2010 REPRESENTATIONS OF EVIL IN EUROPEAN FANTASY. DRACULA, SAURON AND VOLDEMORT AND SOME DEVILISH EUROPEAN QUESTIONS.

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REPRESENTATIONS OF EVIL IN EUROPEAN FANTASY.

DRACULA, SAURON AND VOLDEMORT AND SOME

DEVILISH EUROPEAN QUESTIONS.

Boussoulas Christos, s1802461

Supervisors: Hermans, prof. dr. H.L.M. Prof. dr hab. Czesław Porębski

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“Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason…On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy it will make. If men were ever in a state in which they did not want to know or could not perceive truth (facts or evidence), then Fantasy would languish….For creative Fantasy is founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact, but not a slavery to it” J.R.R Tolkien

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INTRODUCTION

1. MEN OF POWER.

During the 70s ―The Kinks‖ released a song called ―powerman‖, singing in the refrain, ―It's the same old story, it's the same old dream, It‘s power man, power man, and all that it can bring‖. The world back then was healing from WW2, whereas at the same time was damaging its new self with the Cold War and the war in Vietnam. This is the madness that forced The Kinks to sing ―powerman powerman you are driving me insane‖ and this is the same madness that we keep facing in every different era of our world, the madness of the Powerman.

In this thesis I will analyze three ―power-men‖ and these are Dracula, Sauron and Voldemort. Each one of them is situated in a different historical period, under different historical contexts, but still these three power-men are so very much alike.

Each and every Novel that is under study in this paper had been and continues to be a major successful best seller. Their value, especially that of Dracula and the

Lord of the Rings, has remained unchanged with the passing years. In all three cases

the cultural responses were many. The icons that the three writers created were reproduced, again and again, affecting and influencing the popular culture of their time, giving new ideas to people, creating new literary genres1 and causing hysteria and creating devoted followers2. All these three famous novels became the cause of popular great movies, like Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola), Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson) and Harry Potter (many different directors3) affecting in this way visually our fantasies and fears.

Bram Stoker, J.R.R Tolkien, and J.K Rowling offered an escape and a happy-ending to the people of their eras. Every happy happy-ending, though, seems to be the basis

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It is widely known that Tolkien is considered to be as the creator of the Epic Fantasy genre. Many writers consider that it‘s an honor to compare their novel with the Novel of the father of fantasy as they call Tolkien.

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Except the numerous movies about vampires, there are today people that are so influenced by the image that Bram Stoker created that claim to be ‗vampires‘. Tolkien after finishing his book used to have visits from people he never knew, camping outside of his house.

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for the reappearance of the same evil under a different cloak. Stoker, with Dracula, gave to Great Britain, and in general to the western European countries, the assurance, in time of high migration and movement from excessive colonialism, that the degeneration of their species will not take place though the enemy might be cunning and strong and might possesses powers4 above reason and human strength, he is not powerful enough to win Stoker‘s heroes, to win the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon heritage. Tolkien wrote his masterpieces the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings during WWI and WWII, offering people the hope, that the darkness of totalitarianism will not succeed to tame the free will of Europe, ―Oft hope is born when all is forlorn‖ (Tolkien 877), finally J.K Rowling through Harry Potter, taught the people not to kneel in front of terror but also not to kneel in front of the establishment and give up personal freedoms because of the threat of terror. There was a shift in her writings after 9/11. Her writings became more aggressive towards the establishment, presenting a world where the establishment provokes terrorism in order to fight terrorism itself. Giving a small preview, I will mention that, when all people back then were under a small Islamophobia and every Muslim was considered to be a potential terrorist, Rowling was the person that had her heroes struggling to convince the Minister of Magic to release the people that were arrested without a basic accusation. These arrests, which I will mention later on, are taking place due to the general fear and chaos that is caused by the return of Voldemort.

The starting point for this thesis will be the late nineteenth century, which is a period when Europe is subjected to many changes and alterations. The structures of the society are changing rapidly, the world is becoming smaller, faster and easier. Industrial revolution gave to humanity ways to travel and to keep moving around the globe without time being a problem anymore. Everything started to become

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accessible. As Norman Davies writes in, Europe a History, “There is a dynamism about nineteenth century Europe that far exceeds anything previously known. Europe vibrated with power as never before (…) the triumph of the strongest class, in the cult of the superman, or in the Theory and practice of Imperialism. Europeans in fact, were made to feel not only powerful but superior” (759). Europe is in the process of being modern and the pioneer in this process is Britain.

