Although we were asked to point out salient differences between the movie and the novel, I can’t help but be jarred by the similarities, considering the time gap between the production of the novel and movie respectively.
To clarify, I couldn’t help but notice that the story lines in both the novel and movie were arguably politically charged. That is, that each text dichotomizes the ‘east’ and ‘west’, suggesting some sort of cultural and civil superiority.
Both texts make continual references to the ‘far east’ as though it is some twisted, exoticized location that no ‘easterner’ ought to visit. Perhaps it is a stretch when I say that this rhetoric speaks to the ways in which the ‘Global North’ creates ‘otherness’ based on culture, national and international boundaries. As such, and although I cannot speak to the political climate at the time the movie and the novel were created, I can only imagine that the storyline is underpinned in some sort of orientalization and dehumanization of different cultures.
Hi Allison,
I think you raise a really important point by highlighting the dichotomy presented in the book and the movie. I definitely agree with you the fact that there is a huge emphasis in both works on the dichotomy between east and west, the rhetoric definitely makes it seem like the east is a far-off uncivilized place that is “behind” in development in comparison to England. It’s interesting that this is combined with the theme of anxieties about modernity in the Stoker’s novel, it would be really interesting to look at the ways that the theme of “east” and “west” reflect anxieties about modernity. You raise some really important points about the dichotomy between east and west and cultural superiority!
I agree with you Alison. I found that there were a lot of similarities. I chose to focus on the differences as I was more interested in that, but as I read what you wrote I started to think more and more about the similarities. I couldn’t agree more with how both the text and the film both saw the East as a more exotic land. And I liked how they referred to it as the “far east” as well making it seem like it is some far away land that is so different and weird. I think they tried to make it seem far away and make it seem like it was so much different than the west, making it scarier and more exotic for the reader and the watcher.