History and Literature: Feminine monstrosities, degeneration and modern anxieties in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

Abstract

Literary writing, in the second half of the nineteenth century, provides visibility to sensitive perceptions of writers and novelists with respect to the historical contingencies inherent in the experiences of urban modernity. In the interconnection of literary texts and medical treatises, special attention is given to the notion of degeneration, mobilized by nineteenth-century intellectuals to articulate social hostilities and justify fears about a supposed racial decline that befell society at the end of the century. The purpose of this article converges in analyzing the uses and appropriations of the degeneration lexicon by the Anglo-Irish writer Bram Stoker to build monstrous female characters in his novel Dracula (1897).

Keywords: History and Literature, Dracula, degeneration.