The countries with colonies and especially at that time the British Empire are reaping advantages because of this progress. ―Far East‖ is not so ―far‖ anymore and the profits are great. Great Britain, and in general the ―great‖ western European countries become ―Great Leeches‖ that suck all the natural resources of their colonies, by exploiting in the most inhumane way the human resources. Something that was not expected, however, is that movement to and from the colonies, was restricted not only to the noble westerners, but to the subjects from the colonies. Eastern people, with whatever the word eastern implies, started coming to Europe.

This movement came as an addition to the already existing nationalism and hostility that was on the rise in the European continent, increasing among the already powerful European states, the sense of defense and threat. Of course, this process made the European states look not only with arrogance on their poor and pitiful colonies, but also their neighbors. Industrialization is what made Europeans powerful, and industrialization is what created this idea of omnipotence and superiority.

In general, Industrialization brought a change in our life, though its impact cannot be compared with the impact that agriculture or the printing press brought. Because of industrialization, the notion of movement developed and everything became easily accessible. Movement, or in other words migration, started slowly and localy expanded regionally, and in the end became an international phenomenon. This unregulated migration brought in its turn a different experience of living, the urban experience, which because of its immaturity and lack of regulation was dangerous due to overcrowding, housing shortages, lack of hygiene, and ultimately resulted in the millions of homeless people. Of course more bad things followed amidst the prosperity, like epidemics of cholera5. With all these diseases, it was natural and

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rational enough to be connected with the immigrants and make eastern seem in front of the eyes of the Westerners as lazy, filthy and slow.

This picture was expanded not only to the people of the east but also to the east as a general place, orient was an ―en retard‖ place. It is quite interesting and it will be analyzed among others what Jonathan Harker says when he leaves from Budapest to go further east trying to reach his destination which is Dracula‘s castle, “I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move. It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?‖ (Stoker 4)

Here we can see a basic difference between east and west that is repeated in

Dracula and this is punctuality. In order to catch the train you must know the

timetable and you must be there on time. Travelling with train is something that we will see a lot in Dracula whereas in the Lord of the Rings, the fastest mean that Tolkien uses is a horse. Dracula is written during the modernization of Europe, and it‘s a hymn to science, progress, and modernity, when at the same time is a hymn of all the complexes and fears of the western world.

Punctuality of course, underlies many different aspects of the modernized life such as categorization, order, consistency, and efficiency. Reason prevails and there is no room for weakness. Science takes over, and as we will see also in the Harry Potter part, Magic is might, this divinity of science that is adored by Bram Stoker, is highly questioned by Tolkien and Rowling. The idea of the super human belongs and exists in all three novels and still, in our postmodern world seems to threat our lives. For example all of us have heard about the children by order. The children that we will be able, maybe in the future, with our intervention, create them perfect, efficient and productive by the standards of the Western civilization. A possible future, which is pictured perfectly, I would say in the movie Gattaca6 and it is expressed by the following quote: ―There is a little doubt that we, at the present time, give much weight to beauty than logic. Shall we then try to raise a generation of logical thinkers, suppresses those whose emotional life is vigorous, and try to bring it about that reason

6_{The film presents a vision of a society driven by Liberal eugenics. Children of the middle}

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shall reign supreme, and that human activities shall be performed with clock-like precision?‖ (Boas 476)

In this thesis I will write about novels that were written among crossroads, when there where times that Europe had to decide ―what is coming next‖, times where everything was changing. These times are entering the scene these three novels that I will analyze.

In the first chapter of this Thesis ―The Invading Eastern Dracula‖ I will give a short summary of the novel, some biographical information about the author, his background and his influences, as well as the historical context in which the novel was written. Bram Stoker as I will show further on was born in a time of great changes and great men, and he was acquainted with prominent people of the arts, theatre, poetry and occult. I will also explain the reasons why the novel is attributed to the literary genre of invasion literature and what that means. In this chapter I will share also some thoughts on some theories that slowly started to appear, theories that later on were applied with catastrophic results. I am referring to eugenics and social darwinism that were the basis for the ―scientific‖ excuse of the evils of 20th Century and the results it had.

