Dracula Redivivus: Spatial Roots and Bloodlines
NICOLETA STANCAABSTRACT. This article aims at reviving the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker after 125 years from its publication, paying attention to the two spaces that generated the birth of the Dracula myth: Ireland and Transylvania. Many studies have been devoted to the East European roots of the story, the gothic characteristics of the novel and the subsequent popular culture revisitations of the Dracula myth. This article brings together an interpretation of the novel through the lens of the Irish Famine, the background against which the novel may be read, and of the sources of inspiration related to the Romanian ruler, Vlad the Impaler, alongside more recent approaches to the Dracula cultural phenomenon in the Romanian space. Questions of the identity formation of the vampire, starting from Dracula, are also discussed.
Keywords: Dracula; Irishness; Romanianness; Irish Famine; Vlad the Impaler; vampire