Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Andrew Smith the Chapter Page can be found here.
A brave chapter as the idea of putting context to Dracula in roughly 8-9000 words, given the complexity of ideas and the amount of literature on the subject, would seem an impossible task. Author Andrew Smith makes a brave attempt that will serve well as an initial primer for new scholars to lead into further reading. There are several themes explored: Masculinity and Degeneration, The Gothic Context, Vampires and Humans, Medicine and Theories of Mind, Colonial Contexts, and Technologies.
Under the Vampires and Humans section Smith posits an interesting thesis that Harker sees Lucy in one of the three vampire women (or projects her onto her, perhaps) – specifically the golden-haired woman. In doing this he quotes the novel in Harker saying “I seemed somehow to know her face”. It is an interesting reading of the encounter though I tend towards the idea that she was, perhaps, the vampire he saw in the expunged Dracula’s Guest. In this section Smith also discusses the symbolism of the blood transfusions from the various men into Lucy – yet ignores as part of that discussion the fact that Van Helsing’s blood is also transfused. I would have liked him to have addressed that in his discussion (and do not think it necessarily undermines his point).
A brave chapter as the idea of putting context to Dracula in roughly 8-9000 words, given the complexity of ideas and the amount of literature on the subject, would seem an impossible task. Author Andrew Smith makes a brave attempt that will serve well as an initial primer for new scholars to lead into further reading. There are several themes explored: Masculinity and Degeneration, The Gothic Context, Vampires and Humans, Medicine and Theories of Mind, Colonial Contexts, and Technologies.
Under the Vampires and Humans section Smith posits an interesting thesis that Harker sees Lucy in one of the three vampire women (or projects her onto her, perhaps) – specifically the golden-haired woman. In doing this he quotes the novel in Harker saying “I seemed somehow to know her face”. It is an interesting reading of the encounter though I tend towards the idea that she was, perhaps, the vampire he saw in the expunged Dracula’s Guest. In this section Smith also discusses the symbolism of the blood transfusions from the various men into Lucy – yet ignores as part of that discussion the fact that Van Helsing’s blood is also transfused. I would have liked him to have addressed that in his discussion (and do not think it necessarily undermines his point).
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