Video 1: Bram Stoker and Dracula

Hello and welcome to week eight lectures on Bram Stoker's Dracula in today's session. I'm going to introduce, um, the Octa, the novel and discuss some of them, the Turing contacts and. Um, bring you up to the nature of this novel plot brand Stopka lived between 1847 and 1912. The Irish born writers brand Stoker is best known as the author of the Gothic horror tale, Dracula, this immensely popular one plan novel also enjoyed great success in several versions as a play and as a film. Unable to stand or walk as a child Stokab was bedridden until he was seven. Eventually he grew his weakness to become an outstanding athlete at the university of Dublin. He'd worked for 10 years in the civil service act, Dublin castle. During which time he also served as an unpaid drama Fredic for the Dublin male. After making the acquaintance of his idol, the actor. So Henry Irving Stopka became his manager. So then in that role from 78, 1878, until the actors deaths 27 years later, This set of details gives you a fair bit of context about the, uh, bringing our, uh, Bram Stoker. It also, uh, establishes to Gar as the figure, as the audience of who wrote this one pilot novel, which was immensely popular with the readers. You can see how he outgrew his physical record? No, he becomes an outstanding, um, and then he, uh, works as a dry mop critic. Yeah. Um, when can call docs as his workshop, uh, in, um, honing his career, uh, and critical skills. And then he works as the manager of the actors, Henry Irving. So all these help him to get immersed in the world of, uh, writing. So Henry Irene is widely acknowledged to be one of the inspirations for Dracula, which is why this actor is interesting to us now. Um, she is, um, the figure for him, for whom, um, Bram Stoker, what as a business manager. So he is thought to have inspired or ring is startup inspired the T the title character of the 1897 novel Dracula by stoke though. Stoker's first horror story. The chain of destiny was published in 1860 and the define, um, snake's parts. His first novel was published in 82 90 and in 1896 have in his master beads, regular appear to Dracula is Stoker's masterpiece. Um, soca wrote several other novels. Among them the mystery of the sea 1902, the 12 of seven stars, 1904, the lady of the shroud 1909. But none of them approached the popularity or indeed the quality of Dracula. He died in London on April 20th, 1912. So Stoker is known as the, of the, of Dracula. Dracula is his most important work. On the slide. You see the illustration of the first edition of Dracula by Bram Stoker. It was published on 16th, May, 1897 by Archbold, Constable and company in London and was of at six shillings. 1897 was a good year for one hires. Phillip burn Jones painting. The vampire was exhibit for the first time and caused a sensation with its depiction of a sexually alluring female one Pyre looming over approach straight male Rudyard Kipling inspired by Burne Jones. Painting wrote a poem called the vampire. The spiritualist and novelists Florence Marriott published a novel about psychic one bothersome called the blood of the vampire. And most enduringly of all Bram Stoker's iconic Flagler was unleashed on an unsuspecting Poplack. So. The set of information on the slide tells you about the various narratives that dealt with one Pius. Phillip Jones painting is, um, illustrated for you on the title slide. There is that's the illustration by the painting by. Phillip burn Jones. Um, one can see that several writers of that period, right? The turn of the century, um, it dressed, discuss the idea of one person. Um, the authors range from Kipling, uh, to, uh, Florence. And finally we have Brown Stoker's classic, uh, work directly. In fact, um, It's it's a bit, uh, interesting to see the use of the word uncertainty expecting by, um, uh, the critic, um, here. Um, it is slightly ironic because there are several narratives about one tire is being, um, this cost in the public sphere. So the public would have been prepared for such a narrative. Still goes, uh, chronic novel Dracula. The common design is simple, but striking. We are talking about this. How about design? The design is simple, but striking bold red lettering standing out against a yellow cover. Yellow was synonymous with the more adventurous and transparent elements of the Victorian in this Apple. It was the color used for the jackets of disrepute, the French novels during gray in Oscar Wilde's novel. The picture Dorian gray is the deals and poisoned by the content of a yellow book, usually taken as being a ribose by the French novelists. George is called, uh, she's mans. We are focusing on the color symbolism of this novel cover, um, design. It has on the yellow cover and yellow was traditionally associated with something that was extraordinary out of the ordinary adventurous and slightly outside the pale of respectability as well. So it