| Three themes emerged from
this stimulating conference. First, Stoker's Dracula is masterpiece and
should be recognized as a work of literature rather than relegated to
the Gothic genre. At the same time, the Stoker oeuvre is much larger
and his other works deserve a wider recognition and appreciation.
Secondly, the early short stories and novels contain seeds that came to
full fruition in his most well-known novel, and that a reader can
find in some of those works the influence of his early life, in his
short stories Under the Sunset the writing of his mother on the 1830's
cholera epidemic. Finally, and perhaps most important, authors of
future Stoker studies need to be more rigorous about limiting
themselves to empirical evidence (as little as there may be) in
relating Stoker's life to his fiction and relying less on speculation. |
 Dacre Stoker, the grandnephew of Bram Stoker, and Elizabeth Miller |
Dacre Stoker, the grandnephew of Bram Stoker, and
Elizabeth Miller, one of Canada's most illustrious scholars on
Dracula, were in Dublin to promote the publication of Bram
Stoker's Journal that cover the Dublin years before he moved to
London.
|
 Gillian and William Hughes
|
William
Hughes, the co-editor of Gothic Studies. presented a paper
that revealed the connections between Stoker's mother's
reminiscences about the cholera epidemic of the early 1830s and
his own early short stories.
|
 Noel Dobbs and Robin MacCaw
|
Noel
Dobbs and Robin MacCaw are the great grandsons of Bram Stoker. Noel
revealed that when they were small boys, their father was killed and
they were raised by their grandfather, Noel, the only son of Bram and
Florence Stoker.
|
 From left to right, Christopher Frayling, Luke Gibbons, Paul Murray, David Skal
|
Christopher Frayling offered a compelling paper on the importance of adhering to the documentary record, and less on speculation, when scholars attempt to relate the life of Stoker to Dracula. Luke Gibbons is one of the Ireland's leading scholars on the Gothic and has published extensively. Paul Murray has written the best biography thus far of Bram Stoker. David Skal has written several books on popular culture and the Gothic is currently working on a new biography of Bram Stoker. |
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