The author of Dracula, Bram Stoker, like many of his peers and subsequent literary generations took significant inspiration from the more gruesome details of our histories, surprisingly this extends beyond folkloric influence to a core of archaeological examples, broadly referred to as 'deviant burials'. From actual exemplar of these 'victims' comes our tendency towards monster-making. This episode is inspired by the 125th Anniversary of the publishing of the standard vampire-literature text, the one everyone has heard of... Dracula, on 26th May 1897. How close is this text to a historical reality of the 'Vampire', reality I should clarify in regard to actual belief resulting in pre- and post- mortem persecutions of real people... people who were often othered and scapegoated to sooth the real everyday realities of fear... varying from disease, political control, war, famine, rebellion against societal normalcy. Joining me this episode is Dr. Sorcha Ni Fhlainn a senior lecturer in Film Studies and American Studies at the Manchester Metropolitan University, the puzzles presented by cultural media are endlessly fascinating and Dr. Ni Fhlainn is an expert at decoding them!

NOTE: Keep your eyes (...and ears) peeled for an October Bonus Episode on Vampire Studies, the rest of this episode and reading recommendations for Spooky Season!

Music

Intro/Outro Music - Creative Commons - "Fantasia Fantasia" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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