DRACULA CONTEXT

Question 1

when did Bram Stoker visit Whitby?

Answer 1

1890

Question 2

why is Dracula quite religious?

Answer 2

Stoker was raised a protestant

Question 3

what aspect of the occult was Stoker interested in?

Answer 3

mesmerism - animal magnetism + control of animals

Question 4

how may stoker’s interest in the occult have manifested?

Answer 4

he was friends with J.W Brodie Innis , who was a member of the hermetic order of the golden dawn –> a society devoted to the study and practice of occult hermeticism

Question 5

which of stokers close friends is the count similar to? why?

Answer 5

Henry irving –> thought that stoker was a suppressed homosexual for Irving + he expressed this in his writing
- even named his son Irving

Question 6

who may have encouraged stokers open explorations of sexuality?

Answer 6

Walt Whitman - wrote ‘leaves of grass’ –> which openly explores sexuality

Question 7

which other writers was stoker close with?

Answer 7

Arthur conan doyle, Yeats, and Oscar wilde

Question 8

which Hungarian writer did stoker meet with and why?

Answer 8

Armin Vambery to discuss vampire folklore

Question 9

which non-fiction character was Count Dracula based off?

Answer 9

the 15th century prince Vlad Tepes/Vlad the Impaler

Question 10

which of stoker’s friends was an open homosexual?

Answer 10

Oscar Wilde - when he was arrested Stoker became far more homophobic - but so did Wildes lover, Posey Douglas

Question 11

which Dracula adaptation was released in 1922?

Answer 11

Nos Feratu

Question 12

when was Nos Feratu released?

Answer 12

1922

Question 13

what was significant about Nos Feratu?

Answer 13

very antisemitic - Count Dracula has exaggerated features: large ears and nose, heavy eyebrows

Question 14

when was the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of Dracula released?

Answer 14

1992

Question 15

which Dracula adaptation was released in 1992?

Answer 15

the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of Dracula

Question 16

what was significant about the Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of Dracula?

Answer 16

the costumes worn by the count were based in Armadillos, reptiles, rodents and insects

Question 17

what have vampires historically been used to do?

Answer 17

the vampire represents the fears of humanity - started with plague and death, then the foreign other, then homosexuality

Question 18

who heavily inspired ‘the vampire’?

Answer 18

Lord Byron - first vampire tale written was by John Pollidori
- he was aristocratic, bad, mad, and dangerous

Question 19

How does Max Nordaus theory of degeneration link to Dracula?

Answer 19

Nordau feared the “Dusk of the Nations” — the collapse of civilisation.
In Dracula, vampirism functions as a metaphor for:
racial contamination
reverse colonisation
the weakening of British bloodlines
Dracula literally invades Britain and spreads his “disease,” echoing Nordau’s fear of cultural and biological decline.

Question 20

link the sublime and human primivity

Answer 20

the sublimal rawness of isolated settings without civilisation forces humans back to their primitive roots
- exploration of ‘can we survive in nature’

Question 21

what was significant about Dracula being released in 1897?

Answer 21

this was the height of the brutish empires control

Question 22

what happened in 1895 which may have influenced stoker’s ideas behind Dracula?

Answer 22

• Sigmund Freud began publishing his theories of sexuality and the unconscious in 1895
• 1895 was also the year that Oscar Wilde, a product of the same Dublin society as Stoker, was prosecuted for homosexuality

Question 23

when was the term ‘New Woman’ was coined by Sarah Grand?

Answer 23

1894

Question 24

what and when was the decadent movement? who characterised it?

Answer 24

a cultural response to perceived societal decline, characterized by a fixation on decay, morbidity, and a rejection of traditional moral values.
- 1890s
- characterised by Oscar Wilde

Question 25

when was homosexuality outlawed?

Answer 25

1885

Question 26

who promoted the fear that the fear that civilisation was in decline due to biological change?

Answer 26

Nordau

Question 27

define the fin de siècle

Answer 27

the 'end of the century' (the 1890s), a period characterized by a mixture of sophisticated modernism and a deep-seated fear of social and moral decay - this would be brought about through degeneration and the crisis of faith

Question 28

define the new woman

Answer 28

a feminist ideal of women who sought education, professional careers, and sexual autonomy.

Question 29

what is the significance of technological modernity in the novel?

Answer 29

- The late 19th century introduced revolutionary technologies like the phonograph, typewriter, and shorthand, some of which appear in Dracula - these represent the Victorian attempt to categorize, record, and control the world through data and empirical evidence. - The use of modern travel (trains) and communication (telegrams) contrasts sharply with the slow, archaic world of the vampire, symbolizing the battle between the new and the old

Question 30

how is London transgressed?

Answer 30

through Transylvania: A wild, 'primitive' space of the past - contrasts The center of civilization and progress

Question 31

how is the angle of the home transgressed?

Answer 31

the angel of the home is Submissive and nurturing - The 'Vampire' is Predatory, sexualized, and dominant

Question 32

how is science transgressed?

Answer 32

through use of the Occult Lore, which is Based on tradition, blood, and ritual

Question 33

define atavism

Answer 33

the tendency of reversion: for example, people in the modern era reverting to the ways of thinking and acting of a former time - or people reverting certain phenotypes