Context in The Occidental Tourist

The thesis for The Occidental Tourist can be found as this: "Late-Victorian Gothic in general, and Dracula in particular, continually calls to out attention to our cultural context surrounding and informing the text, and insists that we take that context into account." This not only summarizes the points made in this article, but also many of the things we take into account in our class discussions. In our class we often talk about gender issues and technological advancements of the time and how the book relates to them. The article mentions historic elements like colonization and how Dracula takes the idea and utilizes it. Stoker takes into account reverse colonization. The Late-Victorian Gothic area takes into account the dominance The British Empire had on the world. In Dracula, we see a force from Eastern Europe take over Western Europe. This is reverse colonization. The article also mentions the prominence of travel novels of the time. At the beginning of Dracula, we think this might be a travel novel. As mentioned in the article, Dracula becomes a novel set on pushing the boundaries of travel novels. When you look at the context the book was written in, the symbolism of the book takes a whole other meaning, which is what The Occidental Tourist takes into account. When taking this and putting it with the discussions we have in class, we see that the Victorian context changes the meaning of many things, whether it be Mina's or Lucy's characteristics or the relationship between the four men. Context is everything.