Dracula – "non omnis moriar". Facts and myths from the life of Vlad III the Impaler

Almost everyone has heard of the cruel Dracula, the vampire coming out of the grave and feeding on the blood of the living to live forever. But who was the prototype of the character who has permanently settled in the contemporary popular culture? In order to answer this and other questions, the presented article will describe the most important facts from the life of the Wallachian voivode, Vlad III the Impaler. Then, the most famous legends about Dracula will be presented, as they still influence the ever-growing myth of the Transylvanian vampire aristocrat, born in the nineteenth century on the pages of the novel by Irish writer Bram Stoker.

Bram Stoker

The affable and popular theater manager Bram Stoker was born in Clontarf, Ireland, to Abraham and Charlotte Stoker in 1847, into an Irish Protestant (although not Anglo-Irish) family. After a sickly childhood he grew into a robust sportsman, and attended Trinity College Dublin from 1864 to 1866, finally graduating with a BA in 1870. Following in his father’s footsteps, he joined the Irish Civil Service in 1866, where he had the opportunity to travel around Ireland as a clerk of Petty Sessions, while also becoming an unpaid theater reviewer for the Dublin Evening Mail from 1871 to 1878, and publishing his first short story, “The Crystal Cup,” in London Society 1872. This he followed with a short novel, The Primrose Path, and two short stories, “The Chain of Destiny” and “Buried Treasures,” all in the periodical The Shamrock in 1875. In 1878 he left Dublin with his wife Florence to take up the position of acting manager of Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theatre in London, and fulfilled this role until Irving’s death in 1905, also managing several American tours. In the earlier part of this period, Stoker managed to publish more fiction, including a first collection of short stories, Under the Sunset (1881), and then his first truly accomplished novel, The Snake’s Pass, set in rural Ireland, in 1890. Short but memorable pieces, “The Squaw” and “The Man from Shorrox,” appeared in periodicals in 1893 and 1894, and then two novels, The Watter’s Mou’, based on his knowledge of Cruden Bay near Aberdeen, and The Shoulder of Shasta, both 1895. Dracula, his most famous work, the product of seven years of research and rewriting, appeared in 1897, followed by a Restoration-era romance of much less merit, Miss Betty, in 1898. The Edwardian era saw his rate of productivity increase with The Mystery of the Sea (1902), another romance set in Cruden Bay, The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), a Gothic “mummy” story, The Man (1905), Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving in 1906 (his most successful work in sales terms), and Lady Athlyne and Snowbound (a collection of theatrical short stories), both in 1908. His final, post-theater years were beset with ill health and monetary problems, as he resorted to journalism to supplement his income. However, he also produced the topical Balkan romance The Lady of the Shroud in 1909, and the chaotic The Lair of the White Worm in 1911, before dying the next year, his vibrant personality quietly mourned by London society.

THE VAMPIRLIJA HILL IN THE VILLAGE OF MIJAJLOVAC (TRSTENIK): A POSSIBLE LOCATION FOR THE BIRTHPLACE OF EUROPEAN ‘VAMPIROLOGY’

Vampires gained worldwide popularity due to the classic novel about the most famous one, Dracula, written by Bram Stoker in 1897. Bram Stoker’s Dracula has very little in common with his inspiration, the fifteenth-century Wallachian ruler Vlad III (1431‒1476), who was a real historical figure. However, some strange events involving the dead seem to have occurred in Southwest of Transylvania a few centuries after the Wallachian prince’s death. In some parts of the Habsburg Kingdom of Serbia (1718‒1739), the local Austrian authorities recorded some cases of ‘vampirism’, which Europe would be introduced to shortly afterward, along with this newly accepted word. This paper will present historical facts about one particular case recorded at the southernmost border of the Habsburg Empire, which at the time was the West Morava River. It was the case of a ‘vampire’ named Arnold Paole, who died in 1726/7 in the border village of Medveđa and whose case ‘infected’ the whole Europe with the ‘virus’ of ‘vampiromania’. The main goal of the paper is to locate the spot where one of the first ‘vampire slayings’ ever recorded could have taken place, and to direct further investigations within early modern age archaeology.

