More Shopping OptionsRecent politically based works on the vampire novel have been orientated towards Irish or postcolonial contexts. In this work Matthew Gibson couches the work of Mérimée, Polidori, Le Fanu, Stoker and Verne in the immediate and specific context in which their works were written - namely the right response to the Balkan, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian politics. While tracing the views and opinions of the writers themselves, he also analyzes their works to reveal that the vampire acts as an allegory of the Near East through which they suggest (rather than avow) frequently unorthodox views, which are a challenge to critics who profess the 'orientalism' argument popular today.
Matthew Gibson worked for several years in Poland and Bulgaria, where he lectured in English and Irish Literature at various universities.
"The author works diligantly to provide historical contexts for his study...and throughout he successfully engages the growing scholarship on vampire literature and postcolonial theory. Overall, this is an innovative, important approach to vampire narratives and to Stoker's work." -- R.D. Morrison, Morehead State University, Choice Magazine
Acknowledgements * Note on Translations * List of Maps * Map of Southern Europe in 1812 * Map of Balkans after Treaty of Berlin (1878) * Introduction * Polidori's The Vampyre and the Dangers of Philhellenism to Italian Liberation * J.Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla and the Austro-Hungarian 'Ausgleich' (1878) * Bram Stoker's Dracula and the Treaty of Berlin (1878) * Bram Stoker's The Lady of the Shroud and the Bosnia Crisis (1908-9) * The Vampires of Illyria: Nodier, Mérimée and the French Occupation of the Dalmation Coast * Jules Verne's Le Chateau des Carpathes (1892) and the Romans of Transylvania * Conclusion * Endnotes * Appendix * Short Chronology * Bibiliography * Index
