Dracula

ATLANTIS. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies. 31.2 (December 2009): 23–39 ISSN 0210-6124

Bram Stoker’s Dracula. A Study on the Human Mind and Paranoid Behaviour
Andrés Romero Jódar University of Zaragoza
anromero@unizar.es The Victorian fin-de-siècle experienced the growth of scientific naturalism, and witnessed the birth and development of sciences such as modernpsychology, supported by the scientific efforts to unravel the processes of the human mind. Nevertheless, the 1890s were also notable for the participation of educated people in Spiritualism and other occult activities, their interest in folklore of all sorts and the writing of a great corpus of fantasy literature. The aim of this essay is to offer a reading of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as an exampleof the dialogue established between science, literature and the study of the supernatural in Victorian England. The novel, as part of the fin-de-siècle scientific period, can be interpreted as a conscious inquiry into the functioning of the mind and, most especially, into the aetiology of paranoid behaviour. Thus, Stoker’s text becomes a testimony of a mental disorder known as folie à deux, orshared madness. Keywords: Bram Stoker; Dracula; fin-de-siècle; paranoia; folie à deux; vampire

Drácula de Bram Stoker. Un estudio sobre la mente humana y el comportamiento paranoide
El fin de siglo victoriano experimentó el crecimiento del naturalismo científico, y presenció el nacimiento y desarrollo de ciencias como la psicología moderna, apoyada en los esfuerzos científicos por desenmarañar losprocesos de la mente humana. No obstante, la década de 1890 también destacó por la participación de ciudadanos educados en el Espiritualismo y otras actividades ocultistas, por su interés en todo tipo de folclore, y por la creación de un gran corpus de literatura de fantasía. El objetivo de este ensayo es ofrecer una lectura de Drácula de Bram Stoker como ejemplo del diálogo entre ciencia,literatura y el estudio de lo sobrenatural en la Inglaterra victoriana. Como parte del período científico del fin-de-siècle, la novela puede interpretarse como una investigación consciente del funcionamiento de la mente y, en particular, de la etiología del comportamiento paranoide. Así, el texto de Bram Stoker se convierte en testimonio de un trastorno mental llamado folie à deux, o locura compartida.Palabras clave: Bram Stoker; Drácula; fin-de-siècle; paranoia; folie à deux; vampiro

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Andrés Romero Jódar

1. Introduction: Science, Spiritualism and Bram Stoker in XIX-century England More than a hundred years have elapsed since Dracula was first published and it still stands out as one of the most influential creations in the world of literature and arts. 1 Appearing in June 1897,Bram Stoker’s novel raised the vampire tradition—from previous works such as Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819), James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney the Vampyre: or, The Feast of Blood (1847) or Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1872)—to its highest and most popular summit, and created, at a stroke, one of the greatest myths of Western culture. This epistolary novel was released at the dusk of the nineteenth century,in the so-called fin-de-siècle. As several critics have pointed out, this period was characterized by an astonishing development of the different sciences, along with a profound inquiry into the degeneration principles arising from Darwinist postulates (Ledger and Luckhurst 2000; Stiles 2006b). To highlight two new intellectual standpoints, the end of the century experienced the growth of ascientific naturalism, and witnessed the birth and development of modern psychology, with outstanding names such as David Ferrier, John Hughlings Jackson and James Crichton-Browne (founders of the Brain journal in 1878), or Sir William Thornley Stoker (Bram Stoker’s brother and President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland). Additionally, the new discoveries in sciences and the scientific...