Dracula: Notes on a Vampire with Edward G. Pettit | Virtual Course

Registration

• Tuition for this course is $200. 10% off for Rosenbach members and the Delancey Society. Not a member? Learn more.
• This course is limited to participants who are 18 years of age or older.
• Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email [email protected].
• This course meets virtually on Zoom with a special in-person presentation at the Rosenbach on January 31, 2024 at 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Virtual sessions will be recorded.
• Registration opens for Delancey Society members on Wednesday, August 16, for Rosenbach members on Wednesday, August 23, and for the general public on Wednesday, August 30.

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Description

Bram Stoker’s Dracula has become the ur-text of vampire fiction and lore. Stoker researched and wrote the novel over seven years, synthesizing vampire folklore and fiction to create a work that has continued to inspire fiction and film for over a hundred years. Many of the “rules” for both vampires and their hunters take their cue from Stoker’s novel. Our approach will be to examine how Stoker shapes and develops his characters (Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Lucy Westenra, Mina Harker, Renfield, Professor Van Helsing) in his original notes and also in the novel.  We’ll also consider how Dracula highlights the fears and anxieties of the culture that produced it and discover how this vampire story is just as much about themes of difference and otherness, race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, issues still relevant for contemporary readers.   

This course features an in person presentation at the Rosenbach of our Dracula-related holdings, including Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula and first editions of the novel. There will also be an online presentation for those who are unable to attend the in-person session. The remaining three sessions will all be held on Zoom.   

The Rosenbach is the home of Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula, over 100 pages of outlines, early plot ideas, and research notes, compiled by the author over the seven years he developed and wrote the novel. Also in our holdings are first editons of the novel, including the first paperback publication of Dracula 

You can find more about our Dracula and vampire related materials here and about our specifically Bram Stoker holdings here. 

Dracula: Notes on a Vampire Syllabus

About the instructor 

Edward G. Pettit is the Sunstein Senior Manager of Public Programs at the Rosenbach. In 2020, he hosted Sundays with Dracula, a live 28 week series exploring Stoker’s novel chapter-by-chapter. This series was followed by Sundays with Frankenstein, Sundays with Jane Eyre and Austen Mondays. Pettit was Master of Ceremonies for the Rosenbach’s Dracuthon, a marathon reading of Stoker’s novel in 2022. He continues his vampiric interest in his personal life as a consulting editor for the Dracula Beyond Stoker magazine. On Mondays, he can be found hosting the Rosenbach’s Sherlock Mondays Biblioventures program.