Bram Stoker

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:533934/fulltext03

Abstract

The vampire figure is very much a part of the literary landscape of today, and has

been so for the last 200 years. The vampire has not always appeared as it does today,

as the rich, urbane gentleman, but has its origins in old folklore legends. The idea that

the vampire figure has changed over the course of history is not new, but instead of

discussing the phenomena influencing, and changing, the vampire motif, this essay

will try to shed light on the aspects of the folklore vampire that are still part of the

vampire of today. By applying the theory of folklorism (folklore not in its original

context, but rather the imitation of popular themes by another social class, or the

creation of folklore for purposes outside the established tradition), presented by Hans

Moser and Hermann Bausinger among others, this essay attempts to prove that the

modern vampire is in fact a folklorism of the old folklore legends. The essay

examines the more recent incarnation of the vampire, the literary vampire who

emerged during the 18th and 19th century, with the intent to prove that, while it is

different from its origin, it has several features in common with its ancestry as well.

To show this, examples from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), and the more recent

novel Fangland (2007) by John Marks have been chosen to serve as basis for the

analysis. Both novels clearly show instances where folklore has been brought into the

narrative as a way to define and depict the vampire.

Keywords: Stoker, Bram; Dracula; Marks, John; Fangland; vampire; folklore;

folklorisms; folklorismus; vampire figure; vampire motifs.

What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is it in the semblance of man?
- Bram Stoker
The vampire is a famous literary symbol that has played a role in the pop-cultural
dialogue for the last 200 years. The vampire is nothing new to literature; vampire
motifs can be traced back far through the ages.
1
During the Romantic period several
vampire narratives emerged in Western literature, and the genre peaked during the
Victorian Gothic in the mid to late nineteenth century.
2
During this century, the
vampire started the development from fantastical monster towards romantic hero as
the canon of vampire literature came into being. But before the romantic vampire
there was a completely other revenant who had quite a different place in culture: the
folklore vampire. This figure, which can be seen as both similar to and different from
the modern day vampire, can be found in myths, legends, and folktales from all over
the world: from India and Egypt, Greece and Romania to Britain and Germany. The
pictures of this vampire range from something similar to the English Brownie to a
half-rotten, bloated ghoul-like creature.
Despite the fact that he is not the first, and certainly not the last, Bram
Stoker’s Count Dracula is almost certainly the most recognisable vampire in the
English speaking world. The famous Transylvanian Count was born through Stoker’s
equally ingenious and terrifying epistolary narrative, which, when published in 1897,
became instantly successful (Ellmann vii). Stoker made such an impression on
Western literature that Dracula was not only followed by storylines that developed
the story past Stoker’s narrative (like Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula [1992]), but also
inspired the American author John Marks to reimagine the story in the novel
1 The difference between vampire motifs and the vampire figure will be discussed later in the paper.
2 For a list of vampire novels, and their publication dates, see Summers, p. 346. (Sadly, this list is in
alphabetical order by the author’s surnames and not in chronological order.)