Identifier

201

Date

2022

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

English

Concentration

Literature

Committee Member

Don Rodrigues

Committee Member

Ana Gal

Abstract

To understand the complex ways in which Bram Stoker's Dracula engages with gender and sexuality, I have used the concepts of biopower and homosociality provided by Michel Foucault and Eve Sedgwick. With these concepts, this thesis argues that the novel's treatment of women indicates the intersection of patriarchal and biopolitical modes of power in the oppression of women and explains why certain forms of non-normativity in gender roles are allowed while others are mercilessly punished. The treatment of the novel's men expresses fears about societal shifts in the understanding of sexuality. These fears find themselves expressed through Dracula, who reverses sexual norms, threatens the ambitions of empire, and even leaves the individual with a sense of sexual uncertainty.

Comments

Undergraduate Honor's Thesis

Library Comment

Honors thesis originally submitted to the Local University of Memphis Honor’s Thesis Repository.

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