overt sexuality considered a trait of the New Woman, he approves of their greater intellectual independance -- ESPECIALLY since she remains a background, supportive figure to the men in her life.
The Mediation of the Feminine: Bisexuality, Homoerotic Desire, and Self-Expression in Bram Stoker's Dracula
(Kimberly Belgrave)
Howes, Marjorie. "The Mediation of the Feminine: Bisexuality, Homoerotic Desire, and Self-Expression in Bram Stoker's Dracula." JSTOR. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40754849>.
Throughout this article, Marjorie Howe’s digs and prods at the true meaning of Dracula – in which Stoker uses the females as a symbol not representation of themselves, but as the alternative male perspective. Throughout this reading, the idea that Stoker uses the females as the output of the insecurities that normal male possesses about his own sexuality. Also throughout the text claims that that the norm of male only revealing their masculinity is why the necessity of female representations is so derange and extreme throughout the text – the idea of male bisexuality within every man , because it is never discusses has somehow gain it the label of monstrous without even fully being aware of any important details.
Howes, Marjorie. "The Mediation of the Feminine: Bisexuality, Homoerotic Desire, and Self-Expression in Bram Stoker's Dracula." JSTOR. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40754849>.
Throughout this article, Marjorie Howe’s digs and prods at the true meaning of Dracula – in which Stoker uses the females as a symbol not representation of themselves, but as the alternative male perspective. Throughout this reading, the idea that Stoker uses the females as the output of the insecurities that normal male possesses about his own sexuality. Also throughout the text claims that that the norm of male only revealing their masculinity is why the necessity of female representations is so derange and extreme throughout the text – the idea of male bisexuality within every man , because it is never discusses has somehow gain it the label of monstrous without even fully being aware of any important details.
Vampiric Affinities: Mina Harker and the Paradox of Femininity in Bram Stoker's 'Dracula
Charles E. Prescott and Grace A. Giorgio. "Vampiric Affinities: Mina Harker and the Paradox of Femininity in Bram Stoker's 'Dracula." Victorian Literature and Culture Vol. 33. No. 2 (2005): pages 487-515
The article discusses Mina's and the novel's views of Mina's femininity. There is a lot of attention paid to how Van Helsing views Mina and what his actions towards her. It further discuses the differences and issues between the proper Victorian lady and the new woman and the complex relationship between the two ideas. An interesting idea it brings up is that there is no evidence to support that Mina is happy as a wife and mother and points out that the text repeatedly shows that Jonathan is an unreliable source.
The article discusses Mina's and the novel's views of Mina's femininity. There is a lot of attention paid to how Van Helsing views Mina and what his actions towards her. It further discuses the differences and issues between the proper Victorian lady and the new woman and the complex relationship between the two ideas. An interesting idea it brings up is that there is no evidence to support that Mina is happy as a wife and mother and points out that the text repeatedly shows that Jonathan is an unreliable source.
Racialization, Capitalism, and Aesthetics in Stoker's "Dracula"
Kristin Clarke-Cole
McKee, Patricia. "Racialization, Capitalism, and Aesthetics in Stoker's "Dracula"" NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 36.1 (2002): 42-60. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1346114>.
Patricia McKee’s main focus is the construction of modernized whiteness in relation to the production of capitalism and the idea of whiteness as a force to claim regenerative powers. Racialization becomes an addition to the growing economy. McKee explains that whiteness is a form of capital. Dracula evokes the racial other that Harker, Ven Helsing, and Seward try to repress, but at the same time trying to brainwash Dracula to reproduce the market logic of western culture. Dracula is reluctant to the capitalism idea by reason of his primitive and otherness identity. Jonathan Harker’s travel east is a representation of spreading the western capitalist culture and characterizing Transylvania as a primitive and underdeveloped area.
McKee, Patricia. "Racialization, Capitalism, and Aesthetics in Stoker's "Dracula"" NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 36.1 (2002): 42-60. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1346114>.