was seen as transgressive, um, and, uh, this kind of color symbolism was particularly, um, Uh, relevant during the end of the century, Victorian Findex secular turn of the century. And in Oscar Wilde's novel. The picture of Dorian gray Oscar, um, during great, is supposed to happen to Jews by, um, book by the condensable yellow book. And that work is referenced there on the slide for you. So one can see that this novel is, um, Using certain cues, certain cultural cues to advertise it's confidence for them reading public, the quarterly periodical, the yellow book published from 1894 to 1897 with the distinctive illustrations by Albrey Beardsley became the designated embodiment of the transgressive spirit of the age. By giving Dracula a yellow cover, the publishers were deliberately aligning the novel with this more experimental and some many rather districts, beautiful form of literature. So in addition to, that's not a dome that we saw earlier mentioned in Oscar Wilde. That's the picture of Dorian gray. Likewise. Um, yeah, the yellow book itself, which was a quarterly periodical. And published from 1894 to 1897. Um, yeah, our suggestions of transgression, it, it became the embodiment, the representation of transgression of, um, rebellion, uh, in that, uh, uh, day and age. And, um, by giving Dracula that yellow cover, the publishers were. Uh, aligning this novel, putting this novel alongside what, such as the yellow book, the book that, uh, during gray reads and, um, other, uh, work, which refers, referenced on this yellow color to indicate it, um, radical non-conservative spirit. In addition to transgression and the idea of experimental, um, this holler and this, uh, this color had associations with the district putable of course. So, um, it is experimental regulars experiment at all. It is transgressive and more importantly, it is disputable and it is advertising all these qualities pretty loudly. Through its chews through it. Physical cues, Bram Stoker's Dracula published in may 80 97 is one of the outstanding works of Gothic literature. The story told in the form of letters and journal entries tapped into the fears, that hundred, the Victorian, and does the Apple in Dracula more than progressing Britain is madness to by decade our Socratic Europe. We see this work as belonging to got the literature. It has what they Cora there are mr. Descriptions of horror in this novel. So it definitely belongs to that category of what the Cora and it is the rate to, in the form of letters. Again, it's a Gothic tradition. We are reminded of Frankenstein. Um, and I'm very, very strongly Frankensteined because it also is nurtured in the form of letters and journal entries. And this work Dracula taps into the fears. It is it resting the inside. Does that haunts. This is idea of the tone of the century. And, um, Dracula seems to be a novel that shows. The attack on more than progressive society by very traditional decaying, our cigarettes, ER, up to of course, once again, the, the trope of the past emerging disrupting the precedent cause havoc is, um, communicated in this novel as well. Superstition is pitted against science. And wanting female sexuality in the guise of Lucy Westborough is contrasted with the traditional respectability of me. Now, Moray, the book is an imaginative toward the forest full of terrifying and dreamlike imagery, but it's roots like deep in the anxieties of late Victorian Britain. This novel, this novel Dracula is profoundly a discourse on the cultural anxieties of Britain, late Victorian Britain. Um, and it is a fantastic and powerful and experimental work that deals with these, um, ideas. On the one hand, there was superstition on another. We have signs, uh, become, um, Excessive female sexuality being represented by Lucy, Western and the traditional conservative ideas about respectability is represented by me not marae. So these contrasts make this novel a very, very potent not or no. Now let's look at the plot of this novel Dracula, a newly qualified lawyer, Jonathan Harker travels to meet a client count Dracula who in the remote Transylvanian mountains on the very edge of Christian Europe and the castle that has been the home of our Socratic family for centuries, the count wishes to discuss his plant, move to London. Parker soon learns that local superstitions against the account have some basis. In reality, Dracula is deeply feared and he seems to pray physically on the local population in some way. This is classic got back setting in a sec, M remote Transylvania mountains. It is a landscape that is. Isolated swim old far away. It's almost on the edge of Christian Europe. It's almost Ilian. It's all most pagan. And we have a castle at the heart of it. A castle that has been in the family for ages for centuries, there is a count and counts in Gothic, some blogs, Tara Hora, evil cruelty. And Harker soon realizes that there is some kind of a basis.
