Early on in Bram Stoker‘s Dracula (1897), Jonathan Harker characterizes his diary, written in shorthand, as “the nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance.” Megan Norland‘s compelling essay brings the critical understanding of the novel “up-to-date with a vengeance” via Michel Foucault‘s concept of biopower. She enlists a key section from volume one of The History of Sexuality (1976) in order to frame the novel as a Foucauldian allegory of the historical shift in how power operates. To support her theoretically astute reading, Norland outlines how contemporary scholarship addresses the topics of race and sexuality in the novel and then performs a series of brilliant close readings that highlight what is missing from these critical accounts. Spoiler alert: you will come away from this essay thoroughly convinced that “[u]ltimately”– to borrow Norland‘s provocative formulation – “Dracula is not the true monster in the novel: the true monster is non-conformity to the [dubious but dominant] ideals celebrated in White, Western society.” —Dr. Geordie Miller