Patricia McKee’s main focus is the construction of modernized whiteness in relation to the production of capitalism and the idea of whiteness as a force to claim regenerative powers. Racialization becomes an addition to the growing economy. McKee explains that whiteness is a form of capital. Dracula evokes the racial other that Harker, Ven Helsing, and Seward try to repress, but at the same time trying to brainwash Dracula to reproduce the market logic of western culture. Dracula is reluctant to the capitalism idea by reason of his primitive and otherness identity. Jonathan Harker’s travel east is a representation of spreading the western capitalist culture and characterizing Transylvania as a primitive and underdeveloped area.
Meagan Gagnon
Senf, Carol A. "Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror." The Journal of Narrative Technique 9.3 (Fall 1979): 160-70. Department of English Language and Literature, Eastern Michigan University. <http://0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/30225673> Web.
In this article, Senf attempts to address the validity of the narrators. They, according to the article, are too subjective to hold any moral authority, and readers should question the true reason for their actions. The novel explicitly questions the narrators' objectivity, especially at the end when Harker claims that all they have is a mass of type writing. The story should not be seen as good overcoming evil, as the narrators would have readers believe, but rather society overcoming the individual. The article claims that when looking at the actions of the narrators, when destroying what they believed to be the immoral beings, they themselves took on the role of the other. For example, when killing Dracula, they almost victimize their prey, hurting the man in his sleep (exactly how he hurt his own innocent victims). The article also argues that each person that shows any sign of individuality, specifically Dracula, Mina, and Lucy, are ultimately punished for it. Their reasons, therefore, for wanting to harm Dracula are reasonably questionable.
"Foul Things of the Night": Dread in the Victorian Body
(Ariel Udel)
May, Leila S. "'Foul Things of the Night': Dread in the Victorian Body." The Modern Language Review 93.1 (Jan. 1998): 16-22.
May discusses Dracula, and specifically the body of the vampire, as an embodiment of Victoria anxieties about the maintenance of boundaries. She discusses the idea of blurred identities in the novel, specifically the figure of Van Helsing being both good and evil in his similarities to the Count. Additionally, the body of the vampire is equated with the body of the prostitute as site of transference and infection, where disease and other dangers to society are housed. May asserts that the vampiric body is a dumping ground for bourgeois anxieties about contagious breakdowns of the social body.
May, Leila S. "'Foul Things of the Night': Dread in the Victorian Body." The Modern Language Review 93.1 (Jan. 1998): 16-22.
May discusses Dracula, and specifically the body of the vampire, as an embodiment of Victoria anxieties about the maintenance of boundaries. She discusses the idea of blurred identities in the novel, specifically the figure of Van Helsing being both good and evil in his similarities to the Count. Additionally, the body of the vampire is equated with the body of the prostitute as site of transference and infection, where disease and other dangers to society are housed. May asserts that the vampiric body is a dumping ground for bourgeois anxieties about contagious breakdowns of the social body.
Hananh Van Deusen Ferris:
Source: ELH, Vol. 59, No 1 (Spring, 1992), pp. 197-225
Published by: The John Hopkins University Press
Stable Url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873424
"Purity and Danger: Dracula, the Urban Gothic, and the Late Victorian Degeneracy Crisis" - Kathleen L. Spencer
This article uses Dracula as a window into the literary world of the Urban Gothic. She proposes a "different kind of historical reading on Dracula to suppplememt the previous approaches" Her concern is 'less with Stoker's position as a representative late-Victorian man that with the novel as a representitive late-Victorian text." She goes about this through defining both the term and role of Dracula in the fantastic and introduces the reader to the idea of fantastic frissionwhich along side the new woman, allows the text to capitalize on its gothic presence. Seh suggests a victimology of Lucy and claims that sex functions as both a social and anti-social paradox in defining the individual within Dracula.
Catey Oakley
"Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula" by Charles S. Blinderman
The focus of “Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula” is that of how evolutionary theory and Darwinian thought can be applied to vampiric mythology. Blinderman speaks of how Vampires are mainly concerned with the flesh and life force, which harkens to the Darwinian theory of protoplasm, and how human beings are “protoplasmic machine[s] born to die” (424). Their purpose is to consume and absorb the life force of whatever they are eating and in turn change it into energy. Dracula uses his charm to entice people into letting him leech off of them, quite literally, draining them of their true life force, leaving them dead, otherwise bringing them into an exchange that then turns them into the same parasitic being. This parasitic lifestyle can be seen as “survival of the fittest,” according to Blinderman, and the supernatural element of it allows for Dracula to be seen as a Darwinian Superman.
