Deutsche Gesellschaft
für phänomenologische Forschung

Buch | Kapitel

210003

Textuality and sublimity in Dracula

Andrew R. Smith

pp. 129-147

Abstrakt

In Chapter 22 we saw how Foucault provided us, coincidentally, with a helpful explanation for the Gothic fascination with constructions of the self, and how this related to notions of modernity. In The History of Sexuality, vol. I, Foucault argues that a scientific investigation into a form of sexual self-consciousness takes place in the Victorian period.1 As we shall see, Dracula can be read as a confirmation of Foucault's treatise. However, I will also explore the presence of a sexual sublime in the novel, a version of the sublime which in part unsettles Foucault's account of the attempts made to police, and so contain, desire. This latter reading is not hostile to Foucault's conclusions, but I do want to explore some of the limitations of his history of sexuality and these limitations become apparent when we consider how the sublime recasts some of his conclusions. My aim is to show how this presence of a Gothic sublimity continues to challenge traditional constructions of the self; here in formations of the subject which are to be found within late-nineteenth-century debates concerning science and sexuality.

Publication details

Published in:

Smith Andrew R. (2000) Gothic radicalism: literature, philosophy and psychoanalysis in the nineteenth century. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Seiten: 129-147

DOI: 10.1057/9780230598706_7

Referenz:

Smith Andrew R. (2000) Textuality and sublimity in Dracula, In: Gothic radicalism, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 129–147.