There is evidence it's for the kind of, um, superstitions that are associated with the, he is somehow, uh, exploiting and in some weeks bloating, uh, the people, the local population in some way, but we still are not very sure exactly as to the nature of, um, The kind of exploitation that is, um, happening her book, succumbs to brain fever and can no longer quite trust to census Dracula mixes inexhaustible. We do England arriving on a ghost ship in the Northern port of Whitby. The novel offers suggested glimpses of how he begins to pray on a local beauty. Lucy, you see vesting around who suffers. A strange wasting to see is that the professional men around her are unable to diagnose Harker falls sick there, a fever, um, from, but she's suffering and the fever I do have the fever again, takes us back to other narratives that we have read. For example, Catherine Linda Silva from fevers to fever itself has got the connotations. Dracula is successful in his migration to, um, England. He arrives at Whitby and he is praying on this local, uh, woman called, uh, Lucy. Nobody's able to find out as to the reasons for her sickness. And, um, a lot of mystery is woven around the character of Dracula. It's only after professor one Helsing arrives with an expertise in occult, lower as well as medicine that we learned that Dracula is a one Potter, not just a figure of Eastern European superstition, but a hard fight reality, a creature that sustained a half a life, a half life for centuries by sucking on the blood of the living. Those drained in turn become vampires. Dracula is deaf for the origin of an outbreak of a dangerous infection. Once professor, when Helsing is on the scene, some of the mystery is explained. People realize that Dracula is, is higher. And it's it's, it's not just a superstition. The ideal of the vampire. It's not just the Eastern European superstition. It's not just a figment of a wild man. It's not the stuff of legends, but it is a reality. This man Pyre sucks on the blood of the living and turns them into vampires. So threat secular becomes the origin of an infection, a contagious infection, a dangerous infection. The disbelieving men see Lucy revived and praying on young children. After her, after her repairing death, they're forced to kill her using a wooden stick through it through the heart. The second off half of the novel focuses on man Helsing and his friends working together expelled about buy from England, then the cheese and back all the way to translate where the killer starring victory for Christian Europe, over a dangerous enemy. Now Lucy w is preyed on by, uh, Dracula dies, but driven. It's a vampire and she in turn is praying on young children and those around her are forced to exterminate exterminator, kill her by driving a stick through her heart. It's got the corridor there right in front of you on the page. The second half of the novel is about Dracula, big chased away from England first. And when Helsing and his team, um, track him back to his, a home in Transylvania where they, um, kill him, they are triumphant in destroy him. Thus, um, victory is a chart by Christian Europe over this dangerous, uh, enemy over this dangerous Villan.


Video 2: Literary Contexts and Gothic Monsters
Now let's look at the context. The literary context for this novel, the romance revival of the 18th, eighties and 1890s. More explicitly in relation to the fantastic can be seen as a context for this, got the car. There are cultural context as well. Um, the later term world of imperialism and teacher, or it theories. Purity crusades. And the new woman material is Madison and it's continental psychology. And the one hand spur truism and assaulted uncle students on the other, all combined to produce this. Got the horror narco called Dracula, not the fry States dart. The Vermont is traditionally a cycle. Macaire a struggle between the forces of good and evil in which evil is defeated in the modern romance, sort of retains this. Pardon? The urban Gothic extends the traditional and the peculiarly modern way by defining the enemy, not as, not only evil, but unnatural. He, she, it has no right to exist at all. Catherine L spends it draws on the idea of Northrop fry in relation to the romance. The romance, according to fry is a fight between good and evil English. Evil is destroyed and, and the modern romance seems to follow this kind of pattern, but there's a slight change in relation to the urban Gtech. Where does this change come in? It comes in the representation of evil. This evil has no exists a right to exist. So the representation of evil becomes problem at all. It's in Gothic literature in Gothic narratives. This evil can be anything that is outside of the ordinary, outside of the norm. Let's let's talk more about this concept. Dracula is a classic example of the concert. Fantastic. In the end, dragon killed the alien element expelled and the ordinary world less toward, but what exactly is being expelled in particular, how its original audience had read the stuff novel in the cultural context of 80 97, what threat did Dracula represent that needed so desperately and at such cost to be driven out. What was the culture big instructed to protect itself. And from what the set of questions asked by Catherine L. Spence are very interesting. They're asked to think about the nature of Dracula. What is Dracula? What is it representing? What are the original audience protecting themselves from what kind of a contagion is regular? Is Dracula a representation of immigrants, uh, is Dracula a representation of the foreign is Dracula. The representation of the non-Christian is Dracula the representation of, um, sexual, uh, freedom. So questions proliferate in relation to, um, the idea of Dracula. As runny Gerard tells us in wildland on the sacred, what all sacrificial