This is where exactly I will proceed to the second chapter analyzing the Lord

of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. Tolkien wrote his masterpiece during the two Great

Wars. His books come to remind us a more romantic view of this world that was lost in the ―madness‖ of ―clear‖ reason. Nationalism, industry and race are the three words that govern the twentieth century; people are categorized perfectly in order. Borders are defined and the otherness frightens and causes disorientation. One of the most totalitarian states Germany, a perfect product of the modern world, begins a war that will bring darkness and dementia all over Europe and death to millions of people, and in the end the Holocaust.

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therefore, must surely look back on the three decades between August 1914 and May 1945 as the era when Europe took leave of it‘s senses. The totalitarian horrors of communism and fascism, when added to the horrors of total war, created an unequalled sum of death, misery and degradation‖ (897)

Tolkien‘s story is exactly about this kind of horror, and unravels in an undefined place called middle earth that resembles to Europe, and human beings of different species that fight together against the Dark Lord Sauron.

Sauron as I will show further on was and is the symbol of absolute totalitarianism, and control. A big lidless eye, whose gaze can penetrate everywhere (Panopticism), symbolizes his presence in the book, and by the power of his will only he can move great armies. As in Dracula the same tactic will be followed here. I will give a summary of the story as well as the social, cultural background of the writer and, in the different sections; I will analyze the theories of Panopticism, by Foucault, Hannah‘s Arendt theory about The Origins of Totalitarianism, as well as theories by Adorno about authoritarian states. I will close the chapter with the end of the war the building of the United Nations and the ―new beginning‖ of the world.

In the third part of this thesis I will deal with Harry Potter. This cultural phenomenon that caused a mania around the globe, gained many fans but also many enemies. The world after the long period of the Cold War is again united, having made steps forward, but is this true?

In the book we will see a world recovering from the terror of Voldemort. A world of wizards, which resembles and coexists next to ours and strangely enough, has the same issues. The problem that will be coming and going around in this thesis is eugenics and racism. In Harry Potter books racism is there, and it is against those who are not clean in their ancestry, ―mud-bloods‖ as they are called in the novel. Wizards are powerful having their world protected away from the poor blissfully unaware muggles7 who do not know how easy life can be when you use magic. There are though some common people that infiltrate the magic community attaining the charisma of magic just by luck. These people are the ―mud-bloods‖ a term that equals

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to the term niger or brownie, with the latter being an offensive way of blaming Mexicans for being ―mixed‖ racially. These people are a nuisance to some members of the wizard community who declare to have a ―clear‖ bloodline. Their leader Voldemort fights and tries to establish a totalitarian state where only the clean wizards will be ruling. Voldemort as we will see in the first book is thought to be dead and even though his followers repented for the sins of the past and their beliefs, the idea of Voldemort and what he represents still threatens the wizard world.

Nevertheless, this hate is covered under the decency and the political correctness. Many wizards as we see from the novels, believe that mud-bloods are bastards, half-breeds. Movement forward seems to be just superficial, and the same stands for our world. Voldemort died, and as in the novel his name and his presence fill the novels with a forbidden fear, in the end he reappears more powerful than ever. After 9/11 and during the economic crisis we will see that ―the other‖ still keeps bothering us, and the sense of belonging somewhere make us exclude and hate what we define as different. Very recent examples8, of France, Belgium and Spain show to us the true fact that no one seems to want to accept. Europe is still distinctly racist. Europe cannot accept ―the other‖ and the differences or alternatives that ―the other‖ might be able to offer. Restraining and forcing people to show their identity so as everyone knows what is their place in this world is a tactic that was applied and practiced ―successfully‖ in the Nazi Germany. Restraining and forcing people to hide their believes because their believes are considered to be ―evil‖ and totally connected with oppression and terror, in front of the eyes of Europeans, just shows that the Europeans will never get over themselves. Voldemort in the book came back bringing again desolation and despair, and the question that lies is that, if we will ever have again the idea of ―Hitler‖ reappearing. If it appears will we be able to notice it, or under a new dogma of security and anti-oppression measures we wont even understand its presence? In one of his letters to his son Michael Tolkien once wrote:

There was a solemn article in the local paper seriously advocating systematic exterminating of the entire German nation as the only proper course after military victory: because, if you please, they are rattlesnakes, and don't know the difference

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between good and evil! (What of the writer?) The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done (Carpenter 94 )

Forcing someone to show his identity and forcing someone to hide it, is exactly the same thing. And the question that remains is what, have we learned in the end? In all three cases we have problems that deal with otherness and how it is perceived. Evil takes distorted forms, presents itself in the most powerful ways, and usually has an eastern, orient vague resemblance, whereas our heroes most of the times are always fair, beautiful and, white.

