Stoker (1847-1912) was a popular Victorian-era writer whose 18 books include romance novels and science fiction, as well as Gothic horror. Most people recognize him as the author of the classic vampire tale "Dracula," published in 1897, but Carol Senf's interest in the Irish novelist's work is more earthly. A professor and associate chair in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture, Senf is an expert on 19th century Victorian life, attitudes, and culture. She studies Stoker's work because it offers unique insights for her research in Victorian literature and culture.
Stoker, who received a degree in science and mathematics from Trinity College in his native Dublin, wrote at a time of profound technological and social change, Senf said. "One of the reasons I think Stoker is so interesting is that he incorporates new science and technology of the late 19th and early 20th centuries into his characters' lives."
According to Senf, Stoker was a "gadget freak" who embraced the newfangled printing machine called a typewriter, and his characters use Edison's phonograph as well as telephones.
"He was one of the first writers to employ an air force in fiction," she added, "and he was the first to use the automobile as a mode of romance in a novel."
He was remarkably modern in his outlook toward women, Senf noted. "Dracula" and many of his later novels feature assertive, independent female characters, reflecting the changing role of women that was stirring western society at the turn of the century.
Senf points to the example of "Lady Athlyne" (1908), which features female characters who speak openly and enthusiastically about sex. Many of their interactions with male characters exhibit a degree of intellectual equality quite unusual for the literature of the time. The book's heroine even drives an automobile through the Scottish countryside -- by herself!
While Stoker is an ardent proponent of progress, he is also aware of the anxiety and social tension it produces, Senf noted. "Every once in a while he'll catch himself and think, 'Oh my, this may not be as good as we think it is.'"
Stoker's ambivalence is expressed in "Dracula" by using the fictional vampire as "a metaphor to articulate concerns about a rapidly changing real world," Senf said.
Vampires embody a dead past that's not really dead. "No matter how scientific and technological we get, we're interested in those things over which we have no control," she observed. "And there's a lot over which we have no control." It's a theme still popular today, with some writers substituting zombies for vampires.
Stoker's concerns about the societal impact of science and technology illustrate a larger point that Senf imparts to her literature students.
"We want scientists and engineers to have a sense that what they do impacts the culture in a big way," she said.
For Georgia Tech students, this awareness takes root with courses at the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture.
"It's important for anybody who goes to college to be able to think analytically," said Senf, adding that students learn to organize and sharpen their reasoning skill with ample opportunities to develop their writing ability. In addition, "we have access to so much information today that we need to be able to discriminate good information from better information from the best information, so we need critical readers more than we've ever needed them in the past."
Senf has penned a critical study, "Bram Stoker" (University of Wales Press, 2010), in addition to "Science and Social Science in Bram Stoker's Fiction" (Greenwood, 2002) and "Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism" (Twayne, 1998), which won the 1995 Lord Ruthven Society award for best non-fiction.
Carol Senf
Professor and Associate Chair, School of Literature, Communication, and Culture
Dr. Carol Senf received her PhD in Victorian Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1979 and came to Georgia Tech in 1981. Currently Professor and Associate Chair in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Tech, Senf has published articles on Victorian literature in Gothic Studies, Victorian Studies,College English, and Victorians Institute Journal. Her books include Science and Social Science in Bram Stoker's Fiction (Greenwood, 2002) and Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism (Twayne, 1998), which won the Lord Ruthven Assembly award for best non-fiction in 1998. An annotated edition of Bram Stoker's Lady Athlyne was published by The Desert Island Dracula Press in 2007 and an annotated edition of Stoker's Mystery of the Sea was published by Valancourt Press in 2007. Bram Stoker was published by the University of Wales Press in 2010.
