HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA AND ITS LEGACY IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

Víctor Maté 2019 Madrid HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA AND ITS LEGACY IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE The vampire figure is without a doubt one of the most extended and beloved ones among the genre of horror in contemporary novels, films and other media (videogames, TV series…). As a matter of fact, the thirst for blood of a demonic creature can develop a wide variety of possibilities when the writer is determined to write a story transcending the limits of the natural. From a love that transcends the barriers of time and nature, to psychotic or demonic beasts with an unfillable appetite for massacre and wrath in the name of pure evil. This essay will be a journey through the vampire literature itself, exploring its origins and determining the impact it still has on modern day culture. Since the literary production featuring vampires is one of the most extended ones, for this research have only been selected the ones with a major importance and draft in the popular culture. Historical sources have also been revised from encyclopaedias to an ancient medieval codex. Without further preamble, let the writer lead this journey through the shady demonic hunger to the idealistic and immortal gothic love. Turning the look back to the medieval Europe, some historical aspects are to be taken into account when explaining the facts that gave birth to the legend of the blood-drinking Count Dracula. 15th century, It was a dark time for the Christianity: Popes having children, selling ecclesiastic power and celebrating orgiastic parties in the Vatican was not a conglomerate of conditions that made believing an easy task (if were not for the campaigns of the Church to preserve the Faith such as the Víctor Maté 2019 Madrid Inquisition or the prosecution of the so-called witches). If this were not enough, an army of red-clothed warriors coming from the East was unstoppably watering blood in the name of Allah and the half moon. Was in this time when, in the principality of Walachia (actual Romania), a knight from the almighty order of the dragon, sent his children to Istanbul to be raised by the Sultan in its own court. Years later, only one of the two brothers returned to the kingdom and claimed his throne, his name: Vlad the 2nd. Soon, this king would start one of the most incarnated and sanguinary military campaigns in the history of Europe in defence of his land. The level of carnage perpetrated by Vlad was so, that when the ottomans returned to Turkey, they were telling stories of a count that drank the blood of its enemies and had the ability to infiltrate inside of the troops. This last myth has been solved by the experts with the theory that, as Vlad was raised among the military leaders of the Ottoman Empire, he knew the enemy´s warfare techniques, so it was easy for him and his soldiers to supplant their identities in order to ambush the enemy and abate their defence. This conglomerate of actions carried by the Wallachian prince gave him a reputation that would be fuel of nightmares and legends told by the people of the near countries. The Turks were astonished by the levels of violence that Vlad could achieve; putting the title of “the impaler” as this was his favourite mean of killing. Years later, Vlad died because of a rebellion among the Wallachian aristocracy and his name and legend was almost forgotten, and preserved only in a manuscript by Efrosin, a monk of the Kirillo-Belozerskii Monastery. (1) It was not until the 19th century, when an Irish writer named Bram Stoker published “Dracula” a novel with an obscure Transylvanian count as the main villain. The publishing of Dracula was not an easy task since it is a novel that features high levels of erotism and Víctor Maté 2019 Madrid homosexual references regarding it was written in the late Victorian Age. It is written in an epistolary format so it gives the reader the impression that he is not actually reading a novel but a collection of many sources that pretend to clarify the supernatural mystery of Dracula the Vampire. Stoker never visited the Carpathians but came to know about the legend of Vlad the Impaler by his friend Arminus Vambery, a Hungarian Turkologist that served as well as inspiration for the character of Abraham Van Helsing, the vampire hunter and the antihero of the novel. (2) Since the year of its publication (1897), Dracula has become a success in the horror literature and the Count is one of the most recognisable characters of all time, the story itself has been product of adaptations since the very dawn of radio and cinema with more than 200 films made, being, with Sherlock Holmes, the most popular character of English literature. Although the novel was not considered as an Oxford Classic until 1983. (3) The overexploitation of the figure of the vampire among the horror and supernatural genres has served as inspiration to many writers when searching for ideas to new novels and stories featuring not only Count Dracula and vampires, but similar figures that are as original, terrifying and charismatic as the first one created by Stoker. Without a doubt there are plenty of best-selling books that feature vampires, vampire-hunters or love stories between a mortal and an immortal person. In order not to make this writing too long, the following works have been selected among a wide variety of options for being the most popular and globally recognised ones. When regarding the legend of the vampires along history, the