Blinderman, Charles S. "Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula." The Massachusetts Review 21.2 (1980): 411-428.
"Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula" by Charles S. Blinderman
The focus of “Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula” is that of how evolutionary theory and Darwinian thought can be applied to vampiric mythology. Blinderman speaks of how Vampires are mainly concerned with the flesh and life force, which harkens to the Darwinian theory of protoplasm, and how human beings are “protoplasmic machine[s] born to die” (424). Their purpose is to consume and absorb the life force of whatever they are eating and in turn change it into energy. Dracula uses his charm to entice people into letting him leech off of them, quite literally, draining them of their true life force, leaving them dead, otherwise bringing them into an exchange that then turns them into the same parasitic being. This parasitic lifestyle can be seen as “survival of the fittest,” according to Blinderman, and the supernatural element of it allows for Dracula to be seen as a Darwinian Superman.
Blinderman, Charles S. "Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula." The Massachusetts Review 21.2 (1980): 411-428.
Ava Jaulin
The Narrative Method of Dracula
The Narrative Method of Dracula
David Seed
Nineteenth-Century Fiction
Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jun., 1985), pp. 61-75
Published by: University of California Press
In this essay the author, David Seed, studies Dracula with a stylistic lens. He analyses the huge success
the novel had when it cameout in 1897, except for Athenaeum, one of the only reviews to point out some
stylistic flaws, such as the sensational story and the 'grotesque' narrative. The author also show suprise at the
lack of literary criticism of the novel and the almost seemingly disinterest critics have shown towards it.
The Meditation of the Feminine
Roula Giokas
Howes, Marjorie. "The Mediation of the Feminine: Bisexuality, Homoerotic Desire, and Self-Expression in Bram Stoker's Dracula." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 30.1, Nineteenth-Century British Literature (1988): pp. 104-119. Print.
This article dives into the troubleshooting idea of bisexuality within the male characters of the novel based on the literary context of the actions within the novel. The underlying understanding by the actions from Dracula represent a homosexual undertone not only in Dracula but also in other works of Stoker’s as well. Dracula has relations with both male and female characters through the novel (Jonathon, Mina and Lucy). The intimate and lustful actions that he goes along with them act as a set of bisexuality within the novel.
Howes, Marjorie. "The Mediation of the Feminine: Bisexuality, Homoerotic Desire, and Self-Expression in Bram Stoker's Dracula." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 30.1, Nineteenth-Century British Literature (1988): pp. 104-119. Print.
This article dives into the troubleshooting idea of bisexuality within the male characters of the novel based on the literary context of the actions within the novel. The underlying understanding by the actions from Dracula represent a homosexual undertone not only in Dracula but also in other works of Stoker’s as well. Dracula has relations with both male and female characters through the novel (Jonathon, Mina and Lucy). The intimate and lustful actions that he goes along with them act as a set of bisexuality within the novel.
Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula
Blinderman, Charles S. "Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula." The Massachusetts Review 21.2 (1980): 411-428.
Simone Hartwell-Ishikawa
The article discusses the way Dracula assimilates the blood of others into his own body and thus becomes multiple people. The principles of Darwin can be attributed to Dracula for his taking in lesser beings and people of lower economic station and uses them to make himself stronger. Renfield also partakes in the eating of lesser creatures and through them the creatures that they have also eaten. Some of the energy he keeps to his lord while other energy is kept for himself.
Blinderman, Charles S. "Vampurella: Darwin and Count Dracula." The Massachusetts Review 21.2 (1980): 411-428.
“A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula” (Nick Rendon)
Stevenson, John Allen. "A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula." Modern Language Association, Mar. 1988. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/462430>.
