<p>The creatures known as vampires have inspired authors for several hundred years. These beings are stereotypically described as belonging to a “nocturnal species” who live “in shadows” and drink “our lives in secrecy” (Auerbach 1). However, they have by now appeared so often in literary works, and in so many different shapes and sizes, that they are much too nuanced to be called ‘stereotypes.’</p><p>This essay will make a historical comparison between two fictional vampires, one hundred years apart, in order to show that a change has taken place when it comes to how vampires as fictional characters have been portrayed in terms of their appearance, their psychology, and their roles in society. The first novel chosen is, for obvious reasons, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was written at the turn of the nineteenth century by a male author and is probably the first novel that comes into mind when the word vampire is mentioned. The second novel, The Vampire Lestat, was written almost a century later, in 1986, by a female author, who, to readers of vampire fiction, is a worthy successor of Stoker. Her name is Anne Rice, best known for her debut novel Interview with the Vampire (1976).</p><p>The two novels are naturally chosen because of their similarities, but perhaps even more so because of their differences. Dracula is a typically Victorian Gothic novel, which is set in the remote mountains of Transylvania, and in the modern capital London, contemporary to when the novel was published. It is written in epistolary form but never allows for the main character, Count Dracula, to defend or explain himself and his actions in a first-person narrative.</p><p>The Vampire Lestat, on the other hand, is a Neo-Gothic novel that focus less on conventional Gothic elements, for example gloomy settings, and more on the psychological aspects of what it is like to actually be a vampire. Unlike Dracula, it is the main character’s fictional autobiography in which he recalls his life in France, his transformation into a vampire, and his current career in the United States as a famous rock star. Nina Auerbach calls it “a series of temporal regressions in which Lestat . . . embarks on a backward quest out of the knowable world” (172).</p><p>Both novels used in this analysis are thus part of the Gothic genre, one being a Victorian Gothic and the other Neo-Gothic, but there are significant differences between the two. I will investigate how these differences reveal themselves when it comes to setting and plot. However, the novels are similar in that they present two male vampires who belong to the nobility and have lived on through the centuries. The vampires both want to be where the power is, which means, in the case of Stoker’s Dracula, that he tries to conquer nineteenth-century London and seduce a young intelligent woman named Mina. Lestat, on the other hand, wants to become a famous twentieth-century rock star in the United States and simply have a good time while being a vampire (Auerbach 6).</p><p>The aim of this essay is to investigate what is typical of the genres that the two novels belong to and determine what has changed in the vampires’ physical appearance, their manners and their ability to adapt to modern society. In the first section of the essay I will give a description of the typical elements of the Gothic and the Neo-Gothic genres and then compare them in order to make a generic description of the two novels, Dracula and The Vampire Lestat. Vampire fiction will be treated as a sub-genre to the Gothic genre. In the succeeding two sections I will make comparative analyses of the two novels, particularly of the main characters, in order to describe the similarities and differences between the two and study how the vampire character has changed during the last century. Much of the discussion, especially regarding Dracula, will be based on Cesare Lombroso’s concept of the ‘criminal man,’ and various modern scholars’ opinion that the vampire is seen as an outcast and a threat to society.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-231). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 262).

This thesis presents the development of a Neural Network Based Controller (NNBC) for chain grate stoker fired boilers. The objective of the controller was to increase combustion efficiency and maintain pollutant emissions below future medium term stringent legislation. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were used to estimate future emissions from and control the combustion process. Initial tests at Casella CRE Ltd demonstrated the ability of ANNs to characterise the complex functional relationships which subsisted in the data set, and utilised previously gained knowledge to deliver predictions up to three minutes into the future. This technique was then built into a carefully designed control strategy that fundamentally mimicked the actions of an expert boiler operator, to control an industrial chain grate stoker at HM Prison Garth, Lancashire. Test results demonstrated that the developed novel NNBC was able to control the industrial stoker boiler plant to deliver the load demand whilst keeping the excess air level to a minimum. As a result the NNBC also managed to maintain the pollutant emissions within probable future limits for this size of boiler. This prototype controller would thus offer the industrial coal user with a means to improve the combustion efficiency on chain grate stokers as well as meeting medium term legislation limits on pollutant emissions that could be imposed by the European Commission.

