Dracularity

I finished the book in the holidays and actually really enjoyed it. I think the beginning dragged for me a bit but I really started to like when Stoker started to use many different perspectives to write from.

This lesson we talked about vampires. I think the traditional side of this topic is very interesting. We looked at early beliefs on vampires and their development to modern times. What really interested me was how the early image of the vampire is completely different from the modern one. It was traditionally bloated looking and dark, but now we think of them as pale, thin and ghostly looking. It made me wonder what caused that change.
I just looked at the traditional stuff and it looks like vampire myths date back as far as humans have recorded, and are present all across the world. Although different, all the myths stem from the idea of someone dead coming back to life and living off blood.
Our notion of the vampire is influenced strongly by Stoker's Dracula and we looked at what society was like at the time he wrote that, and what may have inspired his tale. The gender role aspects were interesting here, especially the growing freedom for women in Victorian times. I think here, the sexual freedom is most important to see what may have influenced Stoker. Also the nationalist identity links as there is much evidence of xenophobia in Dracula, with the villain himself being Transylvanian.