Even when in the all three cases eugenics, racism have a quite controversial role, totalitarianism is always something that our heroes are fighting against for, this is quite an irony when we think that one of the most totalitarian states, Nazi Germany was genuinely racist. Nevertheless it‘s not my intention to accuse, or to criticize the writers for being racists. That would be just unfair and totally pointless, since the idea of racism in Stokers and Tolkien‘s years had not the same meaning as today and, since the writers themselves are products of their times and the society they live in. The message that I want to push forward is that these ―Devilish European Questions‖ will be unfortunately difficult not to ask them again.

In the first chapter, ―The ―other‖, Dracula‖, I will analyze Bram Stoker‘s

Dracula in the first sub chapter, ―Invasion From the East‖, I will give a short

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In chapter two, ―Lord of the Rings an interpretation of WW2 and Tolkien‘s Criticism on the Totalization of Modernity‖, I will discuss totalitarianism unfolding Tolkien‘s novel alongside WW2, concentrating on Hannah Arendt, and Adorno as well as how theories of eugenics and scientific racism where evolved and practiced and are connected with the idea of Powerman. Also Tolkien‘s disdain towards modernity will be analyzed. Moreover emphasis will be given on the races of middle earth and in another kind of degeneration that is the degeneration – corruption that comes from the one ring. Totalitarianism will be presented and analyzed, as well as the idea of power and progress through the theories and thoughts of Arendt, Adorno and Foucault.

In the first sub chapter of chapter two, ―The Great War for the salvation of Middle earth or Europe?‖ I will give a short summary of the novel, biographical information about the author, his background and beliefs, as well as the historical context in which the novel was written. In the second sub chapter, ―Modernity and State Totalization. A Dream of Race‖, will be understood that even if Tolkien‘s world is racial, what degenerates and corrupts not only the characters of the book but also the natural environment is totalization. Totalization and modernity as I will show is an opprobrium in Tolkien‘s world. Absolute power corrupts and creates the powermen. Two powermen will be analyzed, Sauron and Saruman. In the third sub-chapter, ―Race Thinking and Degeneration in the Lord of the Rings. Why Everyone is Still Afraid of the Ring?‖ an analysis of the races of middle-earth will be given. Even if power is what corrupts and Tolkien‘s work is against modernity there is still room for higher and lesser beings in Tolkien‘s world. Still the theme of power will remain in this sub-chapter and how the ring can corrupt will be elaborated. Furthermore Tolkien‘s idea about the orient will be showed and how he could not escape from the stereotypes and the images that west had created.

Finally in the third and last chapter, ―Voldemort and His New World Order‖, I will discuss the evolution of scientific racism, eugenics and totalitarianism and their relation to post modernism. The idea in Harry Potter is completed. The devil has been defined as the totalitarian man, who is corrupted because of his greed for power. The totalitarian man hates, destroys and tries to find perfect ways of guiding people with the power of his will.

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and beliefs. In the second sub chapter ―If the Ring was Destroyed, Then Why Voldemort is Still Alive?‖ I will discuss once again about scientific racism, eugenics, and how they are still used by the totalitarian man. I will elaborate on Rowling‘s racial world, and how the eastern is still presented through the Harry Potter series. In the third sub chapter, ―Magic is Might, Ministry is Information, death Eaters are a Party, Imperius-Legilimency is Control and, Hate is an Ideology. All of Them Are Power.‖ I will analyze the nightmare of the victorious totalitarian man. Voldemort uses, magic, the media, his devoted followers the death-eaters and an ideology of hate, as well as a kind of mind control in order to rule in a pure and powerful society. Joan K. Rowling gives us a perfect vision of another future Hitler. In the conclusion of this thesis I discuss the three Powermen - representations of evil that keep reappearing under different ways every different time. Totalitarianism and the deprivation of human rights are constantly repeating themselves, ideas like eugenics first are given to mankind as the only route to salvation but evolve into a threat. In the following two sessions of this introduction I will give a short idea about the ideas that will be analyzed further on in this thesis, as well as the theories where the methodology and the theoretical framework that will be based.

