ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Gender Videos 50 videos
Aren't midsummer night dreams the worst? You wake up all sweaty and gross, and for a minute there, you can't even remember where you are. And also,...
This video summarizes the play A Raisin in the Sun. It discusses the Youngers, members of an African-American family trying to better themselves wh...
Three scantily clad young girls enter a store. No, this isn’t your grandfather about to tell an inappropriate joke. And no, you’re not watching...
Dracula Part 1: Course Introduction 29641 Views
Share It!
Description:
Readers may be already be familiar with Dracula, but what about the mathematician and author, Bram Stoker? And yes, he graduated with a degree in math. We’re not confusing him with The Count from Sesame Street. We won’t make that mistake a seventh time.
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:07
Dracula
- 00:08
Introduction
- 00:11
a la Shmoop
- 00:13
All right.
Full Transcript
- 00:14
Welcome to Dracula a la Shmoop.
- 00:16
We're here with Dennis Jones,
- 00:17
who's a comparative lit PhD student at Stanford.
- 00:20
He specializes in the literature of terror.
- 00:23
No! No! No!
- 00:27
Let me just kick things off. So, Dennis,
- 00:29
can you frame for us first
- 00:31
who is Bram Stoker?
- 00:33
Bram Stoker is an Irish novelist from the 19th century,
- 00:38
the late 19th century.
- 00:39
He's best known for Dracula.
- 00:42
[ high-pitched noise ]
- 00:44
But I think he was --
- 00:46
I think he began as a mathematician.
- 00:48
He at least got a math degree.
- 00:49
He was involved in the theater.
- 00:51
[ applause ]
- 00:52
He crossed paths with Oscar Wilde. They're both Irish.
- 00:56
[ instrumental music ]
- 00:58
And then, in the 1890s, he penned Dracula,
- 01:00
and that was pretty much
- 01:03
it for him in terms of what we know about him,
- 01:05
or what we care to know about him.
- 01:07
Understood.
- 01:08
So Dracula and many of the works in this zone
- 01:12
- are framed in the genre of Gothic literature. - Mm-hmm.
- 01:19
What is a good definition
- 01:22
for Gothic literature?
- 01:23
So the Gothic is kind of difficult to pin down,
- 01:25
- since it's so protean and changeable. - What does protean mean?
- 01:29
Like it's changeable and fluctuates.
- 01:33
I would say --
- 01:35
So a good way to define the Gothic
- 01:37
as a sort of a literary mode that makes use
- 01:40
of terror and suspense and affect.
- 01:43
It's a pretty broad definition,
- 01:45
but I think you --
- 01:47
The genre consists of a broad variety of novels.
- 01:50
So I think it's probably the most generous
- 01:52
definition you can have.
- 01:55
Got it. Makes sense.
- 01:57
[ whoop ]
- 01:58
Who is Bram Stoker?
- 02:00
What is Gothic literature?
- 02:05
[ high-pitched screeching ]
Related Videos
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...
