Deconstructing Dracula: The Reality Behind the Myth

Deconstructing Dracula: The Reality Behind the Myth PDF Author: Katharina Reese
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640774841
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Surveying English Literatures II: Epistolary Fiction, language: English, abstract: When we hear the name "Dracula", nearly everybody in our society today immediately thinks about vampires, horror and Transylvania. The material has been commercialized throughout the last century, dozens of different films and theatrical versions have been brought to life which concern themselves with the history of the dark count, the king of all vampires. The actual story is hereby often distorted, the themes of the novel forgotten and the material reduced to often rather cheap horror stories without the deeper aspects of repressed female sexuality or the threat of modernity that critics have dealt with so often. But what are the actual themes of the novel? In the following I want to explore some of the themes, taking into consideration a few papers by contemporary scholars, and then have a look at how far those themes have actually been constructed. And I want to start out by making the rather extreme claim, that there is no Dracula at all in the novel. What I mean by that will become obvious in the progress of my argument.

Deconstructing Dracula: The Reality Behind the Myth

Deconstructing Dracula: The Reality Behind the Myth PDF Author: Katharina Reese
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640774841
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Surveying English Literatures II: Epistolary Fiction, language: English, abstract: When we hear the name "Dracula", nearly everybody in our society today immediately thinks about vampires, horror and Transylvania. The material has been commercialized throughout the last century, dozens of different films and theatrical versions have been brought to life which concern themselves with the history of the dark count, the king of all vampires. The actual story is hereby often distorted, the themes of the novel forgotten and the material reduced to often rather cheap horror stories without the deeper aspects of repressed female sexuality or the threat of modernity that critics have dealt with so often. But what are the actual themes of the novel? In the following I want to explore some of the themes, taking into consideration a few papers by contemporary scholars, and then have a look at how far those themes have actually been constructed. And I want to start out by making the rather extreme claim, that there is no Dracula at all in the novel. What I mean by that will become obvious in the progress of my argument.

Transitions and Dissolving Boundaries in the Fantastic

Transitions and Dissolving Boundaries in the Fantastic PDF Author: Christine Lötscher
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643801858
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
By creating hybrid zones of autonomy, the 'fantastic' - a subgenre of literary works - provides alternatives to conventional understandings of the world, knowledge, or identity. The fantastic raises a number of significant questions about cultural and social developments, and challenges existing boundaries. With regard to fantastic fiction in literature and different media representations, the articles in this volume explore: crossings into other worlds, time travel, metamorphoses, hybrid creatures, and a variety of other transitions and transgressions. The book analyzes hybrid genres, inter-media adaptations, transpositions into new media, as well as various forms of crossover as exemplified in the increasing trend of generation-spanning all-age literature. (Series: Research in the Fantastic / Fantastikforschung - Vol. 2)

Deconstructing Bret Easton Ellis

Deconstructing Bret Easton Ellis PDF Author: Annette Schimmelpfennig
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476681309
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Riddled with intertextual references and notorious for their explicit portrayal of sex, drugs, and the occasional rock 'n' roll, the novels of Bret Easton Ellis reveal many layers. The novels are often accused of not making sense--but they instead make many senses. Their semantic complexity is obvious when put under a theoretical lens as provided by Jacques Derrida. His semiotic analysis, which focuses on the instability of meaning and is shaped by key terms such as differance, the trace, and the supplement, offers the ideal framework to look behind Ellis's obsession with surfaces. Aimed at aficionados of Ellis's works as well as students of contemporary American fiction and literary theory, this book discusses the central issues in Ellis's novels through 2019 and offers a new perspective for the practical use of Derrida's ideas. In order to ensure accessibility, a theoretical chapter introduces all the concepts necessary to understand a Derridean analysis of Ellis's fiction. As Rip says in Imperial Bedrooms: "It means so many things, Clay."

A Dracula Handbook

A Dracula Handbook PDF Author: Elizabeth Russell Miller
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1413480942
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Using question/answer format, the book covers: the origins of the vampire myth; the life of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula (1897); the novel, its genesis and sources; the historical figure (Vlad the Impaler) whose nickname Stoker borrowed for his Count; an examination of the connection between Vlad and Count Dracula; the impact the novel has had since its publication; and an overview of interpretations of the book. Included is a reading list. Some questions answered in the book: What are the roots of vampire lore? How did vampires move from folklore to literature? What do we know about the actual writing of Dracula? Where did Bram Stoker find his information about vampires? Are there any autobiographical elements in Dracula? Did Dracula originate in a nightmare? What do we know of the relationship between Stoker and his wife? Did Stoker die of syphilis? How did Count Dracula become a vampire? Does Count Dracula have any redeeming qualities? How was the novel Dracula received when published in 1897? What did Stoker himself say about the novel? Why did Stoker name his vampire "Dracula"? Why did he select Transylvania as the vampire's homeland? How much did Stoker really know about Vlad the Impaler? Was Vlad ever associated with vampire legends? What are our main sources of information about Vlad? Why do many Romanians consider Vlad to be a national hero? Which of the Dracula movies is the best adaptation of Stoker's novel? What impact has Dracula had on subsequent vampire fiction? Why does Count Dracula have such enduring appeal? How do Romanians feel about Dracula tourism in their country? Is there a real Castle Dracula? What are some of the interpretations of Dracula? Is Dracula a classic? And many, many more! Depending on the complexity of the questions, the answers range from 5-6 lines to several pages. -- from publisher description.

