Dracula and the Eastern Question

This book sets the writings of Merimee, Le Fanu, Stoker and Verne in the context in which they were written - namely the response to Balkan, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian politics. Gibson analyzes their works to reveal that the vampire acts as an allegory of the Near East through which constitutes a challenge to the 'orientalism' argument of today.

'[Gibson] successfully engages the growing scholarship on vampire literature and postcolonial theory... this is an innovative, important approach to vampire narratives and to Stoker's work. Highly recommended.' - R. D. Morrison, Choice

'Gibson's beautifully researched and historically grounded text adds another complex voice to the discourse about gothic literature in general and vampire narratives in particular.' - English Literature in Transition

Autorentext
MATTHEW GIBSON worked for several years in Poland and Bulgaria, where he lectured in English and Irish Literature at various universities. He is a well known Yeats scholar, being the author of Yeats, Coleridge and The Romantic Sage (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000), but his interest in the Balkans has led him to investigate the vampire novels which form the object of this study.

Inhalt
List of Maps Acknowledgements Note on Translations Introduction Polidori's The Vampyre and the Dangers of Philhellenism to Italian Liberation J.Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla and the Austro-Hungarian 'Ausgleich' (1878) Bram Stoker's Dracula and the Treaty of Berlin (1878) Bram Stoker's The Lady of the Shroud and the Bosnia Crisis (1908-9) The Vampires of Illyria: Nodier, Mérimée and the French Occupation of the Dalmation Coast Jules Verne's Le Chateau des Carpathes (1892) and the Romans of Transylvania Conclusion Appendix: Translations from Mérimée's La Guzla Notes Short Chronology of Relevant Events Bibiliography Index