Unwomanly women, unmanly men and disintegrating nations in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Stefan Grabiński's In Sarah's House and Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's The Family Of The Vourdalak

Krucon, Eliza Olga (2015). Unwomanly women, unmanly men and disintegrating nations in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Stefan Grabiński's In Sarah's House and Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's The Family Of The Vourdalak. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

This thesis examines fin-de•siecle incarnations of literary vampires in British, Polish and Russian texts. While Bram Stoker's Dracula has provided a theoretical model for the critical analysis of the vampire motifs, this thesis argues for further analysis and interpretation of vampire fiction in a broader European context. Hence, it demonstrates how vampire motifs function in Stefan Grabinski's In Sarah's House and Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's The Family of The Vourdalak and relates them to Stoker's Dracula, arguing that in all three texts the vampire becomes a powerful metaphor for a border•crosser who violates the boundaries and thus disturbs the categories of human identity.
The first chapter of the thesis presents the roles that were ascribed to women in nineteenth-century Britain, Poland and Russia and demonstrates the extent to which women in these texts fit and depart from these roles. The second chapter of the thesis examines the imperfect masculinities of men who face the vampire-altered spaces of femininity. The final chapter of the thesis focuses on the vampire seen as an embodiment of a negative foreign influence that threatens national unity and integrity.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):