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Skal David J

Dracula (Norton Critical Editions)

W. W. Norton & Company

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This Norton Critical Edition presents fully annotated the text of the 1897 First Edition.

A rich selection of background and source materials is provided in three areas: Contexts includes probable inspirations for Dracula in the earlier works of James Malcolm Rymer and Emily Gerard. Also included are a discussion of Stoker's working notes for the novel and "Dracula's Guest," the original opening chapter to Dracula. Reviews and Reactions reprints five early reviews of the novel. "Dramatic and Film Variations" focuses on theater and film adaptations of Dracula, two indications of the novel's unwavering appeal. David J. Skal, Gregory A. Waller, and Nina Auerbach offer their varied perspectives. Checklists of both dramatic and film adaptations are included.

Criticism collects seven theoretical interpretations of Dracula by Phyllis A. Roth, Carol A. Senf, Franco Moretti, Christopher Craft, Bram Dijsktra, Stephen D. Arata, and Talia Schaffer.

A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.

Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored by inclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (The others are Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Metamorphosis.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not only the complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminating footnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the time of publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, and seven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbach of the University of Pennsylvania (author of Our Vampires, Ourselves) and horror scholar David J. Skal (author of Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, and Screams of Reason) are the editors of the volume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that Bram Stoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papers over the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticism includes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality, gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of "reverse colonization" by politically turbulent Transylvania.
Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen

Faber & Faber

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The primal image of the black-caped vampire Dracula has become an indelible fixture of the modern imagination. It's recognition factor rivals, in its own perverse way, the familiarity of Santa Claus. Most of us can recite without prompting the salient characteristics of the vampire: sleeping by day in its coffin, rising at dusk to feed on the blood of the living; the ability to shapeshift into a bat, wolf, or mist; a mortal vulnerability to a wooden stake through the heart or a shaft of sunlight. In this critically acclaimed excursion through the life of a cultural icon, David Skal maps out the archetypal vampire's relentless trajectory from Victorian literary oddity to movie idol to cultural commidity, digging through the populist veneer to reveal what the prince of darkness says about us all.
The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword

Faber & Faber

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Illuminating the dark side of the American century, The Monster Show uncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism and other artistic movements.

With penetrating analyses and revealing anecdotes, David J. Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade, The Monster Show is a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.
This study of the visual horror genre from Dr. Caligari to Dr. Hannibal Lecter starts with a discussion of Diane Arbus's photographs of freaks. David Skal then suggests that he will seek to "explain why the images resonated in the culture ... [and] why so much of our imaginative life in the 20th century has been devoted to peeling back the masks and scabs of civilization, to finding, cultivating, and projecting nightmare images of the secret self." Whether or not you agree with his thesis that horror is a symptom of society's ills (war, disease, poverty), you will find much of value in this thorough, highly readable history--especially the detailed accounts of the work of filmmaker Tod Browning, and of how Frankenstein and Dracula made their way from books to plays to films. The book is handsomely designed (hardcover has dust jacket by Edward Gorey), with illustrations, footnotes, and index.
Hollywood gothic: The tangled web of Dracula from novel to stage to screen

Norton

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Vampires: Encounters With the Undead

Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers

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The most wide-ranging collection of vampire tales ever features two centuries of spine-tingling writing, from John Polidori to Robert Block, Alexis Tolstoy to Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Henry Kuttner. Every page of Vampires features a column of commentary by the editor, expanding upon the stories and exploring the evolution of the vampire mystique in folklore, literature, and popular culture. More than 200 beautifully rendered black-and-white images of vintage engravings, film posters, and popular artifacts make this big book the “living end” of vampire fact, fiction, and lore.
Graphic Horror: Movie Monster Memories

Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

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Freddy, Jason, Frankenstein, and Dracula are just a few of the thrilling movie monsters in this illustrated, collectible reference guide. Monsters from major as well as minor horror films are brought back to life through domestic and international posters, movie stills, and publicity shots. Engaging commentary from leading horror fiction writers, editors, anthologists, and scholars accompany more than 400 movie posters and publicity stills from the early 20th century through to the present day. Not only will you revisit such iconic movies as The Shining, Child's Play, Halloween, Godzilla, and Jaws, to name just a few, you will also learn about the cultural and technological developments that have played a role in the history of the indelible movie monster. Whether you're a screenwriter, producer, director, actor, or just a fan, this reference guide is an invaluable resource about one of our greatest movie genres.

Skal David J News




Fright Night Redux? - Newsarama
Newsarama, NJ - May 14, 2009
Fright Night Redux?(For more on this, if you're curious, consult the sublime The Monster Show by David J. Skal, among others.) So, if you retain that set-up, you're going to have to explain that set-up, and you're going to lose a portion of your target audience off the

«isfjell» foran operaen - Aftenposten
Aftenposten, Norway - May 14, 2009
«isfjell» foran operaen(FOTO: TROND J. STRØM) «Isfjellet» skal plasseres på en 13 x 13 meter stor pongtong og blir 16 meter høyt. Skulpturen blir altså 6 meter høyere enn fartøyet «Innvik», som ligger nedenfor Havnelageret like ved. Skulpturen skal fortøyes i sjøbunnen og

- USA kan bli nedgradert - E24
E24, Norway - May 13, 2009
- USA kan bli nedgradertSTÅR I FARE: USAs kredittvurdering står i fare for å bli nedgradert, mener tidligere riksrevisor David Walker. Foto: J. Scott Applewhite Tidligere riksrevisor David Walker mener USAs kredittvurdering henger i en tynn tråd.