Dracula: History, Myth,

and Popular Culture

Transformations
History: Vlad III Dracula
Literature: Bram Stokers, Dracula
Theatre: Dracula
Film: NosferatuShadow of the Vampire

1431-1476
1897
1924 & 1927
1922-2000

History: Vlad III Dracula

Born: 1431 in Sighisoara, Transylvania

Dracula: Son of the Dragon/Devil

Second child of Vlad II Dracul, voivode of Walachia
Walachia: principality between the Danube and the
Transylvanian Alps in southern Romania
Voivode (prince and military leader) for 3 separate
periods: 1448, 1456-1462, and 1476
To Romanians: Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler)
To Turks: Kaziglu Bey (the Impaler Prince)
Impalement: preferred method of execution
Unified Walachia - resisted Ottoman advances

Killed while fighting Turks near Bucharest in 1476

1431-1476

History: Vlad III Dracula

During 2nd reign: murdered between 40,000

and 100,000 people by 1462
Mid-15th century: German, Russian, and
Turkish pamphlets establish notoriety
The Frightening and Truly Extraordinary Story
of a Wicked Blood-drinking Tyrant Called
Prince Dracula.
Nuremberg, 1488: "He had a large pot made
and boards with holes fastened over it and had
people's heads shoved through there and
imprisoned them in this. And he had the pot
filled with water and a big fire made under the
pot and thus let the people cry out pitiably until
they were boiled quite to death.
An immortal heroic icon

Never associated with vampires

1431-1476

Literature: Bram Stoker

1847-1912
November 8th, 1847: Abraham Bram
Stoker born in Clontarf, Ireland
Attended Trinity College in Dublin
8 years of civil service
1872: First story, The Crystal Cup

1878: Begins managing Henry Irving

at Londons Lyceum Theatre
1882: First book, Under the Sunset
1890: First novel, The Snakes Pass
1897: Dracula published
April 20, 1912: Dies in London

Literature: Bram Stokers Influences 1890-1896

Researched eastern European vampire folklore (especially Transylvanian myths)

An Account of the Principalities of Walachia And Moldavia, An Extraordinary and Shocking History of a
Great Berserker Called Prince Dracula, and The Historie and Superstitions of Romantic Romania
The Un-dead and Count Wampyr
1890: Met Hungarian professor, Arminius Vanbery
Syphilis in Victorian England
Never set foot in Romania

Literature: Bram Stokers Influences 1890-1896

Literature: Bram Stokers Dracula

Epistolary novel
Significant plot changes
2nd to the Bible in sales
Inspired or influenced over 700 films
Never been out of print
Translated into every major language in the world

Only one page in a vast output of political

pornography directed against us by our
enemies; an attack on the very idea of
being a Romanian.
-Adrian Panescu, 1985

1897