“Georeferencing” and Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s narrative strategy (on the material of “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”)

The article approaches the narrative strategy employed by a famous American horror-writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft in his only novel “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (1927) and introduces new terms – “georeferencing” and “georeference.” By the latter we mean a toponymical allusion, i. e. an implicit reference to the precedential text incorporated in a toponym (e. g. the author mentions Transylvania to make a georeference to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”). Lovecraft employs georeferencing and other forms of literary allusions to medieval legends, as well as to famous gothic novels written by his predecessors Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Gustav Meyrink, Bram Stoker, etc. to create a meaningful context for his own novel. His goal is to create a common hypertextual universe, which can and will be productively navigated by a prepared reader. This strategy makes it possible for the reader to uncover hidden logics behind the fragmentary discourse and even foresee the outcome of the central battle between the principal characters. Lovecraft’s sophisticated intention and expert plot-structuring allows us to view “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” as a daring Modernist writing of the period, as well as to reassess Lovecraft’s reputation and cultural impact on the US literature of his time.

ARCHETYPAL IMAGES REFLECTED IN DRACULA NOVEL BY BRAM STOKER

This research discusses archetypal in the novel Dracula written by Stoker. The purpose of this research is to find out some archetypal images in the novel. Some of the problems that exist today are readers who do not know the meaning of archetypal images contained in a novel. The data used in this study were taken from the novel Dracula written by Stoker. In this research, the researcher applies Carl Jung's theory. This study uses descriptive qualitative research, in qualitative research the key concepts, ideas, and processes studied are part of the central phenomenon. The result of this research is that the novel Dracula has many archetypal images contained in it. The archetypes in Dracula are: sun, color, the archetype women, and wise old man. Based on the results of this study, the researcher concludes that there are several archetypes in Dracula's novel that are used to convey implied meanings through the symbols used.

Orientalism and the Gothic

Η παρούσα διατριβή φιλοδοξεί να ερευνήσει τις θεωρητικές πτυχές της σχέσης ιστορίας και λογοτεχνίας μέσα από την λειτουργία και σημασία του Γοτθικού μυθιστορήματος στο μακρύ 19ο αιώνα καθώς και να αναλύσει τις στερεοτυπικές εικόνες της διαφορετικότητας της Νοτιοανατολικής Ευρώπης όπως κατασκευάστηκαν, αναπαράχθηκαν και κυκλοφόρησαν στη βρετανική δημοφιλή κουλτούρα κατά τον μακρύ 19ο αιώνα. Το κύριο μέρος της αποτελείται από την ανάλυση τεσσάρων δημοφιλών γοτθικών μυθιστορημάτων: The Vampyre: A Tale (1819) του John William Polidori, το Carmilla (1872) του Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, το Dracula (1897) και το Lady of the Shroud (1909) του Bram Stoker. Η διατριβή μελετά την απήχηση των μυθιστορημάτων αυτών ως φορέων διαμόρφωσης των αντιλήψεων σχετικά με την Βρετανική ταυτότητα, την αυτοκρατορία και την πολιτισμική της σημασία. Φωτίζει επίσης την ταυτότητα του βάρβαρου «άλλου», τις αντιλήψεις για το φύλο, ακόμα και τη γεωπολιτική της αυτοκρατορίας και τον πολιτιστικό ιμπεριαλισμό μέσω της διάδοσης στερεοτύπων. Τέλος, η παρούσα διατριβή επιχειρεί να τοποθετήσει τη Βρετανική ρητορική για την ετερότητα της Νοτιοανατολικής Ευρώπης σε ένα ευρύτερο πλαίσιο, εξετάζοντάς την και συγκρίνοντάς την με άλλους «κατώτερους» λαούς, βγαίνοντας έτσι από τα στενά πλαίσια του Οριενταλισμού και του Βαλκανισμού.

Literature and Fascination_Introduction

Exploring literary fascination as a key concept of aesthetic attraction, this book illuminates the ways in which literary texts are designed, presented, and received. Detailed case studies include texts by William Shakespeare, S.T. Coleridge, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Don DeLillo, and Ian McEwan.

Drácula y la teología

Existe un mito moderno, el del vampiro. Los románticos habían pensado en la necesidad de crear nuevos mitos, y la literatura tenía que ser la encargada de eso. Bram Stoker fue el encargado de configurar al vampiro más icónico y mítico que daría la literatura. A pesar de que su historia tiene un origen de mito moderno nacido en Rumania, y que Polidori, Le Fanu y muchos otros escribieron sobre este mito, este símbolo de lo erótico y lo tanático alcanza su forma final con Drácula. En la novela, el autor hace que este ser horroroso se convierta en un aristócrata y su simbología crezca. En esa simbología, se manifiesta el problema de la fe moderna, la angustia de la existencia que padece el hombre moderno.