The creatures known as vampires have inspired authors for several hundred years. These beings are stereotypically described as belonging to a “nocturnal species” who live “in shadows” and drink “our lives in secrecy” (Auerbach 1). However, they have by now appeared so often in literary works, and in so many different shapes and sizes, that they are much too nuanced to be called ‘stereotypes.’ This essay will make a historical comparison between two fictional vampires, one hundred years apart, in order to show that a change has taken place when it comes to how vampires as fictional characters have been portrayed in terms of their appearance, their psychology, and their roles in society. The first novel chosen is, for obvious reasons, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was written at the turn of the nineteenth century by a male author and is probably the first novel that comes into mind when the word vampire is mentioned. The second novel, The Vampire Lestat, was written almost a century later, in 1986, by a female author, who, to readers of vampire fiction, is a worthy successor of Stoker. Her name is Anne Rice, best known for her debut novel Interview with the Vampire (1976). The two novels are naturally chosen because of their similarities, but perhaps even more so because of their differences. Dracula is a typically Victorian Gothic novel, which is set in the remote mountains of Transylvania, and in the modern capital London, contemporary to when the novel was published. It is written in epistolary form but never allows for the main character, Count Dracula, to defend or explain himself and his actions in a first-person narrative. The Vampire Lestat, on the other hand, is a Neo-Gothic novel that focus less on conventional Gothic elements, for example gloomy settings, and more on the psychological aspects of what it is like to actually be a vampire. Unlike Dracula, it is the main character’s fictional autobiography in which he recalls his life in France, his transformation into a vampire, and his current career in the United States as a famous rock star. Nina Auerbach calls it “a series of temporal regressions in which Lestat . . . embarks on a backward quest out of the knowable world” (172). Both novels used in this analysis are thus part of the Gothic genre, one being a Victorian Gothic and the other Neo-Gothic, but there are significant differences between the two. I will investigate how these differences reveal themselves when it comes to setting and plot. However, the novels are similar in that they present two male vampires who belong to the nobility and have lived on through the centuries. The vampires both want to be where the power is, which means, in the case of Stoker’s Dracula, that he tries to conquer nineteenth-century London and seduce a young intelligent woman named Mina. Lestat, on the other hand, wants to become a famous twentieth-century rock star in the United States and simply have a good time while being a vampire (Auerbach 6). The aim of this essay is to investigate what is typical of the genres that the two novels belong to and determine what has changed in the vampires’ physical appearance, their manners and their ability to adapt to modern society. In the first section of the essay I will give a description of the typical elements of the Gothic and the Neo-Gothic genres and then compare them in order to make a generic description of the two novels, Dracula and The Vampire Lestat. Vampire fiction will be treated as a sub-genre to the Gothic genre. In the succeeding two sections I will make comparative analyses of the two novels, particularly of the main characters, in order to describe the similarities and differences between the two and study how the vampire character has changed during the last century. Much of the discussion, especially regarding Dracula, will be based on Cesare Lombroso’s concept of the ‘criminal man,’ and various modern scholars’ opinion that the vampire is seen as an outcast and a threat to society.

