1
Q
What were Ledger Luckhurst’s concerns about the new woman and fin de siecle?
A
- the new woman marks an apocalyptic warning of the dangers of sexual degeneracy
2
Q
What was the new woman associated with?
A
- free spirited, educated, uninterested in marriage and children - threatened the conventional Victorian ideal of womanhood
- in Dracula - the new woman is cast as a sexual predator
- sociocultural anxiety surrounding the reversal of gender roles at the end of the 19th century
- smoking/drinking - defying set domestic structures - materialised alongside the ‘dandy’
- objects of intense public scrutiny - feared the defiance of the angel of the house
3
Q
What was the Fin De Siecle?
A
- term coined by Nordau in his work - Degeneration - ‘a sort of decadence and rejection of moral boundaries’
-end of the 19th century saw a rising fear that society was degenerating + reaching an apocalyptic point - end of the good times, beginning of evil + chaos - pessimism + anxiety
- mainly blamed on immigration + fear of infiltration of ‘pure’ English blood
4
Q
What fears were prevalent during the 1890s?
A
- overcrowding + poverty
- widespread unemployment
- humiliating defeat in the boer war
- homosexuality
- loss of faith
- new woman
- questioning set institutions + morality
5
Q
19th century asylums
A
- prisoners than hospitals
- patients were beaten for long periods of time
- people treated as outcasts
- people able to pay to see patients - a source of entertainment
- majority of people labelled as insane were women - ‘hysteria’
6
Q
Freudian theories
A
- Thanatos - death drive - an obsession with aggressive/harmful behaviours that will eventually lead to death - could maybe explain Renfield
- ## Madonna/Whore complex - theory that men place women into 2 categories, Madonna + the whore - maybe Lucy and mina fit this
7
Q
Studies on Hysteria, 1893
A
- pre Dracula’s publication - explained hysteria mostly associated with women
8
Q
Victorian attitudes to death of beautiful women:
A
- the death of a beautiful woman was ‘unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world’-
- Edgar Allan Poe’s Philosophy of Composition
9
Q
Victorian attitudes to death:
A
- death of Prince Albert in 1861 - changed the way grieving works
- grief was displayed as a grand show - queen Victoria went into mourning for 8 years
- being buried alive was a huge fear amongst Victorian society
10
Q
Physiognomy
A
- basis for scientific racism - medieval practice that came back in the 19th century
- Cesare Lombroso - proposed that the ‘born criminal’ could be distinguished by physical features, such as high cheekbones, handle shaped ears (basically the appearance of Dracula)
11
Q
Medicinal Theories
A
- idea that semen flowed through the body of men
12
Q
Attitudes towards sapphic relationships/lesbianism
A
- friendships between women were sometimes ambiguous - women would exchange love letters etc but society overlooked this - lesbianism easily masked
- sex between women was not completely outlawed
13
Q
Bram Stoker - personal life
A
- alleged love correspondence between himself + Oscar Wilde
- Irish man - could be where the sentiments of the ‘other’ in the book come from
- holiday in Whitby - became the inspiration for Dracula
- inspired by Carmilla + the Vampyre
- also inspired by Irish horror stories
14
Q
Fear of immigration
A
- Jack the Ripper - 1888
- neighbourhoods targeted were predominately Jewish - population became sceptical, Jewish communities blamed for the murders
- rise in Eastern European immigration - fear of ‘contamination’
Dracula
flashcards
Decks in class (13)
# Cards
