Rethinking the New Woman in Dracula

Kistler, Jordan (2018) Rethinking the New Woman in Dracula. Gothic Studies, 20 (1-2). pp. 244-256. ISSN 1362-7937 (https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.7227/GS.0...)

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Abstract

The existing canon of scholarship on Dracula asserts that the sexually aggressive female vampires are representative of the New Woman, and thus are evidence of Stoker's conservative reaction to changing gender roles. In contrast, this article offers a reinterpretation Dracula in the light of key writings of the New Woman movement which sought to demonize the Victorian marriage market because of its creation of a class of female parasites: idle middle-class woman entirely dependent on fathers and husbands. A close reading of key sections of the novel demonstrates that the female vampires are characterized as traditionally subordinate Victorian housewives, in contrast to the positive presentation of Mina Harker as a New Woman. This reading reveals a text that argues that work for women is the only antidote to the degeneration inherent in traditional womanhood, through which women are reduced to nothing more than their biological functions.

  • Item type:Article
    ID code:69826
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    30 November 2018
    Published
    4 September 2017
    Accepted
    Notes:The definitive, Version of Record of this article is published in: Kistler, J, 2018, 'Rethinking the New Woman in Dracula', Gothic Studies, vol. 20: 1-2, pp. 244-256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7227/GS.0047 © 2018 Author. Published by Manchester University Press.
    Keywords:Dracula, Bram Stoker, New Woman, Olive Schreiner, Sarah Grand, vampire, Gothic fiction, English literature, Literature and Literary Theory
    Subjects:Language and Literature > English literature
    Department:Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > School of Humanities > English
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:18 Sep 2019 09:01
    Last modified:04 Aug 2022 02:48
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/69826
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