Dracula: History, Myth, and Popular CultureTransformationsHistory: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476Slide 4Literature: Bram Stoker 1847-1912Literature: Bram Stoker’s Influences 1890-1896Slide 7Literature: Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1897Literature: the Count or the Voivode 1897Slide 10Theatre: Dracula 1924 & 1927Film: Nosferatu 1922Film: Dracula & Horror of Dracula 1931 & 1958Film: Other Interpretations 1979-2000Slide 15Slide 16Dracula: History, Myth, and Popular CultureTransformationsHistory: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476Literature: Bram Stoker’s, Dracula 1897 Theatre: Dracula 1924 & 1927Film: Nosferatu–Shadow of the Vampire 1922-2000History: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476Born: 1431 in Sighisoara, TransylvaniaDracula: “Son of the Dragon/Devil”Second child of Vlad II Dracul, voivode of WalachiaWalachia: principality between the Danube and the Transylvanian Alps in southern RomaniaVoivode (prince and military leader) for 3 separate periods: 1448, 1456-1462, and 1476To Romanians: Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) To Turks: Kaziglu Bey (the Impaler Prince)Impalement: preferred method of executionUnified Walachia - resisted Ottoman advancesKilled while fighting Turks near Bucharest in 1476History: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476During 2nd reign: murdered between 40,000 and 100,000 people by 1462 Mid-15th century: German, Russian, and Turkish pamphlets establish notorietyThe Frightening and Truly Extraordinary Story of a Wicked Blood-drinking Tyrant Called Prince Dracula. Nuremberg, 1488: "He had a large pot made and boards with holes fastened over it and had people's heads shoved through there and imprisoned them in this. And he had the pot filled with water and a big fire made under the pot and thus let the people cry out pitiably until they were boiled quite to death.”An immortal heroic icon Never associated with vampiresLiterature: Bram Stoker 1847-19121882: First book, Under the Sunset 1890: First novel, The Snake’s Pass1897: Dracula publishedApril 20, 1912: Dies in LondonNovember 8th, 1847: Abraham “Bram” Stoker born in Clontarf, IrelandAttended Trinity College in Dublin8 years of civil service1872: First story, The Crystal Cup1878: Begins managing Henry Irving at London’s Lyceum TheatreLiterature: Bram Stoker’s Influences 1890-1896Researched eastern European vampire folklore (especially Transylvanian myths)An Account of the Principalities of Walachia And Moldavia, An Extraordinary and Shocking History of a Great Berserker Called Prince Dracula, and The Historie and Superstitions of Romantic Romania The Un-dead and Count Wampyr1890: Met Hungarian professor, Arminius VanberySyphilis in Victorian EnglandNever set foot in RomaniaLiterature: Bram Stoker’s Influences 1890-1896Literature: Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1897Epistolary novelSignificant plot changes2nd to the Bible in salesInspired or influenced over 700 filmsNever been out of printTranslated into every major language in the worldOnly one page in a vast output of political pornography directed against us by our enemies; an attack on the very idea of being a Romanian. -Adrian Panescu, 1985Literature: the Count or the Voivode 18972 major differencesCount: Castle in Transylvanian Alps Voivode: Castle in Walachia's foothills Count: of Szekely blood, from the "northern country" Voivode: of an older Walachian stock2 Major SimilaritiesCount Dracula describes his royal heritage: "Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race; that we were proud; that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? [...] To us, for centuries, was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkeyland; aye, and more than that, endless duty of the frontier guard.“Count Dracula alludes to an "ancestor" who "sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them!" Vlad III Dracula’s younger brother, Radu, surrendered Walachia to the Ottomans.Literature: the Count or the Voivode 1897Vlad TepesHe was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cold and terrible appearance, a strong and aquiline nose, swollen nostrils, a thin reddish face in which very long eyelashes framed large wide-open green eyes; the bushy black eyebrows made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven, but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull's neck connected [with] his head to his body from which black curly locks hung on his wide-shouldered person. --Niccolò ModrussaCount DraculaHis face was strong -- a very strong -- aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temple, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. --Bram StokerTheatre: Dracula 1924 & 19271924: Dracula, by Hamilton Deane, premiered in Derby, England – popular 3 year tour3 acts set mostly in a drawing room in LondonCount: Raymond Huntley (2000+ performances)Count: from cadaverous to charmingAmerican entrepreneur, Horace Liveright, bought rights to the Deane productionJohn Balderston: young journalist/playwright assigned by Liveright to 'Americanize' Deane’s scriptToned down theatrical dialogue – structure remainedHuntley turned down role – Bela Lugosi hired (speech)1927: Dracula opens in Fulton Theatre in New York City Runs for 33 weeks, earning over $2 millionFilm: Nosferatu 1922Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grayens (The Undead, a Symphony of Horror)Directed by F.W. Murnau (1889-1931) German Expressionist cinema; silent Earliest surviving vampire film Max Schreck as Count Orlok – isolated, pathetic, and withdrawn Murnau drew on popular Vampire lore and Stoker's novel (without permission)Changed names and setting Florence Stoker and the British Incorporated Society of Authors destroyed the original negatives and most of the printsWordy - journal entries, letters, etc. Straightforward, unromantic, gruesome, cynicalMax