Sexuality, Blood, Imperialism and the Mytho-Celtic Origins of Dracula
Droch Fhola: Sexuality, Blood, Imperialism and the Mytho-Celtic Origins of Dracula Author: Joseph A Mendes Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/399 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2005 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. 1 Introduction: Dracula. Drac-ula . It is hard to ignore the menace in the name, the morbid delight one gets in pronouncing a name that is riddled with such meaning. At some level, human society is fascinated with the notion of a vampire: a revenant that ret urns from beyond the grave to extract the blood of the living in order to extend its unholy life. It plays on our basic fears as humans, the fear of the dead, the fear of dying, the fear of the unknown, and a fascination with this substance consisting of p lasma, platelets, and cells that runs through our veins. Bram Stoker took all of these fears to new heights when he wrote Dracula , one of the most enduring horror stories to ever be composed. The novel has generated enormous criticism that has chiefly been divided into the camps of Irishness, colonialism/imperialism, and sexuality. Whether it was intentional or not, Stoker’s novel is a breeding ground for almost every sexual fetish, deviance, and perversion that is known to mankind. Characters in the novel engage in mutilation, blood-drinking, perverted fellation, sexual acts in front of their spouse, female domination, male domination, group rape, homosexuality, male penetration, and sadomasochism.
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