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2. SOCIAL DARWINISM, RACISM, EUGENICS, AND

TOTALITARIANISM, A SHORT ANALYSIS.

2.1. Social Darwinism

With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated; and those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of everyone to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed. (Darwin 129)

Not so long before Charles Darwin, Robert Malthus a British scholar influential in political economy and demography, as I found through, Social Darwinism: The Two Sources, an article written by Michael Rise, once wrote: ―on the one hand humans have a tendency to increase in number geometrically, on the other hand, food supplies can be in- creased at best only arithmetically; but because a geometric progression out- strips an arithmetic progression, there will inevitably be a "struggle for existence," with the weakest going to the wall‖ (24)

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Herbert Spencer9, after reading Darwin‘s theory On the Origin of the Species, developed the concept of the ―survival of the fittest‖, and raised Darwin‘s theory and applied it to the level of competition between individuals for the limited resources that I mentioned in the above. It's not random that the term fittest is related not only with Darwin‘s name but also with Thomas Malthus and finally with Francis Galton who was the founder of eugenics as we will see in the same section later on. Its really vital to see the connection between all those academics I mentioned, and their theories since, they expressed Europe‘s difficulty of accepting the ―other‖ and the variations of this perception that were discovered in Asia and Africa.

All of the different nationalities and races that were encountered by the white West caused a disorientation, in the sense that the definition in the Western perception of "human" was seemingly being undermined. As is often the case with that which is unknown, a fear developed among the Europeans of the people that were coming and settling, working, producing, reproducing, and mingling. The new reality presented a sort of silent war, a ―natural‖ war that through its very nature was seen as threatening to the white race, which consequently felt compelled to prove to be stronger. Of course this fear was most prominently embodied in the form of patriotism and the importance placed on the sovereignty of the nation state.10

In addition, as we will see further on, the British subjects, and more generally the European subjects, that were living and working away from the European motherland were returning to their country bringing new customs and ways from abroad. Upon their return from the colonies, these nobles were also seen as having been inherently changed. In the eyes of the narrow-minded people of Europe, the colonizers seemed to have been altered by living alongside ―the other‖. They were

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deracialized, they brought new ideas, they made new fashions, some of which were quite sensual and sexual, clearly against the Victorian Moral, the representation of the general moral situation in Europe.

The British race and nation, and in extension all Europeans, were now under a peril threat. Degeneration and the fear of the migrant invader in combination with the social theory, made people and scholars of the era believe in a war of races, through which the laws of nature would choose one species that would prevail among others as the strongest and most adaptable.

People started to perceive that the miracle of Western civilization as manifested in its progress, especially toward the end of the 19th century, was acting in contradiction of its own existence, or at least the existence proposed by Darwin's theory. The passage opening this chapter makes it obvious that according to Darwin, civilized men, because of their very civility, do not comply with the laws of nature. The weak, the ill, the inadaptable, should have been eliminated, as is normally the case in nature, but thanks to the innovations already present, despite sickness or inferiority they were surviving.

Darwin‘s theory became a handy excuse for society by becoming a useful tool that would again organize the life of the West, putting everything in its proper place and bringing balance through categorization.

The categories that would apply were simple - civilized men are the white men, the Europeans who were the ones that developed the sense of civilization, and uncivilized men the rest of the tribal people, which their way of life, their customs their connection to nature signified a way of leaving that was conceived to be primitive. Moreover, what constituted the uncivilized people dangerous to the civilized was exactly their connection with nature that seemed to keep them strong, since natural selection was deciding for them, whereas the civilized because of science and technological achievements were seeming to deracialize.

Nevertheless, because the Westerners were those that were applying this categorization, they found it to be a natural right that they would belong to the superior race11. By defining who constituted the inferior and who did not, and by

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choosing who could reproduce and who could not, Europeans were manipulating nature in the hopes of saving themselves from their possible disappearance-extinction. As I will further analyze in a later chapter, this fear of extinction could be perceived as a western ‖guilt‖ for the inhumane treatment towards the indigenous people12

of their colonies, and the fear of a possible reverse colonization by the indigenous population that would be much cleverer and thus much more dangerous to the white man.

