Transvaal, Transylvania: Dracula's World-system and Gothic Periodicity
Abstract
Gothic productions appear in clusters during the capitalist world-market's transition from one economic cycle to another. Using a world-systems approach, I argue that Gothic narrative devices and sensations are both historically specific to the time of their production and representative of the general logic of capitalist time-space contortions. A world-systems perspective insists on an inter-state relational approach relatively unexplored within Gothic studies. Using Stoker's Dracula as a case study, the article claims that Dracula encodes inter-imperialist tensions, primarily those between England and Germany and their proxy agents over South African gold mines in the Transvaal. This antagonism provides the background to the Boer War, itself a forerunner to the First World War's battle among imperialists.
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The production of life under capitalism must be understood as engendering an innately gothic experience.
“As Stephen Shapiro has shown, the production of life under capitalism must be understood as engendering an innately gothic experience.”
From Terrors of the house and field: saccharine gothic and Caribbean plantation literatures (2026) · cites this paper as Shapiro 2008
It is in the moment of economic transition away from sugar that the gothic finds its most potent manifestation and unleashes its most proto-critical potential.
“It is in this moment of economic transition away from sugar, therefore, that the gothic finds its most potent manifestation and unleashes its most proto-critical potential;”
From Terrors of the house and field: saccharine gothic and Caribbean plantation literatures (2026) · cites this paper as Shapiro 2008
The gothic has long been theorized as a literary genre particularly adequate to capturing the everyday experiences elicited by capitalist commodification.
“The gothic has long been theorized as a literary genre particularly adequate to capturing the everyday experiences elicited by capitalist commodification.”
From Terrors of the house and field: saccharine gothic and Caribbean plantation literatures (2026) · cites this paper as Shapiro 2008
Gothic artifacts and performances emit category crisis codifications in the transition between two phases of capitalist development.
“gothic artifacts and performances often emit a set of category crisis codifications … in the transition between two phases of capitalist development”
From Terrors of the house and field: saccharine gothic and Caribbean plantation literatures (2026) · cites this paper as Shapiro 2008,35
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Terrors of the house and field: saccharine gothic and Caribbean plantation literatures
Hugo, E. (2026) · Interventions · doi:10.1080/1369801x.2025.2555838
- Authors
- Shapiro, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Warwick (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Shapiro, Stephen
- Venue
- Gothic Studies
- Publisher
- Edinburgh University Press
- Published
- 2008-05
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 29-47
- ISSN
- 1362-7937 (ISSN-L)
- 2050-456X
- OpenAlex
- W1995361050
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 34.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Gothic Studies (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Gothic Literature and Media Analysis
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › World Systems and Global Transformations
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Decadence, Literature, and Society
- Keywords
- Dracula, Bram Stoker, Gothic fiction, global capitalism, world-systems theory, Boer War, imperialism, origins of World War I, interstate relations
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