| |
| author |
Olivia Thompson
| | title |
"My revenge has just begun! I have spread it over centuries": Gender, Sexuality, and Invasion Anxiety in 20th- and 21st-Century Adaptations of Dracula
| | abstract |
Dracula has been considered one of the most infamous horror stories since its conception in
1897 by Irish author Bram Stoker. But what can studying a 125-year-old text reveal concerning
the ways in which later horror novels and films target specific cultural fears throughout history?
This thesis argues that through the various Dracula reimaginings throughout the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries, creators use the image of the iconic Count in order to target the specific
cultural fears of the Western world, particularly around the three categories of sexuality, gender,
and invasion. These reinterpretations are used to comment on the conservative commentary of
the 1897 text in order to either solidify or challenge the Western, white, heteronormative,
patriarchal structures which permeate Stoker's story. Throughout the thesis, several films and
novels are dissected in order to gain a more robust understanding of various Dracula
reimaginings and the ways in which the three categories manifest. In the gender chapter the 1958
film Horror of Dracula, the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire, and the 2020 miniseries
Dracula, will be examined in order to observe how each of these interpretations display how
gender-based fears have changed in the Western world throughout the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries. The sexuality chapter will dissect the 1931 Dracula film, the 1976 Interview with the
Vampire novel, and the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula film, all three of which display the ways in
which sexuality is used in tandem with the antagonist in order to influence audience's attitudes
concerning different forms of sexual expression. Finally, the invasion chapter will compare the
1901 Powers of Darkness novel, the 1922 Nosferatu film, the 1931 Dracula film, the 1992 Bram
Stoker's Dracula film, and the 2005 novel The Historian, in order to observe how Dracula
embodies the different facets of invasion throughout the modern age. These case studies provide
readers with a more robust perspective concerning the ways in which thematic elements in horror
media serve to influence audience's attitudes and how Dracula acts as a container through which
all of these fears can morph and be interacted with in a safe manner. In this exploration, the
possibilities and interpretations are multifaceted and provide a foundation for further research
into the rest of Western vampiric media and how it reflects the anxieties of the Western world
through its portrayals of sexual-, gender-, and invasion-based horror as personified by the
infamous Count Dracula.
| | school |
The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University
| | degree |
B.A. (2022)
|
| advisor |
Wendy Kolmar
|
| full text | OThompson.pdf |
| |
