Bram Stoker's Dracula and the Vampire Genre

by Dirk Lutschewitz

In this intertextual approach to "Dracula," Dirk Lutschewitz analyzes the complex position of Stoker's novel vis-à-vis both its literary precursors and its film adaptations. Focusing on how the various novels, short stories, poems, and movies deal with the genre's archetypal conflict between good and evil, he traces the extraordinary evolution of the vampire in literature and film. In addition to the landmarks of the vampire genre, the often-neglected horror series "Varney the Vampyre" (1847) and the Dracula movies by F.W. Murnau (1922), Terence Fisher (1958), Werner Herzog (1979), and Francis Ford Coppola (1992) are examined. Apart from making a contribution to the enduring academic discussion centering on Stoker's "Dracula," Lutschewitz's study can be read as a guided tour of the most influential and salient vampire classics. It therefore addresses itself not only to Stoker scholars but to anyone interested in the literature and cinema of the undead. "Bram Stoker's Dracula and the Vampire Genre" is Lutschewitz's Ph.D. dissertation. It was submitted to the Neuphilologische Fakultät der Universität Heidelberg in 2013.

257 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Olosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

The major motif of this book is the fictional character of count Dracula, the (still) most popular vampire. Dirk Lutchewitz starts with reviewing the folklore and literary origins and influences of the un-dead nosferatu and leads us through Bram Stoker's eponymous work to the stage and film remakes of the famous story. He also tries to explore how the vampire changed by transferring from folklore into literature and later into popular film culture. The book is written surprisingly engaging for a German scholar. Lutschewitz manages both to compose a text accessible to lay audience, as well as retain an academic language without slipping into colloquialism. He gives plenty of stimuli for studying of further vampire literature to see to what degree they were influenced by the famous count D., especially by its acclaimed incarnation in the 1931's movie with Bela Lugosi.