Dracula, and the vampire myth more generally, has also been read as a narrative on class relations and the struggle between capitalism and labour. Perhaps it is this ambiguity that explains the continued success of the novel. The raw sexuality of the story (which by all accounts Stoker seemed to be unware of) continues to dominate perceptions and interpretations of the text. But Dracula has also been read as: a religious parable an exercise in Freudian psychology a condemnation of or argument in support of female empowerment and a warning of the consequences of Eastern European immigration. On the 120 th anniversary of Dracula’s publication popular fascination, fuelled by countless cinematic adaptations, had not abated. Yet Dracula has become a dominant modern myth, the cloaked vampire count perhaps theicon of twentieth century popular culture. There was nothing to indicate in 1897, or indeed by Stoker’s death in 1912, that Draculawas an exceptional work, or very different from the other texts constituting the body of literary late-gothic popular fiction, some good, some gruesome, and some banal. First edition cover (imitation) to Bram Stoker’s Dracula / Wikimedia Commons
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