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How Did Dracula Become a Vampire: Ethics and Accountability

November 29, 2021

academia, criticism, Dracula, Gothic, literature, responsibility

At first, you might consider the question “How did Dracula become a vampire?” meaningless. The obvious reason is that Bram Stoker’s novel doesn’t offer a clear answer. However, not only is there actual meaning in this deceptively simple question, but it’s one that is fundamental for the way ethics and accountability are presented in the novel.

After all, ethics as well as accountability are not consciously dealt with in Dracula. Rather, there is only an attempt by the text to explain (away) some uncomfortable truths. Of course, in a true Victorian Streisand effect, the more the novel wants to hide these uncomfortable truths, the more they emerge.

How did Dracula become a vampire?

This question – which I’m using as a starting point and metaphor – allows us to talk about a crucial aspect of the novel. Indeed, one containing another question: Is Dracula evil?

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Feminism in Goblin Market: the Economics of the Victorian Woman

October 11, 2021

Criticism

academia, capitalism, criticism, economy, feminism, Gothic, literature, poetry, society, Victorian

I’ve been going through a… Goblin Market phase recently, as you might recall. So, I decided to write a brief, accessible post on feminism in Goblin Market. Christina Rossetti’s poem is rich in symbolism, and an interpretation related to feminism and economics couldn’t be absent.

Academic criticism has explored feminism in Goblin Market – a lot – so I’m certainly not breaking any new ground here. After all, this post is based on my BA thesis and therefore isn’t exceptionally deep or analytic to begin with. However, I still think there are intriguing viewpoints in it, with important repercussions for our times, too.

Is feminism in Goblin Market about sex? Is it about control? It’s about these and more. Nonetheless, my focus is mostly on economic independence: how the Victorian woman (and, by association any woman) is as free as her ability to provide for herself and set the rules of the (economic) game. The lessons from the Victorian era are still applicable today, and feminism in Goblin Market is, I’d argue, pertinent to many of our contemporary discussions.

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When Modernity Fails: How Dracula Foretold the Great War

March 8, 2021

Criticism, Society

academia, capitalism, criticism, Dracula, Gothic, modernity, society, technology

Before I say another word, here’s a disclaimer. Yes, the subtitle is somewhat misleading, albeit catchy. Bram Stoker’s Dracula didn’t quite foretell the Great War, that is WW1, in the sense it didn’t intend to. What happens in Dracula – and the reason this post exists – is that Stoker, reflecting the cultural milieu of the late 19th century, subconsciously included in his magnum opus the reasons why modernity fails. These reasons partly overlap with the reasons behind the Great War.

Perhaps what is more important in all this is that the reasons don’t seem to be all that different today. More than a hundred years later, modernity fails us again. Crucially, modernity fails us for the same reasons. We’re dealing with somewhat altered dynamics, of course, yet the basic ingredients are the same.

We’ll begin by taking a brief look at the historical context of Dracula – the cultural milieu I referred to. Then we’ll see how Stoker’s novel explains why modernity fails, and how that relates to the Great War.

Like every self-respecting Gothic work, Dracula hides a complex nexus of meaning. Blood-sucking vampires only form the skin layer, but the heart – no pun intended – of the novel contains a multitude of allegories, many of which are not the result of conscious authorial work.

I imagine Mina Harker to look like that; calm and welcoming on the surface, but deep down ambiguous and fascinatingly unreliable. She’s also the embodiment of why modernity fails in *Dracula*.

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