“A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula” focuses on how sexuality in Dracula is representative of the fear of change in English society. Author John Allen Stevenson explains, “Dracula's pursuit of Lucy and Mina is motivated, not by the incestuous greed at the heart of Freud's scenario, but by an omnivorous appetite for difference, for novelty” (Stevenson 139). Not only does Dracula’s behavior mirror the behavior of the time, but it is also suggestive of the acceptance of the foreigner. During the time that Dracula was written Englishmen were skeptical/closed minded about foreign blood. Due to changing beliefs, this notion was slowly being introduced/accepted, which can be seen through Dracula’s dependence/obsession with women in the novel.
“A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula” focuses on how sexuality in Dracula is representative of the fear of change in English society. Author John Allen Stevenson explains, “Dracula's pursuit of Lucy and Mina is motivated, not by the incestuous greed at the heart of Freud's scenario, but by an omnivorous appetite for difference, for novelty” (Stevenson 139). Not only does Dracula’s behavior mirror the behavior of the time, but it is also suggestive of the acceptance of the foreigner. During the time that Dracula was written Englishmen were skeptical/closed minded about foreign blood. Due to changing beliefs, this notion was slowly being introduced/accepted, which can be seen through Dracula’s dependence/obsession with women in the novel.
Brooke Powers: The Narrative Method of Dracula Seed, David. "The Narrative Method of Dracula." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 40.1 (1985): 61-75.
This article focuses on the physical structure of the novel and the role that it plays in the telling of Stoker's Dracula. The article's author pulls apart and categorizes the text, labeling the different parts and pointing out how each section of the text functioned in the telling of the story. Seed also briefly mentions Stoker's manuscript and its original structure, which shows how Stoker had a very particular plan for how he would write his novel. This information about the original manuscript is significant because it shows that Stoker always had a blueprint for his work, meaning that down to the way each character writes in their journal and other details present in the novel were all purposefully placed in the story and should be studied with that significance in mind.
This article focuses on the physical structure of the novel and the role that it plays in the telling of Stoker's Dracula. The article's author pulls apart and categorizes the text, labeling the different parts and pointing out how each section of the text functioned in the telling of the story. Seed also briefly mentions Stoker's manuscript and its original structure, which shows how Stoker had a very particular plan for how he would write his novel. This information about the original manuscript is significant because it shows that Stoker always had a blueprint for his work, meaning that down to the way each character writes in their journal and other details present in the novel were all purposefully placed in the story and should be studied with that significance in mind.
"Dracula": Stoker's Response to the New Woman
Senf, Carol A. ""Dracula": Stoker's Response to the New Woman." Victorian Studies 26 (1982): 33-49. Indiana University Press. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. <http://0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/3827492>.
Emily Seymour
In this article, Carol Senf describes the characteristics of the New Woman by referencing the publications on the subject of various Victorian writers. She claims that Stoker allies himself with the traditional woman, citing Mina as his example of the perfect modern woman who still adheres to traditional morals and practices. In her analysis of why this is, she describes Stoker's relationship to his mother, wife, and the extramarital affairs he sustained after his wife stopped sleeping with him.
The destruction of Lucy symbolized for Senf the destruction of the New Woman (because Lucy exhibited intense sexuality she was likened to the New Woman).
The character of Mina displayed the ideal woman, because although she is resourceful, her primary concern is her marriage and her future children.
Emily Seymour
In this article, Carol Senf describes the characteristics of the New Woman by referencing the publications on the subject of various Victorian writers. She claims that Stoker allies himself with the traditional woman, citing Mina as his example of the perfect modern woman who still adheres to traditional morals and practices. In her analysis of why this is, she describes Stoker's relationship to his mother, wife, and the extramarital affairs he sustained after his wife stopped sleeping with him.
The destruction of Lucy symbolized for Senf the destruction of the New Woman (because Lucy exhibited intense sexuality she was likened to the New Woman).
The character of Mina displayed the ideal woman, because although she is resourceful, her primary concern is her marriage and her future children.
Melissa McCann 4/9/12:
Johnson, Judith E. “Women and Vampires: Nightmare or Utopia?” The Kenyon Review 15.1 (1993): 72-80. JSTOR. PDF file.