victims have in common is that they must recognizably belong to the community. But most of the same time be somehow marginal, incapable of fully participating in the social born slaves, criminals, the mag, the deformed, they are enough of the community to substitute for it. But between them and the community, a crucial social link is missing. So they can be exposed to violence without fear of reprisal there that does not automatically entail an act of renditions as sort of self sacrificing them and communal Wildlands rather than prolonging it. Catherine Catherine L. Spencer is using the concept of rainy dark, uh, in the work violence and sacred to, uh, for the light on the nature of it at drug dealer. This is extremely useful for us because we can also think through the ardor of cocktail Tim's by looking closely at. This set of information by Gerard in a community. So I've done marginal characters, such as slaves, criminals, the Mac, the default can be safely eliminated. These characters, slaves, criminals, mad. The deformed are like a community, but they're not exactly the community because there is a missing link. There is a missing link. They are not the norm. They are not the ordinary figure in society because of that missing link. One can commit Wylands against these characters, slaves, criminals, not deformed and stuff. Wildland will be useful to useful to the committee, unity where communal violence can be ended by. By this kind of Weiland's against the marginal figures. So this is interesting in terms of how we address. Look at understand Dracula Dracula is hunted down and eliminated, and we are wondering, left, wondering what does this character Dracula represent? What are the fears that are provoked by this strange figure, this strange fund pie of figure. There are also other WIC Tims within this network of victims that are not, um, particularly, um, the figure of Dracula himself become to that. Let's look at, um, Lucy westerner as it got the rectum in Dracula. I argued this, I referenced to Catherine and Ellen Spencer. Lucy westerner fills the category and the social function of the surrogate victim, who is sacrificed to restaurant a lost order on the surface. It would seem that Lucy belongs to the class. Victorians would find least sacrifice a bull rather than a most, uh, most, uh, young, beautiful watches girl. And that in any case, she is a victim, not of her own community, but of a monstrous outsider. So on the surface, she is a victim, not of our community, but of a monster just outsider, but let's look forward very closely to character and make other conclusions. Um, so she is young, beautiful what you is. Um, and she becomes, ah, a whipped him off an outsider, but is she a victim of the outsider or of the community is something that we can, um, Think about as well. You're given numerous indications that Lucy, for all her sweetness, purity and beauty is a marginal figure in the first place or social connections that are alarmingly tenuous. Her father is dead. Yeah. Has no brothers or other family to protect her, except her brother who is herself very weak, both psychologically and physically. And in fact, three diseases. Her daughter. There's no one to protect Lucy from attack or revenge, her death at the hands of her health, her own community. So there are socially ambiguous context for Lucy West neuron. Uh huh. It is no longer there. No brothers and the mother dies before her. So she is an orphan for all intensive purposes and there's nobody to protect Lucy. If there is attack on her. So this kind of social connections make her a marginal figure. Despite her sweetness, purity and beauty, more crucially Lucy's captors flawed in a way that makes her fatally weldable to the vampire. She is a woman whose sexuality is under very imperfect control. She is loved devotedly by three different young men, which in itself is not a fault, but her reaction to the situation reveals a problem. When she writes to me now about for seals, does she can't help gloating about three proposals in one day. So there is a crucial flaw to lose this character and that relates to her sexuality, which seems to be. And the imperfect control. She is not in control of her sexuality. She is not in control of her purity cheese loved by three young men, but that's not the problem. She is happy about that. She can't help boasting about it, uh, to MENA about three proposals. She received. Notice this decided to marry all three of her suitors, the only sign of Lucy suspect character. She is asleep Walker at habit traditionally associated with sexual looseness. She is deaf or doubly vulnerable to Dracula's approach. In the symbol system of the novel, she has signaled her sexual receptivity worse. He actually goes to the old metric alone and the grave of a suicide. The only sport of unsanctified ground in the church yard, the traditional equation of sexuality and death could hardly be cleared up, no invitation of dragging up more explicit. The third point against her is that she is a sleepwalker. She, um, She is somebody who is as an orphan. She does not have any male figures to, um, support her, to protect her dirty Winton's against her. And now we realize that she is asleep Walker, which is associated with sexual immorality. Therefore, when she goes to the church yard and especially to, uh, the place where a person who committed suicide was buried. Um, and that is unsanctified ground. That's not a blessing it's sport. And she goes there at night, sleep walking. She is in white day, the company of Dracula. So she is sending out all these cues, which make her. An outsider rather than an insider. She is in lighting the monsters company. So all these social cues are significant for us to analyze the nature of society as well. Thank you for watching. I'll continue the next session.