Title: Libidinal life : Bram Stoker, homosocial desire and the Stokerian biographical project
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2011, vol. 37, iss. 2, pp. [41]-59
Extent
[41]-59
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2011-2-4
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/118139
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This paper offers an examination of the Stokerian biographical project and shows how many biographies of Bram Stoker are invested in uncovering the elusive relationship between this little-known author and the actor Henry Irving. An exploration of Stokerian biographies reveals how Stoker has been constructed as a man who experienced same-sex desire, as revealed through his own "autobiographical" texts, such as Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving and Dracula. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's concept of "homosocial desire" provides a useful theoretical framework within which to explore a sample selection of Stokerian biographies, including those of Daniel Farson, Phyllis A. Roth, Barbara Belford and Paul Murray. This paper maintains that the theories surrounding Stoker's libidinal life are generally well-grounded, yet to this day several questions remain unanswered. For many biographers, the life of the author of Dracula continues to be shrouded in mystery.
References
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[3] Backscheider, Paula R. (2002) Reflections on Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[4] Belford, Barbara (1996) Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
[5] Benton, Michael (2009) Literary Biography: An Introduction. West Sussex: Blackwell.
[6] Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome (1996) Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
[7] Davison, Carol Margaret (ed.) (1997) Bram Stoker's Dracula: Sucking Through the Century, 1897–1997. Toronto: Dundurn Press.
[8] Dorn, Jennifer (1997) 'The Literary World of Bram Stoker'. British Heritage 18(7). EBSCOhost.
[9] Edel, Leon (1959) Literary Biography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
[10] Ettorre, Elizabeth (1980) Lesbians, Women, and Society. New York: Routledge.
[11] Farson, Daniel (1975) The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker. London: Michael Joseph.
[12] Farson, Daniel (1997) Never a Normal Man. Toronto: HarperCollins.
[13] Foucault, Michel (1976) The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: The Will to Knowledge. London: Penguin.
[14] Garber, Marjorie (1996) 'Bisexuality and Celebrity'. In: Rhiel, Mary and David Bruce Suchoff (eds.) The Seductions of Biography. New York: Routledge. 13–30.
[15] Hood, Thomas (1831) The Dream of Eugene Aram, The Murderer. London: Charles Tilt.
[16] Kant, Immanuel (2001) 'Of Crimina Carnis'. In: Heath, Peter and J. B. Schneewind (eds.) Lectures on Ethics. Peter Heath (trans.) The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 160–62.
[17] Ludlam, Harry (1962) A Biography of Dracula: The Life Story of Bram Stoker. New York: Foulsham.
[18] Lukacher, Ned (1986) Primal Scenes: Literature, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
[19] Mitchell, Juliet (2001) Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria. New York: Basic Books.
[20] Murray, Paul (2004) From the Shadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram Stoker. London: Jonathan Cape.
[21] Peters, Catherine (1995) 'Secondary Lives: Biography in Context'. In: Batchelor, John (ed.) The Art of Literary Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 43–56.
[22] Roth, Phyllis A. (1982) Bram Stoker. Boston: Twayne.
[23] Schaffer, Talia (1994) '"A Wilde Desire Took Me": the Homoerotic History of Dracula'. ELH 61(2), 381–425. | DOI 10.1353/elh.1994.0019
[24] Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1985) Between Men: English Literature and Homosexual Desire. New York: Columbia University Press.
[25] Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1990) Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[26] Senf, Carol A. (ed.) (1993) 'The Drama: Mr. Stoker's Irving' [The Times 5 (1906): 353]. Rpt. In The Critical Response to Bram Stoker. London: Greenwood Press.
[27] Showalter, Elaine (1987) The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830–1980. London: Virago Press.
[28] Showalter, Elaine (1990) Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle. New York: Viking.
[29] Simon, Linda (2007) The Critical Reception of Henry James: Creating a Master. New York: Camden House.
[30] Smith, Andrew (2004) Victorian Demons: Medicine, Masculinity and the Gothic at the Fin-de-Siècle. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
[31] Stoker, Bram (1975) The Annotated Dracula. Ed. Leonard Wolf. New York: Clarkson N. Potter.
[32] Stoker, Bram (2002) 'The Censorship of Fiction'. In: Dalby, Richard (ed.) A Glimpse of America and other Lectures, Interviews and Essays. Essex: Desert Island Books. 154–61.
[33] Stoker, Bram (1999) Letter to William Gladstone, 24 May 1897. Journal of Dracula Studies 1. 48.
[34] Stoker, Bram (2008) The New Annotated Dracula. Ed. Leslie S. Klinger. New York: W. W. Norton.
[35] Stoker, Bram (1906) Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving. 2 vols. London: William Heinemann.
[36] Valente, Joseph (2002) Dracula's Crypt: Bram Stoker, Irishness, and the Question of Blood. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.