Dracula Lunchtime Bites

'What have Romanians made of Dracula?'

Wed 26 February, 12.30–13.00

Dr Anca-Simina Martin, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is not well known in Romania. In this talk Dr Anca Martin examines the reception of the novel in Romania, focusing on journalists’ reactions to its first three translations: the previously lost interwar edition, now rediscovered and successfully sold at Bran Castle; the 1990 version (suppressed during the communist period); and its 1992 reissue, which coincided with the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s film Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

This talk is free, but you need to book in advance (it takes less than a minute). Details of how to join the talk will be emailed to you during the morning of 26 February.

Future events

‘Dracula’s Cape and a Cloaked Novel’

Wed 26 March, 12.30–13.00

Dr Anna Burton, University of Derby

It was in the stage adaptation (first performed in Derby in 1924) of Bram Stoker’s Dracula wherein the Count’s characteristic cape first appeared to shroud and define the vampire. Taking inspiration from this cloaked context, Dr Anna Burton will return to the 1897 novel to talk about how the original text is enveloped in dark shadows and fabrics, and in turn, it will consider how these trappings have contributed to our cultural understanding of Stoker’s work.

This talk is free, but you need to book in advance (it takes less than a minute). Details of how to join the talk will be emailed to you during the morning of 26 March.

'The blood is the life’: The Role of Blood in Bram Stoker’s Dracula'

Wed 30 April, 12.30–13.00

Dr Maddy Potter, University of Edinburgh

‘The blood is the life’ shouts Renfield in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In its Biblical echoes, it intimates the promise of eternal life – and the vampire’s perverse appropriation of that very promise. But Renfield’s exclamation is also strikingly literal, indeed medical. In this talk, Dr Maddy Potter will explore the role and implications of blood in Dracula and how it brings together the natural and the supernatural in the novel.

This talk is free, but you need to book in advance (it takes less than a minute). Details of how to join the talk will be emailed to you during the morning of 30 April.

Dracula Returns to Derby

Wed 14 May, 12.30–13.00

Dr Matthew Cheeseman, University of Derby

On the 15 May 1924 Bram Stoker’s Dracula was first adapted at the Grand Theatre in Derby. On the eve of the 101st centenary, and in advance of our four-day conference and celebration, Prof. Matthew Cheeseman looks back at the AHRC-funded research project ‘Dracula Returns to Derby’ and forward to future commemorations of the Derby's links with Dracula.

This talk is free, but you need to book in advance (it takes less than a minute). Details of how to join the talk will be emailed to you during the morning of 14 May.

About these events

These events are part of Dracula Returns to Derby, an AHRC-funded research project led by the University of Derby in partnership with Derby Museums, Derby Theatre, Bournemouth University and Sheffield Hallam University. A series of public workshops and events connect the city with the world’s most famous vampire. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.