Popular mythologies of contemporary genre fiction about vampires tells us of what contemporary society dreams. Women authors, who have for so long represented alterity for men, refuse to narrate the vampire novel as being about a monstrous “other” out to dominate and control through predatory economic, racial, and sexual power. Instead, they narrate a strong and determined “self”, rising up out of society’s unconscious into the light of reason. What was socially or sexually unthinkable, what was therefore repressed as a nightmare, becomes desirable, becomes the norm, not only acceptable but utopian.
Johnson, Judith E. “Women and Vampires: Nightmare or Utopia?” The Kenyon Review 15.1 (1993): 72-80. JSTOR. PDF file.
Popular mythologies of contemporary genre fiction about vampires tells us of what contemporary society dreams. Women authors, who have for so long represented alterity for men, refuse to narrate the vampire novel as being about a monstrous “other” out to dominate and control through predatory economic, racial, and sexual power. Instead, they narrate a strong and determined “self”, rising up out of society’s unconscious into the light of reason. What was socially or sexually unthinkable, what was therefore repressed as a nightmare, becomes desirable, becomes the norm, not only acceptable but utopian.
Stevenson, John Allen. "A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula." Modern Language Association, Mar. 1988. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/462430>
Sarah Bauln.
Dracula represents the fear of interracial marriage that threatened the British during the peaking of their era of Imperialism. Vampirismis a form of feeding, love-making, and reproduction. Some parts of the novel describe Dracula as incestual, as in his relationship with the women that he tries to make his own through a resemblance of love, but then turns into his offspring through the act of vampirism. His obsession with Mina shows him trying to make him her own and forcing her to comply with his lifestyle. Because this lifestyle is unfamiliar, the British men fight hard to protect Mina from her straying from the British path and she even states herself that she would rather die than change. Thus, the proper English marriage of the time includes a man and a woman of different enough upbringing so as not to be kin, but similar enough upbringing so as to be English and not foreign; thus the proper English couple will reproduce more Englishman to carry on the power of their country.
Sarah Bauln.
Dracula represents the fear of interracial marriage that threatened the British during the peaking of their era of Imperialism. Vampirismis a form of feeding, love-making, and reproduction. Some parts of the novel describe Dracula as incestual, as in his relationship with the women that he tries to make his own through a resemblance of love, but then turns into his offspring through the act of vampirism. His obsession with Mina shows him trying to make him her own and forcing her to comply with his lifestyle. Because this lifestyle is unfamiliar, the British men fight hard to protect Mina from her straying from the British path and she even states herself that she would rather die than change. Thus, the proper English marriage of the time includes a man and a woman of different enough upbringing so as not to be kin, but similar enough upbringing so as to be English and not foreign; thus the proper English couple will reproduce more Englishman to carry on the power of their country.
Janine Perry: A Close Reading of "A Vampire in the Mirror"
Stevenson, John Allen. "A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula." Modern Language Association, Mar. 1988. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/462430>.
It comes as no surprise that this readable, interesting article has already appeared a few times in this blog; coincidentally, it is also one of the first hits on the JSTOR engine. The context, question, and argument of this article have been made elsewhere in on this page, but I will nonetheless summarize Stevenson's argument. He asserts that vampire sexuality is "revealed as inversion, parody, exaggeration, or even literalization" (Stevenson 142).
Stevenson presents intriguing ideas regarding the nature of vampires' appearance and its influence on their categorization as foreign entities. Both Dracula and Mina are scarred by the mortal vampire hunters, and Stevenson identifies this as "sign of membership in a homogeneous group" (141). This mark is indicative of the trappings of appearance that humans often use to strictly categorize one another. A Bindi, blond hair, dark skin, a burqa, a Hawaiian shirt--all are used to identify one group from another. Stevenson identifies the scar as one unmistakable brand of vampirism. By this logic, one could thus identify a new vampire by this scar. Ultimately, the scar is used as a distinguishing factor and thus incriminating evidence for fierce discrimination--in this case, staking and burning. It is these sorts of noticeable marks that signal a person's identity, which is too often used as criteria for judgement of character.
