tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post1231882480328891583..comments2024-03-28T15:01:12.582+00:00Comments on The little white attic : Reading Dracula: obstaclesHai Di Nguyenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-76147775886400564672015-07-29T07:25:41.658+01:002015-07-29T07:25:41.658+01:00Oh no no no, don't you give me another preconc...Oh no no no, don't you give me another preconception. <br />I see your point, and indeed we approach many canonical texts with some knowledge of them. For example, I knew the plot of <i>Anna Karenina</i> or <i>Crime and Punishment</i> beforehand. However, some works, such as the 3 mentioned above, are worse cases- they're fully absorbed in Western culture and there are references to them everywhere. Books such as <i>Anna Karenina</i> or <i>Madame Bovary</i> are familiar to readers mostly, whereas I think lots of people who know about Dracula and Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde may not care much about literature or even cinema. Hai Di Nguyenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-65489640982698231582015-07-28T19:02:36.846+01:002015-07-28T19:02:36.846+01:00Very interesting, Di. You touch upon a problem tha...Very interesting, Di. You touch upon a problem that affects all readers: trying to recapture that "first time" experience with canonical texts. When writing about poets, Harold Bloom famously explained the concept "anxiety of influence" wherein writers are made anxious by their awareness of the influence upon them by previous poets; I think that concept can be borrowed for readers because we also experience the "anxiety of influence" because of prior readings and/or cultural associations. After all, who among us in western culture does not know about Dracula even though readers of Stoker's novel are a small percentage of people. In any case, I hope you enjoy your encounter with the east European vampire (i.e., an elaborately symbolic stand-in for male sexual predators and innocent female virgins in Victorian England).R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.com