2.2. Eugenics

―Eugenics is the science of improving human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics‖ - this is the definition that is given in the American Oxford Dictionary. As a theory it became quite popular during the first decades of the 20th century and it is undeniable that as such it seems to be quite tempting since its target is the improvement of the species. The word eugenics derives from the Greek word eu meaning good and the word genos meaning genes or birth. Sir Francis Galton, Darwin‘s half cousin, introduced the word and the theory, and his ambition was to improve the racial quality of future generations. Of course, Eugenics as a concept is not as recent as it seems. There are quite many examples of the idea from times past, one of the most famous being the Spartan custom of killing all of the children born with a deficiency and Plato‘s theory calling for reproduction to be controlled and supervised by the state. Other such practices can be found in the Old Testament, namely, in the restrictions of mixing the Hebrew race with other peoples of a different religion.

What must be to stress is the connection between social darwinism and eugenics. Eugenics as a doctrine found an excuse in social darwinism, through which the latter provided a strong foundation and made eugenics look quite humanistic. Species were striving for survival, and that was a process that was not to be stopped, inevitably concluding with a winner who would be, by all means, ―the fittest‖. Supporters of eugenics could intervene in this natural process; they could control it racialized places. It is one of the most enduring and fundamental means of organizing society. (Kobayashi, Peake 395)

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and make it as painless as possible in the sense that it could hide behind a façade of being for the benefit of the humanity.13 So as to make it clearer to the readers, it is of note that Darwin had expressed his agony regarding modern medicine and how it could lead to a slow degeneration of the human race. Of course his concerns were mainly targeted towards the white race, this is evident from the earlier passage where he says that the ―savages‖ due to their lack of intelligence and civility are able to eliminate the weak features, not because they want to, but because they do not have any other option and are totally subjected to nature. The white people, on the other hand, can act against nature with science and knowledge. In the end, he concludes by saying that its not the wisest thing to preserve bad breeds.

Bad breeds, half-breeds, mud-bloods, evil mixtures are characterizations that are encountered in the novels that are under study here and will be analyzed further on. Especially in the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter their presence is powerful. For example, in the Lord of the Rings, one of the bad races is considered to be the orcs14, created by the power of evil. Later on, and as the story evolves, another race of orcs appears - a new mixture which is characterized as an unforgivable evil, ―I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of Orcs and Men? That would be a black evil!‖ (Tolkien 473) This alludes to a certain fear about the mixing of races, but in the same novel's ending, there is a mixed

13 ―One of our conditions at least is met by making social darwinism and eugenics synonymous. As both doctrine and ideology, eugenics was necessarily and not just contingently dependent upon a particular theory of biology and upon a more or less uniform conception of how natural selection operated. The eugenist programme to breed the "fit" and to sterilize or to limit the breeding of the "unfit" required an explanation of the mechanism of evolution on the basis of a sharp distinction between soma and germ-plasm; between, that is, the living organism and its hereditary constitution‖(Halliday 398)

―Stated simply, the practitioners of the eugenic doctrine had confirmed that the Darwinian law of natural selection was primarily a theory of population. This is a very complicated story and some simplification is unavoidable, even necessary. But, arguably, the main achievement of Darwin and the Darwinian party had been to present a species not as an essentialist entity but as a historical population‖(Halliday 399)

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wedding between an elven woman and human man.

When it comes to Harry Potter, Rowling is even more frank about the mixing of races. The hatred in the wizarding world Rowling depicts is aimed at those who come from mixed families or, even worse, those that enter the world of magic from only muggle15 families. Blood-traitors16 and muggle-borns17 have to die and to be exterminated. Unlike Tolkin, where I will show that racism still was not perceived as something evil, with J.K. Rowling is finally clarified.

As I will show, in Dracula and in the Lord of the Rings totalitarianism is stressed more. Though it plays the role of evil, the connection between race theories and totalitarianism is still hazy, whereas in Harry Potter racism and the mania for ―racial extermination‖ are profound, as is totalitarianism. In Dracula the totalitarian dictator is slowly appearing. Even if Dracula symbolizes ―the other‖ that invades the western world, it seems that he has characteristics that could be attributed to a perfectly organized man. He has powers and he controls the minds of the people that he has polluted. In the Lord of the Rings he is taking on a more certain image. Sauron is the strong Dictator that moves his troops only by the power of his will and controls everything with his powerful eye. Finally in Harry Potter the totalitarian dictator is pictured perfectly. Voldemort has devoted followers that can die for him and controls their minds. He is able to know if they are lying or not, he has a network of spies and in the end he shows his aversion openly against those that by his perception are the weakest, the muggles, the muggle-borns and the blood-traitors.