It comes as no surprise that this readable, interesting article has already appeared a few times in this blog; coincidentally, it is also one of the first hits on the JSTOR engine. The context, question, and argument of this article have been made elsewhere in on this page, but I will nonetheless summarize Stevenson's argument. He asserts that vampire sexuality is "revealed as inversion, parody, exaggeration, or even literalization" (Stevenson 142).
Stevenson presents intriguing ideas regarding the nature of vampires' appearance and its influence on their categorization as foreign entities. Both Dracula and Mina are scarred by the mortal vampire hunters, and Stevenson identifies this as "sign of membership in a homogeneous group" (141). This mark is indicative of the trappings of appearance that humans often use to strictly categorize one another. A Bindi, blond hair, dark skin, a burqa, a Hawaiian shirt--all are used to identify one group from another. Stevenson identifies the scar as one unmistakable brand of vampirism. By this logic, one could thus identify a new vampire by this scar. Ultimately, the scar is used as a distinguishing factor and thus incriminating evidence for fierce discrimination--in this case, staking and burning. It is these sorts of noticeable marks that signal a person's identity, which is too often used as criteria for judgement of character.
Stephanie Demetrakopoulos: Feminism, Sex Role Exchanges, and Other Subliminal Fantasies in Bram Stoker's "Dracula"
Abby Cone:
Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie. "Feminism, Sex Role Exchanges, and Other Subliminal Fantasies in Bram Stoker's "Dracula"." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 2.3 (1977): 104-113. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.
This article examines the roles of women in "Dracula" and the subliminal choices that Stoker made in writing them the way he did. The article is written from a feminist point of view about the attempt at feminism in the novel with restrictions and secret desires of Victorian society. By looking at the sexual domination over men that female vampires have, Lucy's more antiquated version of the female role, and Mina's representation of the "New Woman", Demetrakopoulos makes the argument that Stoker writes about simultaneous desires for male submission and male domination throughout his novel and discusses how that effects the popularity of the novel.
Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie. "Feminism, Sex Role Exchanges, and Other Subliminal Fantasies in Bram Stoker's "Dracula"." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 2.3 (1977): 104-113. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.
This article examines the roles of women in "Dracula" and the subliminal choices that Stoker made in writing them the way he did. The article is written from a feminist point of view about the attempt at feminism in the novel with restrictions and secret desires of Victorian society. By looking at the sexual domination over men that female vampires have, Lucy's more antiquated version of the female role, and Mina's representation of the "New Woman", Demetrakopoulos makes the argument that Stoker writes about simultaneous desires for male submission and male domination throughout his novel and discusses how that effects the popularity of the novel.
"Nonstandard Language and the Cultural Stakes of Stoker's "Dracula"" (Leah Smith)
Ferguson, Christine. "Nonstandard Language and the Cultural Stakes of Stoker's "Dracula""ELH Spring 71.1 (2004): 229-49. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/30029928>.
Ferguson is not on board with the strain of criticism that focuses on Dracula as simply an anxiety text founded on the horror of destabilization by Otherness. Instead, she reads the text as a commentary on the English language and how the diversity of speech, dialect, and mediation of this language overcomes the standardization and silence of vampirism. Ferguson places this reading in the context of a greater societal debate over the proliferation and diversification of English spurred on by its growing colonial influence and the propagation of written texts due to print media.
Ferguson sees Dracula as the epitome of attempted standardization, in his attempts to learn perfect English from Harker and through the affected formalism of his speech. She reads this as his thought to conquer/master the English through mastery of their language. However, when Dracula actually moves to England (far different from the quiet of Transylvania) he is faced with a variety of dialects and other mutated forms of English speech and is hunted by a group headed by VanHelsing, whose English is the most addled of all. While Dracula attempts to silence/standardize English by destroying written records, denying speech to his victims, and other activities, he is unable to conquer the divergent forms of language used by his hunters.
