“All Drifting Reefwards Now”: Nietzsche, Stoker, and the Shock of the New

Bram Stoker’s Dracula has often been regarded as a progressive text in its dealings with such issues as female sexuality and madness. In the constrained moral atmosphere of Victorian England, where such issues were consciously avoided, the novel seemed to be articulating themes about which society preferred to remain silent. This article argues that, in fact, the very opposite is the case, that Dracula is dogmatically reactionary, and that it is reacting against the new intellectual climate emerging from Europe. With close reference to the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, this article demonstrates just how conservative Dracula is in the face of emergent Modernism and, indeed, from this perspective how it fails to stem the flow of intellectual challenges represented, at this time, by Nietzsche more than any other thinker.