The Gothic, Romantic and Victorian Tradition with Respect to the Poetics of the Sublime

The Space of Transylvania and Victorian London in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Abstract

Tracing the Romantic Sublime in Victorian fiction, the changes in late 19thcentury discourse through which the Romantic Sublime was generally re-jected due to its nature of excessive romantic subjectivity, egoism and lack of social responsibility cannot be ignored. However, speaking of the tran-sitional nature of the sublime in 19th century fiction¹15it becomes clear that the Victorians found the Romantic Sublime potentially attractive and thus subconsciously present in their works. Nevertheless, what is a more rele-vant aspect in the Victorian novel is the human aim at the rationalising of events which attempts to define the relationship of literature and science in the 19th century. Questioning the criteria of objectivity and rationali-ty in the course of the narrative becomes relevant namely in Bram Stok-er’s Dracula where scientific and technological progress is undermined by the sublime presence of the undead in spite of the human effort to use all available documentary material to witness the case.