Ferguson’s reading sees Stoker’s text, with all is cacophonous voices, as upholding the need for mutation, variation, and adaptation in a very Darwinian sense that sees the stasis of standardization as death (or un-death as its connection to vampirism may suggest).
Ferguson is not on board with the strain of criticism that focuses on Dracula as simply an anxiety text founded on the horror of destabilization by Otherness. Instead, she reads the text as a commentary on the English language and how the diversity of speech, dialect, and mediation of this language overcomes the standardization and silence of vampirism. Ferguson places this reading in the context of a greater societal debate over the proliferation and diversification of English spurred on by its growing colonial influence and the propagation of written texts due to print media.
Ferguson sees Dracula as the epitome of attempted standardization, in his attempts to learn perfect English from Harker and through the affected formalism of his speech. She reads this as his thought to conquer/master the English through mastery of their language. However, when Dracula actually moves to England (far different from the quiet of Transylvania) he is faced with a variety of dialects and other mutated forms of English speech and is hunted by a group headed by VanHelsing, whose English is the most addled of all. While Dracula attempts to silence/standardize English by destroying written records, denying speech to his victims, and other activities, he is unable to conquer the divergent forms of language used by his hunters.
Ferguson’s reading sees Stoker’s text, with all is cacophonous voices, as upholding the need for mutation, variation, and adaptation in a very Darwinian sense that sees the stasis of standardization as death (or un-death as its connection to vampirism may suggest).
Emily Macri
Anne McWhir, “Pollution and Redemption in ‘Dracula,’"
Modern Language Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer, 1987), pp. 31-40
McWhir discusses how a text so focused on minute detail can contain such extensive blurring of categories. Dracula confuses the civilized and the savage and myth and science. Dracula pollutes Lucy and the other characters, bringing out violence and passion in them. The novel demonstrates that these so called civilized people are much more like Dracula than they believe. The pollution Dracula brings into the lives of the other characters disappears at the end of the novel, McWhir says, and they return to their former purity and clear categorical way of thinking. In this way, Dracula shows the victory of the modern and civilized over the primitive and savage and is connected to imperialism. Imperialist ends are achieved with power and blood and the ‘civilizing’ of other nations is exacted in a savage manner.
Anne McWhir, “Pollution and Redemption in ‘Dracula,’"
Modern Language Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer, 1987), pp. 31-40
McWhir discusses how a text so focused on minute detail can contain such extensive blurring of categories. Dracula confuses the civilized and the savage and myth and science. Dracula pollutes Lucy and the other characters, bringing out violence and passion in them. The novel demonstrates that these so called civilized people are much more like Dracula than they believe. The pollution Dracula brings into the lives of the other characters disappears at the end of the novel, McWhir says, and they return to their former purity and clear categorical way of thinking. In this way, Dracula shows the victory of the modern and civilized over the primitive and savage and is connected to imperialism. Imperialist ends are achieved with power and blood and the ‘civilizing’ of other nations is exacted in a savage manner.
Ben Urciuoli
A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of DraculaJohn Allen StevensonPMLA , Vol. 103, No. 2 (Mar., 1988), pp. 139-149
A Vampire in the Mirror" challenges the more traditional critique of Dracula's sexuality as representative of an incestuous lust by theorizing it is representative of interracial sex. Society, it argues, has always had a fear that the familiar should intermingle and mix with the "other", a fear often thought of in terms of race. Dracula can be read as a member of a different race seeing how often the novel focuses on his immediately recognizable traits (his high nose, pale skin with red details, the mark on his forehead given by Jonathan). The mark is especially telling as Mina receives a similar one when she has been tainted by the vampiric race. In this light the novel becomes less a story of keeping women from unrestrained sexuality and more the men of a society trying to keep the women of their race safe from foreign threat.
Andrew Jonas
Taylor, Judith. “Dracula Teeth.” Prairie Schooner 78.2 (2004): 143-144. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
The context of this article is sexuality and man’s power over women. Judith Taylor talks about a young girl having to please her husband or other men. Also that a girl doesn’t have to grow fangs in her mouth, fangs being the representing penetration. Finally those girls go through life with support, hence the braces, but in the end have to be able to do it themselves.