Devenu célèbre sous les traits de Dracula, le vampire est un monstre révélateur et résilient qui s'est fait archétype incontournable de la culture populaire et dont l'existence diégétique précède le roman de Bram Stoker. Du folklore à la fiction et de l'ombre à la lumière, son évolution est représentative des sociétés et des époques dans lequel il revient à la vie. A la fois transgressifs et normatifs, ses avatars jouent un rôle cathartique en incarnant le refus des lois humaines naturelles et divines, mais aussi la réitération de ces règles et la création de canons littéraires. Cette étude diachronique centrée sur "Carmilla" (1872), "Dracula" (1897) et les vampires d'Anne Rice démontre que leurs aventures invitent à réfléchir autant aux conséquances des fautes qu'à la validité des normes, à l'essence de la nature et des failles humaine et à la fonction libératrice des personnages de fiction et particulièrement des monstres. / Known to most as Dracula, the vampire is revealing and resilient monster whose diegetic existence predates Stoker's novel, and that has become a key figure of popular culture. From folklore to fiction and from shadow to ligjhte, its evolution is indicative of the times and societies in wich it return to life. Equally transgressive and normative, its avatars play a cathartic role aas they epitomize rejection of human, natural and divine laws, but also the reiteration of the rules and the creation of literary canons. This diachronic study focused on "Carmilla" (1872), "Dracula" (1897) and Anne Rice's vampires shows that their adventures induce reflection on both the consequences of wrongdoing and the validity of norms, on the essence of human nature and hubris, and the liberating fucntion of fictional characters, particulary monsters.

This paper analyses the characters Mina and Lucy in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, showing how they are juxtaposed in terms of femininity. By using feminist criticism and the concepts of the angel in the house, monstrous femininity, and the virgin/whore dichotomy, this paper explores how Mina represents the self-sacrificing, supportive, and wifely angel in the house, while Lucy represents the sexual, disobedient, and powerful monstrous female. This is analyzed through Mina’s interactions with the men, as well as through her view on femininity, and through Lucy’s interactions with the men and with Mina. This paper then explores how these differing gender roles lead to different outcomes for the two women. Mina is excluded but is able to be purified from vampirism while still alive. In contrast, Lucy, being a threat to British Victorian femininity, has to be killed and mutilated before her memory can be purified. How well the women fit into the male community’s view of the Victorian female ideal, with Mina fitting it the best, is found to be the reason for why Lucy suffers a worse fate than Mina.

Using psychoanalytic theory, one can see that the Gothic genre addresses fears to reveal the ever-tense dynamics between subject and object- the subject as the individual with agency and the object as that which the subject desires and which thus lacks agency. This tension between the subject and object exposes the subject's fears about the object specifically pertaining to female sexuality, desire, familial dynamics, and reproduction, and it is these fears that shape the subject's psyche. These fears are addressed in psychoanalysis on two levels: terror and horror. Terror is the fear of what one does not know, whereas horror coincides with the fear of that which one does know. This distinction itself addresses the two parts of the psyche: the unconscious and the conscious. Through the lens of psychoanalysis, we can see that the switch or overlap between these layers of the psyche, is experienced as the uncanny, where the repressed again becomes familiar. In Gothic texts, the return of the repressed occurs for the subject as it relates to the object of desire, and the trauma surrounding this relationship. Through the analysis of three different Gothic texts from three different time periods- Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), and David Lindelofs contemporary television series Lost (2004 )- I argue that these texts demonstrate the ways in which their cultures understood (and understand) subjectivity as constituted through fear of and desire for the object. From the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century, we can see a transition from a reaction to trauma to a need/or trauma in the texts.

English abstract To understand why the doppelgänger, or the phenomenon of double personality, developed such literary presence in the fin-de-siècle Victorian Britain we must look to the dramatic social changes which had taken place since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, as well as to the nascent science of psychology and its preoccupation with the subconscious in relation to consciousness. The doppelgänger typically emerges where one component of personality is suppressed due to supra-individual requirements and expectations. The doppelgänger is, therefore, closely linked to its environment. It is not so much a literary figure as an intense dialectical relationship between two sides of personality. The doppelgänger frequently constitutes a flight from the conscience, which in itself is a social construct. Both Dr Jekyll and Dorian Gray are fully conscious of the possibilities open to them through their alter egos - they may ignore the dictates of the public opinion as well as other institutions whose goal is effect a certain degree of conformity in society. The doppelgänger enables the subject to realise its unconscious ambitions. The doppelgänger may also be analysed in the context of the artist and their creation. Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, Basil Hallward and Dorian's portrait, leaving aside...