most outstanding contemporary novel that comes to the mind is Anne Rice´s “An Interview with the Vampire”, a mystery novel that presented an enigmatic main Víctor Maté 2019 Madrid character that tells the story of his life before and after he was converted into a vampire. While in Stoker´s work the vampires are seen as monstrous and aggressive creatures, in Rice´s novel they live in hidden societies full of refinement and luxury with strict codes of behaviour. It also introduces the concept of the family in the vampirical life since the members of this kind of aristocracy, raise their children and educate them to become their successors. While Rice´s work was the beginning of the softening of the myth of Dracula, it was not until Thomas Harris introduced Dr. Hannibal Lecter in his novel “The Red Dragon” that it reached a new dimension. The character of Hannibal Lecter is not considered a straightforward vampire since he has no supernatural powers. Nevertheless is the fact that he is a serial killer characterised by the fact that he eats his victims what makes a resemblance with the figure of Count Dracula. Hannibal Lecter is full of refinement and his manners and methods may come from a mix between the Count of Monte-Cristo and Dracula itself, although he is always depicted as a mysterious and dangerous man. The Doctor´s novels have been adapted to the cinema in a few occasions but, the narrative force that he character has, even when he is a secondary character, has made Anthony Hopkins´ Hannibal Lecter to be considered the greatest villain of Film History by the American Film Institute. (4) Putting apart the psychopathic aspect of the vampire, in the early 2000´s a series of novels under the name of the Twilight saga became a cultural phenomenon in the teenager literature. Stephenie Meyer imagined a love story between a human girl and a vampire boy and combined it successfully with a classic high school drama during four novels that expanded the universe she created in “Twilight”. Although in “Dracula” there is an idea of desire between the Count and Mina, this was a revolutionary topic in the vampire literature Víctor Maté 2019 Madrid because, even if love was present in other works of the genre, this was the first time that love was the main topic of the novel. While Hannibal Lecter was not a vampire, in Meyer´s saga, the main characters are; and they resemble very much the concept introduced by Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. History can be a good ally for the writer when creating new stories or reinventing genres. Were it not for Bram Stoker, the legend of Vlad the 2nd may have never been rescued from the ancient libraries of Romania (which is the actual owner of the territory of Walachia). Although “Dracula” must not be considered as a historical novel, it has revived the interest of many archaeologists to do research over the true story of the Count. But without a doubt, if it had not been for the popularity of the novel by Bram Stoker, many writers would not have found the inspiration to create amazing new stories that attracted new audiences to the vampiric genre, which in many occasions “[…] has gotten people hooked on books, and that´s good for all of us.” (Picoult, 2009) (5) References 1. Efrosin, (1490) Monastery of Belorzesky, Russia. Transaltion by Megan Barickman (2015) The Tale of Prince Dracula: A Translation from Old Russian. Retrieved from http://hypocritereader.com/52/tale-of-dracula 2. The Telegharph, (2005) United Kingdom. Stoker's vampire hunter was a Foreign Office spy. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1486863/Stokers-vampire-hunter-was-aForeign-Office-spy.html 3. Thomson, Ian (2004) The Guardian, United Kingdom. How do you like your stake? Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/25/biography.features 4. American Film Institute (2003) 100 Heroes & Villains. Retrieved from: https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-heroes-villians/ Víctor Maté 2019 Madrid 5. Yabroff, Jennie (2009) Newsweek, United States. Does Jodi Picoult hurt literature? Retrieved from: https://www.newsweek.com/does-jodi-picoult-hurt-literature-77445 Sources Primary Sources      Efrosin, (1490) Monastery of Belorzesky, Russia. Transaltion by Megan Barickman (2015) The Tale of Prince Dracula: A Translation from Old Russian. Retrieved from http://hypocritereader.com/52/tale-of-dracula Stoker, Bram, (1897). Dracula, published by Archibald Constable and Company, Westminster. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/draculabr00stokuoft/page/n6 Rice, Ann (1976). Interview with the Vampire, published by Knopf Harris, Thomas (1999). Hannibal, published by Delacorte Press Meyer, Stephenie (2005). Twilight, published by Little, Brown and Company Secondary Sources     Bonachera García, A. I. (2017). Drácula, un acercamiento a la caracterización del personaje vampírico : perspectivas narratológicas. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsrac&AN=edsrac.32837 7&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site Jiao, Alex. The Vampiric Mesmerism of Hannibal Lecter. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/5729694/The_Vampiric_Mesmerism_of_Hannibal_Lect er Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (1981), Mis terrores favoritos (ep 2: Dracula) Archivo RTVE. Retrieved from http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/mis-terroresfavoritos/terrores-favoritos-dracula/4496242/ José Luis Garci (1998), ¡Qué Grande es el Cine! (ep 133: Drácula 1931) emitido por RTVE. Retrieved from https://www.ivoox.com/dracula-1931-qgeec-audiosmp3_rf_680360_1.html