{"id":669,"date":"2018-10-01T10:32:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T14:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=669"},"modified":"2018-10-01T10:32:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T14:32:51","slug":"dracula-and-xenophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2018\/10\/01\/dracula-and-xenophobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Dracula and Xenophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula <\/em>features representations of many late 19th<\/sup> century anxieties in England. One of the most prominent themes is the nationalistic fear of foreign encroachment to the nation. Using a cultural lens, as well as with knowledge of historical circumstances like the rising economic status of Germany mentioned in the introduction to The Fin de Si\u00e8cle<\/em>, the overarching theme of fear of foreign dominance in the novel becomes evident.<\/p>\n

Johnathan Harker goes to visit the Count in his home in Transylvania to discuss property that the Count wishes to purchase. Harker is immediately struck by the Count\u2019s animalistic physical qualities. The distinctive physical attributes of the Count indicate the prevalence of racial pseudoscience in the fin de si\u00e8cle, which posited that the common physical characteristics found in different ethnicities are tied to universal intellectual traits in that race as well. The Count, with his sharp fangs, pointy ears, and hairy palms, is described in animalistic terms, specifically a predatory animal.<\/p>\n

This predatory characterization is manifested not just in his literal thirst for blood, but in the fact that his primary goal to spread his domain to England by buying property in London. The Count is a wealthy aristocrat of an Eastern European nation, proud of his heritage and customs. He hungers for the blood of English people, masked by an interest in English culture. The Count\u2019s nature as a vampire is to literally consume blood. Blood is traditionally a nationalistic marker of identity, indicating the shared heritage of a people that is in their genes. Dracula\u2019s thirst for the blood of English people solidifies him as a symbol for foreign races that will erase English heritage, \u201csucking the blood\u201d from England.<\/p>\n

Count Dracula as a metaphor for foreign domination is also supported by his intense aversion to Christianity. The pronounced division between Catholics and Protestants in England that is mentioned in The Longman Anthology of British Literature <\/em>on page 1056 is acknowledged in this novel. Johnathan Harker is given a Catholic crucifix from villagers outside of Dracula\u2019s castle to defend him against the Count. Despite Harker being an Anglican who regards crucifixes as idolatrous, he begins to take comfort in the symbol of Christianity despite its conflict with his beliefs. Stoker, who was an Irish Catholic, may have been trying to bridge the divide between Catholics and Protestants. If both groups united in their belief in the Christian God, they would have greater power to defend themselves against the heretical beliefs of foreigners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula features representations of many late 19th century anxieties in England. One of the most prominent themes is the nationalistic fear of foreign encroachment to the nation. Using a cultural lens, as well as with knowledge of historical circumstances like the rising economic status of Germany mentioned in the introduction to The Fin … Continue reading Dracula and Xenophobia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3885,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3885"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}