In this workshop we will discuss the process of creating Dracula. This includes Bram Stoker's biography, the emotional and intellectual influences that shaped his way of writing, the sources he used and the geographical background of Dublin and London he was familiar with and which we can recognise in his novel. It also includes the places where documents related to Bram Stoker can be found today: bibliographical efforts, important collections of books and letters, and online platforms making Stoker texts available to readers and researchers. 

Possible topics (without limitation) could be:

• New biographical insights in Bram Stoker's life
• Dracula's roots in the Irish Gothic tradition; Dracula and Carmilla
• The influence of the books by Wilkie Collins
• Victorian London and how it was depicted in Dracula; locations like The Spaniards, Jack Straw's Castle, The Aertated Bread Company, Giuliano's at Piccadilly, etc.
• Dracula and Jack the Ripper; A Thirst for Blood.
• Names from Stoker's personal life borrowed for Dracula: Harker, Hawkins, Mina, Coutts. 
• The origin of other names: Holmwood, Morris, Seward, Van Helsing, Westenra, etc.
• Dracula and its German roots: The Mysterious Stranger (1860); The Pied Piper
• Stoker, Dracula and the theatre; The first theatre performance of Dracula ever
• Collections of Stoker letters (Trinity College Dublin Collection; The Brotherton Collection, Leeds; The Shakespeare Centre Libray, Stratford; etc)
• Collections of vampire literature (Robert Eighteen-Bisang, Massimo Introvigne)
• The online archive of Stoker's works (Paul McAlduff)