6. Recent Interpretations

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we continue to think about the issue of modernity, asking the question: Is it ever possible to leave behind the past completely? In a way, Dracula is a novel about burying the past and moving on, but perhaps its continued popularity suggests that keeping the past buried is a little harder than it first appears.

Course

In this course, Professor David Punter (University of Bristol) explores Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel, Dracula. As we move through the course, we think about the centrality of blood to the novel (both literally and figuratively), the socio-political issues at stake in the novel, including the issue of equality, as well the impact of technology on society and culture.

Lecturer

David's research interets range from eighteenth-century to contemporary literature, and he has written most extensively about the romantic and the Gothic. He is Life Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Gothic Association, as well as being a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the English Association, Fellow of the Institute for Contemporary Scotland, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Fellow of the Royasl Society of Arts (RSA). With regard to the RSA, he has just completed a two-year stint as Chair of its West Region. He has also published on postcolonial literature, critical theory and psychoanalysis. As well as his qualifications in English, he also has a partial psychoanalytic training, and has recently completed a degree in law. He has published five small volumes of poetry, and performs his poetry regularly in Bristol and beyond.