Transvaal, Transylvania: Dracula's World-system and Gothic Periodicity

Author: Shapiro, Stephen

Source: Gothic Studies, Volume 10, Number 1, May 2008 , pp. 29-47(19)

Publisher: Manchester University Press

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Abstract:

Gothic productions appear in clusters during the capitalist world-market's transition from one economic cycle to another. Using a world-systems approach, I argue that Gothic narrative devices and sensations are both historically specific to the time of their production and representative of the general logic of capitalist time-space contortions. A world-systems perspective insists on an inter-state relational approach relatively unexplored within Gothic studies. Using Stoker's Dracula as a case study, the article claims that Dracula encodes inter-imperialist tensions, primarily those between England and Germany and their proxy agents over South African gold mines in the Transvaal. This antagonism provides the background to the Boer War, itself a forerunner to the First World War's battle among imperialists.

Keywords: GOTHIC; DRACULA; SOUTH AFRICA; BRAM STOKER; MARX; CAPITALISM

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2008-05-01

More about this publication?

This new international journal considers the field of Gothic studies from the eighteenth century to the present day. The aim of Gothic Studies is not merely to open a forum for dialogue and cultural criticism, but to provide a specialist journal for scholars working in a field which is today taught or researched in almost all academic establishments.

Gothic Studies invites contributions from scholars working within any period of the Gothic; interdisciplinary scholarship is especially welcome, as are readings in the media and beyond the written word.
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