The Vampire Goes to College

The Vampire Goes to College PDF Author: Lisa A. Nevárez
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786475544
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
This collection of original essays presents pedagogical tools, methods, and approaches for incorporating the figure of the vampire into the learning environment of the college classroom, in the hopes of ushering the Undead out of the coffin and into the classroom. The essays foster interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue, and serve as a collective resource for those currently teaching the vampire as well as newcomers to vampire studies. Opening with a foreword by Sam George, the collection is organized around such topics as historicizing the vampire, teaching the diverse vampire, and engaging the student learner. Interwoven throughout the volume are strategies for incorporating writing instruction and generating conversations about texts ("texts" defined broadly so as to include film and other media). The vampire allows instructors to explore timeless themes such as life and death, love and passion, immortality, and monstrosity and Otherness.

Deconstructing Dracula: The Reality Behind the Myth

Deconstructing Dracula: The Reality Behind the Myth PDF Author: Katharina Reese
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640775031
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 21

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Surveying English Literatures II: Epistolary Fiction, language: English, abstract: When we hear the name “Dracula”, nearly everybody in our society today immediately thinks about vampires, horror and Transylvania. The material has been commercialized throughout the last century, dozens of different films and theatrical versions have been brought to life which concern themselves with the history of the dark count, the king of all vampires. The actual story is hereby often distorted, the themes of the novel forgotten and the material reduced to often rather cheap horror stories without the deeper aspects of repressed female sexuality or the threat of modernity that critics have dealt with so often. But what are the actual themes of the novel? In the following I want to explore some of the themes, taking into consideration a few papers by contemporary scholars, and then have a look at how far those themes have actually been constructed. And I want to start out by making the rather extreme claim, that there is no Dracula at all in the novel. What I mean by that will become obvious in the progress of my argument.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula PDF Author: Carol Margaret Davison
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1554881056
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Winner of the 1997 International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Best Non-fiction Book In 1897, Archibald Constable & Company published a novel by the unheralded Bram Stoker. That novel, Dracula, has gone on to become perhaps the most influential novel of all time. To commemorate the centennial of that great novel, Carol Margaret Davison has brought together this collection of essays by some of the world’s leading scholars. The essays analyze Stoker’s original novel and celebrate its legacy in popular culture. The continuing presence of Dracula and vampire fiction and films provides proof that, as Davison writes, Dracula is "alive and sucking." "Dracula is a Gothic mandala, a vast design in which multiple reflections of the elements of the genre are configured in elegant sets of symmetries. It is also a sort of lens, bringing focus and compression to diverse Gothic motifs, including not only vampirism but madness, the night, spoiled innocence, disorder in nature, sacrilege, cannibalism, necrophilia, psychic projection, the succubus, the incubus, the ruin, and the tomb. Gathering up and unifying all that came before it, and casting its great shadow over all that came and continues to come after, its influence on twentieth-century Gothic fiction and film is unique and irresistible." from the Preface by Patrick McGrath

Dracula and the Eastern Question

Dracula and the Eastern Question PDF Author: M. Gibson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230627684
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This book sets the writings of Merimee, Le Fanu, Stoker and Verne in the context in which they were written - namely the response to Balkan, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian politics. Gibson analyzes their works to reveal that the vampire acts as an allegory of the Near East through which constitutes a challenge to the 'orientalism' argument of today.

The Vampire in Folklore, History, Literature, Film and Television

The Vampire in Folklore, History, Literature, Film and Television PDF Author:
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476620830
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
This comprehensive bibliography covers writings about vampires and related creatures from the 19th century to the present. More than 6,000 entries document the vampire's penetration of Western culture, from scholarly discourse, to popular culture, politics and cook books. Sections by topic list works covering various aspects, including general sources, folklore and history, vampires in literature, music and art, metaphorical vampires and the contemporary vampire community. Vampires from film and television--from Bela Lugosi's Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood and the Twilight Saga--are well represented.

Willful Monstrosity

Willful Monstrosity PDF Author: Natalie Wilson
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476637261
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Taking in a wide range of film, television, and literature, this volume explores 21st century horror and its monsters from an intersectional perspective with a marked emphasis on gender and race. The analysis, which covers over 70 narratives, is organized around four primary monstrous figures--zombies, vampires, witches and monstrous women. Arguing that the current horror renaissance is populated with willful monsters that subvert prevailing cultural norms and systems of power, the discussion reads horror in relation to topics of particular import in the contemporary moment--rampant sexual violence, unbridled capitalist greed, brutality against people of color, militarism, and the patriarchy's refusal to die. Examining ground-breaking films and television shows such as Get Out, Us, The Babadook, A Quiet Place, Stranger Things, Penny Dreadful, and The Passage, as well as works by key authors like Justin Cronin, Carmen Maria Machado, Helen Oyeyemi, Margo Lanagan, and Jeanette Winterson, this monograph offers a thorough account of the horror landscape and what it says about the 21st century world.