Although not an immediate commercial success, Dracula has since become a seminal example of Gothic horror at the fin-de-siècle, leading not only to film, stage, and television adaptations, but also to literary reimaginings and a plethora of scholarship. I argue that the vampires in Dracula do not fit into the traditional critical understandings of the vampire; rather, they belong in two different but related categories recently theorized by science fiction studies and related to human evolution: transhuman and posthuman. I suggest that a reading of the novel that prioritizes the pervasive influence of evolutionary theory on Victorian literature encourages a reading of vampires as a posthuman species. Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) challenged and troubled the Victorians, who now had to consider humans as a species that not only evolved over time but that could also, like other species, go extinct. Humans in a state of transhuman evolution and vampires as posthuman call into question a common belief that Victorian fin-de-siècle literature echoes contemporary fears of regression post-Darwin. Instead, the vampires in this new reading highlight Victorian fears of the progression of another species that will naturally overtake homo sapiens. Having read the text as an expression of a fear of the vampire’s evolution, I will then argue that rather than limiting the discussion of Stoker’s novel to fin-de-siècle Gothic horror, we can also read Stoker’s novel as a work of science fiction.
","abstract_html":"<p>Although not an immediate commercial success, <em>Dracula</em> has since become a seminal example of Gothic horror at the <em>fin-de-siècle</em>, leading not only to film, stage, and television adaptations, but also to literary reimaginings and a plethora of scholarship. I argue that the vampires in <em>Dracula </em>do not fit into the traditional critical understandings of the vampire; rather, they belong in two different but related categories recently theorized by science fiction studies and related to human evolution: transhuman and posthuman. I suggest that a reading of the novel that prioritizes the pervasive influence of evolutionary theory on Victorian literature encourages a reading of vampires as a posthuman species. Charles Darwin’s <em>On the Origin of Species</em> (1859) and <em>The Descent of Man </em>(1871) challenged and troubled the Victorians, who now had to consider humans as a species that not only evolved over time but that could also, like other species, go extinct. Humans in a state of transhuman evolution and vampires as posthuman call into question a common belief that Victorian <em>fin-de-siècle </em>literature echoes contemporary fears of regression post-Darwin. Instead, the vampires in this new reading highlight Victorian fears of the progression of another species that will naturally overtake <em>homo sapiens</em>. Having read the text as an expression of a fear of the vampire’s evolution, I will then argue that rather than limiting the discussion of Stoker’s novel to <em>fin-de-siècle</em> Gothic horror, we can also read Stoker’s novel as a work of science fiction.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wolverton, Mary Elizabeth"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Alexandra Valint","Nicolle Jordan","Katherine Cochran"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:50Z","subjects":["Dracula","transhuman","posthuman","evolution","Darwin","vampire"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/306","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Alexandra Valint","Nicolle Jordan","Katherine Cochran"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wolverton, Mary Elizabeth"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-06-29T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Dracula","transhuman","posthuman","evolution","Darwin","vampire"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/306"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Although not an immediate commercial success, Dracula has since become a seminal example of Gothic horror at the fin-de-siècle, leading not only to film, stage, and television adaptations, but also to literary reimaginings and a plethora of scholarship. I argue that the vampires in Dracula do not fit into the traditional critical understandings of the vampire; rather, they belong in two different but related categories recently theorized by science fiction studies and related to human evolution: transhuman and posthuman. I suggest that a reading of the novel that prioritizes the pervasive influence of evolutionary theory on Victorian literature encourages a reading of vampires as a posthuman species. Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) challenged and troubled the Victorians, who now had to consider humans as a species that not only evolved over time but that could also, like other species, go extinct. Humans in a state of transhuman evolution and vampires as posthuman call into question a common belief that Victorian fin-de-siècle literature echoes contemporary fears of regression post-Darwin. Instead, the vampires in this new reading highlight Victorian fears of the progression of another species that will naturally overtake homo sapiens. Having read the text as an expression of a fear of the vampire’s evolution, I will then argue that rather than limiting the discussion of Stoker’s novel to fin-de-siècle Gothic horror, we can also read Stoker’s novel as a work of science fiction.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"There was No Sign of Man in It\": Casting Dracula as Posthuman and Valuing the Progressive Vampire"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Alexandra Valint","Nicolle Jordan","Katherine Cochran"],"dc:creator":["Wolverton, Mary Elizabeth"],"dc:date.available":["2017-06-29T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Although not an immediate commercial success, Dracula has since become a seminal example of Gothic horror at the fin-de-siècle, leading not only to film, stage, and television adaptations, but also to literary reimaginings and a plethora of scholarship. I argue that the vampires in Dracula do not fit into the traditional critical understandings of the vampire; rather, they belong in two different but related categories recently theorized by science fiction studies and related to human evolution: transhuman and posthuman. I suggest that a reading of the novel that prioritizes the pervasive influence of evolutionary theory on Victorian literature encourages a reading of vampires as a posthuman species. Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) challenged and troubled the Victorians, who now had to consider humans as a species that not only evolved over time but that could also, like other species, go extinct. Humans in a state of transhuman evolution and vampires as posthuman call into question a common belief that Victorian fin-de-siècle literature echoes contemporary fears of regression post-Darwin. Instead, the vampires in this new reading highlight Victorian fears of the progression of another species that will naturally overtake homo sapiens. Having read the text as an expression of a fear of the vampire’s evolution, I will then argue that rather than limiting the discussion of Stoker’s novel to fin-de-siècle Gothic horror, we can also read Stoker’s novel as a work of science fiction.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/306"],"dc:subject":["Dracula","transhuman","posthuman","evolution","Darwin","vampire"],"dc:title":["\"There was No Sign of Man in It\": Casting Dracula as Posthuman and Valuing the Progressive Vampire"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:50Z"}