2.3. Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism relates to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires total subservience to the state. It is critical to establish a link between this authoritarian type of governance and both social darwinism and eugenics. In order to

15 Muggle in Harry Potter is a term used by J.K. Rowling to define a person who lacks any sort of magical ability and was not born into the magical world.

16 Blood-traitors are those that in the wizarding world they mingled by wedding with muggle-borns.

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do so, it is important to briefly establish what inspired this inhumane governance, thus forcing a return to the discussion of the colonies.

According to Hannah Arendt, there is an interrelation between bureaucracy and the idea of race, she writes in The Origins of Totalitarianism, ―Although in the end racism and bureaucracy proved to be interrelated in many ways, they were discovered and developed independently.”(243) These two ideas were used and combined in the colonies. As I already wrote earlier, race ―was the emergency explanation of human beings,‖ (Arendt 242) as a means to re-organize society in a way that it would not be affected by the ―wildlife,‖ referring to all that was not accepted by the civilized Westerners' natural way of life18.

Bureaucracy on the other hand became a very strong weapon of the newly forming nation-state, establishing control and not only for the strict national territories, but also to the colonies. As it was mentioned in the introduction, colonies were drained from their natural resources for the benefit of the Crown, to whomever this specific crown happened to belonged to. In conjunction with race, bureaucracy was used to provide absolute control of the colonies and the inhumane exploitation of the indigenous people, particularly by way of using their supposed primitiveness as an excuse. The indigenous people, who tended to be in tune with their natural habitat were behaving in a way that was unacceptable by the Europeans, reason enough of not considering the savages as human beings. They did not fit the required mold of the time, in the sense that the colonized did not fit the traditional idea of the human being given by the renaissance and humanism.

It is really vital to understand the connection of eugenics, racism, and bureaucracy to comprehend in which ways these ideas influenced the systems that were developed in the three decades that are mentioned in the introduction, where Europe got out of it‘s senses and in the end created a system of absolute control in the shape of totalitarianism19.

18 Hannah Arendt herself in The Origins of Totalitarianism brings the example of the Boers, ―Race was the Boers‘ answer to the overwhelming monstrosity of Africa – a whole continent overpopulated by savages (…) Exterminate all the brutes‖ (Arendt 242)

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In Dracula, as I explained in the above, the Count is pictured as a pre-form of a Dictator of a totalitarian state. He exhibits some of the associated capabilities, including controlling his victims and their thoughts, which are then taken further in

the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to true totalitarianism. Sauron and more

Voldemort, the two main representations of evil in their respective novels, perfectly combine all of the attributes of the totalitarian dictator, imposing their will just as Hitler and Stalin did.

The modern concept of race slowly started to arise in the 18th century and found strong scientific foundations through Darwin and his colleagues, taking hold over all of Europe through its application as reinforced by nationalism. The best way to create a patriot is to give him something to hate, and this something is always ―the other‖,

The historical truth of the matter is that race-thinking, with its roots deep in the eighteenth century, emerged simultaneously in all western countries during the nineteenth century. Racism has been the powerful ideology of imperialistic policies since the turn of our century. It certainly has absorbed and revived all the old patterns of race opinions which, however, by themselves would hardly have been able to create or, for that matter, to degenerate into racism as a Weltanschauung or an ideology. (Arendt 210)

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nations, until it finally grew to be the powerful weapon for the destruction of those nations.‖ (Arendt 214)

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3. METHODOLOGY

Fantasy can be defined as the literature genre, where the story is set into a world inspired by mythology, folklore legends, where the characters and their acts are also inspired into these contexts. Anything can be used as a space where someone can involve a story that belongs to fantasy. The story can be written about our world, and the intrusion of something supernatural (Dracula), it can be a fantastic world that exists next to ours (Harry Potter by J.K Rowling) or it can be taken place into a totally different world, in a space where the author creates a totally different cosmology, (the Lord of the Rings, J.R.R Tolkien)

Analyzing literature can get quite difficult especially when there is a plethora of theories that can cause disorientation to the researcher. The novels that are under study belong to the literary genre of fantasy, and the themes that I am analyzing are open to my interpretation. I will not follow a strict theoretical pattern since I believe that this would go against freedom of interpretation, which I believe that it is a key element for this research.

