6.1.1

Epistolary Form & Narrative Voice

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Epistolary Form and Narrative Techniques

Dracula is written in the form of an epistolary novel. Each narrator has their own distinctive voice.

Epistolary novel

Epistolary novel

  • Dracula is written in the form of an epistolary novel.
  • The anonymous preface asserts that there is a deliberateness to their sequencing.
  • The multiple first-person narratives create an element of immersive realism, enabling the reader to suspend their disbelief and “believe things which we know to be untrue" (Chapter 14)
Narrative voices

Narrative voices

  • Each narrator has their own distinctive voice - relaying the events subjectively as they saw them.
  • In places, Stoker utilises elements of the Gothic convention of the unreliable narrator - particularly through Jonathan’s account of his time in Transylvania, which places him under a great deal of mental stress.
Narrative delusion?

Narrative delusion?

  • Critic Andrés Roméro Jódar from the University of Zaragoza takes this idea further, proposing the narrators are constantly suffering delusion and that the events that are said to have happened through the diaries of the characters of the novel may not have even happened at all.
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1

Context - Gothic Literature

1.1

Origins & Conventions of Gothic Literature

1.1.1Origins of Gothic Literature1.1.2Key Ideas in Gothic Literature1.1.3Gothic Genre Conventions in Dracula
1.2

Vampires in Gothic Literature

1.2.1Vampires
1.3

'Terror' & 'Horror'

1.3.1Ann Radcliffe & Lewis' The Monk1.3.2'Terror' & 'Horror' in Dracula
1.4

Narrative Features

1.4.1First-Person Narration & Epistolary Format
2

Context - The Victorian Era

2.1

The Victorian Era

2.1.1Fin de Siecle2.1.2The 'New Woman'2.1.3The Contagious Diseases Act
3

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

3.1

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

3.1.1Chapters 1-23.1.2Chapters 3-43.1.3Chapters 5-73.1.4Chapters 8-103.1.5Chapters 11-123.1.6Chapters 13-143.1.7Chapters 15-163.1.8Chapters 17-183.1.9Chapters 19-203.1.10Chapters 21-233.1.11Chapters 24-253.1.12Chapters 26-27
4

Character Profiles

4.1

Archetypal Gothic Characters

4.1.1Stock & Proppian Gothic Characters
4.2

Count Dracula

4.2.1Count Dracula: Character Profile4.2.2Count Dracula: Different Literary Perspectives
4.3

Other Main Characters

4.3.1Jonathan Harker4.3.2Dr Abraham Van Helsing4.3.3Dr Jack Seward4.3.4Mina Harker4.3.5Lucy Westenra
4.4

Minor Characters

4.4.1Arthur Holmwood & Quincey Morris4.4.2Renfield
5

Key Ideas

5.1

Key Ideas

5.1.1Transgression of Boundaries5.1.2The Supernatural & Un-dead5.1.3Masculinity & Femininity5.1.4Science, Modernity & Superstition5.1.5Madness, Illness & Confinement
6

Writing Techniques

6.1

Writing Techniques

6.1.1Epistolary Form & Narrative Voice6.1.2Intertextuality & Cultural References6.1.3Structure
7

Critical Debates & Interpretations

7.1

Initial Reception of Dracula

7.1.1Initial Reception of Dracula
7.2

Modern Reception of Dracula

7.2.1Modern Reception of Dracula

Practice questions on Epistolary Form & Narrative Voice

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  1. 1
    Which of these are true of _Dracula_?True / false
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Madness, Illness & Confinement

Intertextuality & Cultural References