Three themes emerged from this stimulating conference. First, Stoker's Dracula is masterpiece and should be recognized as a work of literature rather than relegated to the Gothic genre. At the same time, the Stoker oeuvre is much larger and his other works deserve a wider recognition and appreciation. Secondly, the early short stories and novels contain seeds that came to full fruition in his most well-known novel, and that a reader can find in some of those works the influence of his early life, in his short stories Under the Sunset the writing of his mother on the 1830's cholera epidemic. Finally, and perhaps most important, authors of future Stoker studies need to be more rigorous about limiting themselves to empirical evidence (as little as there may be) in relating Stoker's life to his fiction and relying less on speculation.
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Book Announcement
June 2011, Encompass Editions released my first book, That Line of Darkness: The Shadow of Dracula and the Great War, the first of two volumes. I take as my starting point Gothic novels, most notably Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray to explore the class, race and gender tensions in late nineteenth century Britain.
Drawing upon Gothic conventions—the demonization of the other, the use of the uncanny, psychic vampirism and the compulsion of blood purity or national purification—I draw connections between Dracula and Jack the Ripper, Robert Baden-Powell and Oscar Wilde, and among other linkages, the similarities between Dracula and an electrifying piece of journalism about underage girls lured into prostitution. Whereas, the first three sections of the book focus on the fin-de-siècle, Part Four illuminates the Great War and its aftermath through the prism of these Gothic conventions.Our understanding of war fantasies, national propaganda, the ghastly conditions of the trenches, the often barbaric treatment of emotionally-damaged soldiers and the power of spiritualism is enriched by examining them through Gothic filters. In sum, an exploration of the Gothic can be a valuable tool for offering fresh historical insights into the heated emotions generated by peace time controversies and the threads that connect them to the war.
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| From Hell |
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| Picture of Dorian Gray |
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| The Island of Dr. Moreau |
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| Nosferatu |
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| Arthur Conan Doyle and wife at seance for their son |
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