Postsecularism, burial technologies, and Dracula

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgementsThank you to the faculty advisors who so generously gave their time to help with the development of this article.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 D. Bruno Starrs adds, “In analyzing Stoker’s characterization of his eponymous star, both Ken Gelder and Judith Halberstam argue the Count is antisemitically modeled on stereotypical images (Gelder 13, Halberstam 248)” (Citation2004, 1).2 D. Bruno Starrs offers a reading of Stoker’s Dracula that is explicitly pro-Catholicism. The arc of the novel seems to promote the “proselytization of Protestants to Catholicism” even though such a theme might endanger Stoker in a tense religious climate (Citation2004, 1).3 It is worth noting the similarities between Lucy’s un-dead appearance and Dracula’s own uncanny appearance in the novel. First, Arthur observes that Dracula appears both dead and alive laying in a box of earth, noting his “eyes were open and stony, but without the glassiness of death – and the cheeks had the warmth of life through all their pallor; the lips were as red as ever. But there was no sign of movement, no pulse, no breath, no beating of the heart” (Stoker [Citation1897] Citation1997, 51). Second, Arthur observes the uncanny seeming reversal of age when he sees Dracula after feeding on blood, noting that the Count looked “as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever” (54).4 Much debate about cremation refers to the burial service text in The Book of Common Prayer, which reads, “Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change out vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the might working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself” (Church of England Citation1758, 305).5 Even in part of the cancelled manuscript the Count’s castle explodes like a volcano; there was “black and yellow smoke volume upon volume in rolling grandeur” and “From where we stood it seemed as though the one fierce volcano burst had satisfied the need of nature and that the castle and the structure of the hill had sank again into the void. We were so appalled with the suddenness and the grandeur that we forgot to think of ourselves” (Stoker [Citation1897] Citation1997, 325, note 5).Additional informationNotes on contributorsCarlie WetzelCarlie Wetzel earned her B.A. from Colgate University and her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include nineteenth-century elegiac poetry and mourning practices.