Sam George is presenting a Halloween talk on her research into the mythical origins of the Pied Piper, Dracula and Nosferatu, as part of the Literature Research Seminar at the University of Hertfordshire. All are welcome.
Abstract: This talk will explore the Pied Piper myth and its resonance in Dracula. It then traces how these narratives come together in Nosferatu, concluding via an analysis of the legacy of these overlapping myths in fiction. It teases out the connections between this small group of interrelated texts, focusing on the things that unite them: the folkloric representation of rats as souls of the dead, the rat kings or rat masters that control them, the uncanny migrant journeys these figures undertake, notions of national identity, and the unyielding sense of outsiderness, a motif that originates in the Pied Piper fairytale and is carried through via Dracula to vampire film in the beginning of the twentieth century.
Rat Kings and the Rat as Vampiric Totem Animal: Mythical Interactions Between The Pied Piper, Dracula and Nosferatu.
Literature Research Seminar, Online, Wed 30 October, 1.30-2.30,
Zoom Meeting Link: https://herts-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/95155874645
Meeting ID: 951 5587 4645
Sam will also be taking part in Lunchtime Bites for an AHRC-funded project called Dracula Returns to Derby (led by Prof. Matthew Cheeseman of Derby University). It was in Derby that Hamilton Deane’s theatrical version of Dracula was first performed, and indeed Bela Lugosi played the role of the Count on 11 occasions during a theatrical run in the 1950s. Sam’s talk ‘Bram Stoker’s Vampire’ will be on the 27th November at 12.30. It is FREE but you need to book via this link. Sam has written about the vampire theatre in OGOM’s new book The Legacy of John Polidori: The Romantic Vampire and Its Progeny (MUP, 2024) OUT THIS OCTOBER
Daisy Butcher is an invited speaker at CNCSI ‘Nature and Horror in the Nineteenth Century’ online workshop on Halloween, Thursday 31st October.
Her talk: Tree Mothers, Hollow Women and Flower Maidens: The representation of plant-women in George MacDonald’s Phantastes (1858) and Jane G. Austin’s “Prince Rudolf’s Flower” (1859) is at 2.00pm – 2.45pm.
Register here to attend free via Zoom.
We hope you can join us. If you are looking for something to read for Halloween, look no further than MUP Gothic Halloween Reading List featuring OGOM publications and much, much more with 24% off until 8th November.
