Paper Summary:

The paper examines how the text of "Dracula" presents several representations of an other; Mina and Lucy as women, Van Helsing as a foreigner, Dracula as an Easterner and vampires as undead, as opposed to the us of the white English male. The paper shows how the arrangement of a narrative composed of first hand accounts combined with a natural distrust of the other by the English, works to reveal our own biases in finding the horror in "Dracula". The paper therefore emphasizes how it is difficult for us to know whether Dracula is truly horrific or if it is only our prepossessed biases, alongside those of the narrative, which create an illusion of horror.

From the Paper:

"Count Dracula himself is the largest and most apparent representation of an other in this work. The narrative opens with Harker's account of traveling to Transylvania to meet the Count. The journals first illustrate culture shock as Harker comments on the oddities he encounters during his journey. Comments such as "it seems to me that the further East you go the more unpunctual are the trains" reveal that in Harker's mind his Western culture remains superior to anything Eastern he observes (p. 28). This new culture is a phenomenon for him to examine and find unusual. As his journey to the Count's castle progresses, his fascination with the unfamiliar gives way to fear as he observes the locals' superstitions, hears howling, and sees wolves surround his carriage in the night. This build up adds to the horror of his first night there."

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