The containment of homoerotic impulse in Dracula by Bram Stoker

• Grant number: 22/16681-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2023
• End date: March 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Carla Alexandra Ferreira
• Grantee: Lucas Mazzola
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The current Scientific Initiation project aims to carry out a literary analysis of Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker to investigate the existence of the homoerotic impulse contained in the characterization and relationship of the characters, specifically between Dracula and Jonathan Harker. The dialogue between these two figures during the narrative materializes in ambiguity, and we find our research object: the containment of homoeroticism. To shed light on this impulse - which, even implicitly, is still embodied in the characters' speeches and thoughts - we will focus on theorists such as Roberto Schwarz, who points to every representation as an element laden with will and interest (SCHWARZ, 2006, p. 13). Concerning the social issues of the time that influenced the interior of Stoker's work, which are relevant to understanding this ambiguous interaction between the characters, we will use Literature and Society (CANDIDO, 1995) and The Political Unconscious (1992) by Fredric Jameson that will explain the relationships and influences of the author's life with the characters mentioned above and also the reflexes of the social/historical structure in the text. To understand, more specifically, the gender performances in Dracula (1897) and how they collaborate to contain the homoerotic impulse, we will base ourselves on the work Queer Theory by Annamarie Jagose (1996). Finally, combining all theoretical tools will allow a literary analysis that will illuminate what has been hidden for so long.