Bram Stoker is most famous for his vampire creation, Dracula, and there are scores of academic studies of the novel in which this vampire first appeared. However, Stoker himself remains a figure shrouded in darkness, and his other writings are virtually unknown and ignored. This lecture will look at his other Gothic novels, The Lair of the White Worm and The Snake's Pass, as well as his short stories and journalism, to assess Stoker's relationship to late 19th-century Ireland and especially Dublin. We will also discuss Stoker's influences in writing Dracula, the importance of his Irish background, his time in Trinity, and the ways in which the Count has been treated in both popular cultural and literary criticism.
Jarlath Killeen is the convenor of the Senior Freshman module in Victorian Literature in Trinity College, Dublin. Much of his teaching involves the study of popular literature, including Victorian Gothic and Victorian children’s literature, with a particular interest in the intersection of religion and literature, the popular romance, the discourse of the child in literature and culture, and Gothic and horror in all their manifestations. His research focuses on the literature and culture of Victorian Britain and Ireland, and in eighteenth-century Ireland, especially the history and pre-history of Gothic literature on this island. He has written six books and edited several collections of essays.