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma leitura do romance Drácula, do escritor irlandês Bram Stoker, publicado em 1897. O propósito do estudo é identificar os arquétipos e imagens predominantes em Drácula, mostrando em que medida eles representam questões pertinentes à sociedade vitoriana e aos públicos receptores que obra teve desde então. A obra é publicada em um momento histórico que se configura ponto crucial na conflituada transição entre os antigos valores rurais britânicos e os da moderna sociedade urbana contemporânea, e a conseqüência desta transição é uma mudança drástica no código comportamental britânico. Diversos elementos desta transformação podem ser identificados nas representações simbólicas encontradas no romance de Stoker, e a voracidade com que a obra é consumida pelos leitores desde a época vitoriana se configura sintoma das premências decorrentes da excessiva repressão daquele período. A análise do arquétipo do vampiro e das imagens arquetípicas apresentadas em Drácula se dará predominantemente através do exame das implicações psicológicas e antropológicas ligadas ao imaginário do Sangue. O embasamento teórico se ampara nas contribuições prestadas por Carl Gustav Jung e Gilbert Durand. A dissertação vem subdividida em três capítulos. Na primeira parte do capítulo um apresento as contextualizações referentes a certos fenômenos observados na sociedade vitoriana, especialmente no que tange às implicaturas de gênero no código comportamental da época, e na segunda apresento contextualizações referentes a personagens históricos que influenciaram Bram Stoker na criação de seu personagem principal. No segundo capítulo, remeto ao embasamento teórico, apresentando os conceitos definidos por Jung nos quais a leitura do capítulo 3 se ampara, bem como analiso símbolos, imagens e arquétipos em Drácula de acordo com os regimes da imaginação propostos por Durand. No terceiro capítulo ofereço minha leitura do romance, na qual identifico e analiso imagens e símbolos do Sangue presentes no romance. Na conclusão, apresento as últimas considerações, com o intuito de ratificar as fortes ligações que se estabelecem entre os significados velados inscritos no romance e as vivências da sociedade receptora, tendo como base o mito do vampiro e sua associação com o imaginário do sangue na tentativa de explicar a bemsucedida e contínua recepção do romance. / The aim of this thesis is to present a reading of Dracula, published in 1897 by the Irish author Bram Stoker. The purpose of the investigation is to identify the predominant archetypes and images in Dracula, showing to what extent they represent relevant issues to Victorian society and the audiences the novel has had since then. The work is published in a crucial historical moment, during which the British traditional rural values are replaced by modern and urban ones. A major consequence of such a transition is a drastic change in the British behavioral code. Several elements in such a transformation can be identified in Stoker’s novel, and the eagerness with which the work was accepted by Victorian audiences is a symptom of the needs that resulted from the excessive repression from that period. The analysis of the archetype of the vampire and the archetypal images presented in Dracula unfolds predominantly through the examination of the psychological and anthropological implications connected to blood imagery. The main theoretical tools come from the studies of Carl Gustav Jung and Gilbert Durand. The thesis is subdivided in three chapters. In the first part of chapter one I present some contextualization referring to certain phenomena perceived in the Victorian society, mainly the ones regarding the gender implications in the behavioral code of the time, and in the second part I present contextualization connected to historical characters who influenced Bram Stoker in the creation of his main character. In chapter two I present the theoretical approach, introducing the concepts defined by Jung upon which the reading in chapter 3 is based. I also analyze symbols, images and archetypes in Dracula according to the orders of the image proposed by Durand. In chapter three I offer my reading, identifying and analyzing blood images and symbols in the novel. In the conclusion, I present the final considerations, with the purpose of ratifying the strong bonds connecting the underlying meanings present in the novel and the life experience of the audience, having as a basis the myth of the vampire and its association to the blood imaginary, in an attempt to explain the successful and continuous reception of the novel.