Based also on Curry‘s, the writer of ―Defending Middle Earth, Tolkien Myth and Modernity‖ opinion that, ―it is not the sleep of reason that produces monsters, but sleepless reason‖ (20) I will keep an aggressive attitude towards modernity, the era of sleepless reason, and its results that were evinced during WWII and brought devastation to Europe and in general to mankind. This aggressive attitude towards modernity and its branches - industrialism, science and absolute state power – can be detected through the novels that are under research. Modernity is perceived and analyzed as the root of evil of our times. The representations-symbolisms of this evil can be traced in all three novels under the form of social sarwinism, sugenics and totalitarianism. Science and reason was the workhorse of these racist theories, and the foundation for the authoritarian, national-socialistic state. By and analysing the novels that are under study, 20th century evolves in front of our eyes. With Dracula we will see the rising of the modern world, with the Lord of the Rings its fall, and with Harry

Potter the search for a new method which until now is not sure if it is successful.

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Solution‖, a solution that was scarily rational since people became numbers and as numbers were absolutely disposal no matter the costs, the most frightening 1+1=2 math people have ever made.

My methodology will be based on three different basic theories. For the first two parts Dracula and the Lord of the Rings I will use Tzevtan‘s Todorov approach to fantastic as well as Ihab‘s Hassan theory about Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective ―and for the third part, Harry Potter I will use the theory of Imagology.

3.1. Tzvetan Todorov and His Idea of the Fantastic

―Reason declares itself against the mirror which offers not the world but an image of the world, matter dematerialized, in short, a contradiction of the law of non – contradiction.‖ (Todorov 122)

The analysis that I will offer will take place based on the theoretical framework that will be created according to the principles of the structuralist theory of Tzvetan Todorov. Its emphasis on the fantastic as a liminal space through which work can be done on the connections between the political, historical and literary, also manages to tie in the links all three have to popular culture. As I find it to be of the highest relevance to my specific study, I will especially emphasize the importance of bonds between the historical and the popular culture.

As I already mentioned in the first part of the introduction, it is not coincidental that the novels being discussed succeeded in becoming ―best sellers‖ 20 during very critical times of change and turmoil (political, cultural, war), because they managed to perfectly represent the popular culture of the times. In accordance with Todorov‘s theory ―not all fictions and not all literal meanings are linked to the fantastic‖ (Todorov 75), but the novels are linked to the fantastic in the sense that they are filled with both fiction and literal meaning. The fantastic according with Todorov‘s theory needs three basic elements. Firstly the text must create a certain ambivalence to the reader about the reality of what he reads. The reader will have to consider if the world that he is reading about belongs to the natural sphere or to the supernatural realm. Secondly, a character of the story can experience this feeling of ambivalence also. In

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this case ―the reader's role is so to speak entrusted to a character, and at the same time the hesitation is represented, it becomes one of the themes of the work--in the case of naive reading, the actual reader identifies himself with the character.‖ (Todorov 33). And lastly, a certain attitude is expected by the reader, which is to reject any allegorical or poetic interpretation. For Todorov, such circumstances create the conditions for the existence of the fantastic. In our world, or the world as we know it, Todorov proclaims that human beings are capable of recognizing and explaining almost everything. Occasionally, however, there are instances when we find ourselves encountering strange events that are not to be rationally explained. Such times are first and foremost defined as special and uncanny, giving people what Todorov believes to be two options. ―The person who experiences the event must opt for one of two possible solutions: either he is the victim of an illusion of the senses, of a product of the imagination – and laws of the world they remain what they are; or else has indeed taken place, it is an integral part of reality – but then this reality is controlled by laws unknown to us.‖ (Todorov 25)

These two options, in their requirement to distinguish between what is real and what is not, what is a figment of the imagination and what is not, what is evil and what is not, troubles the heroes of all three of the novels that are under study. In

Dracula, Dr. Van Helsing struggles to explain to the rest of the heroes of the book

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At this point, Todorov continues by stating that ―there occurs an event which cannot be explained by the laws of this same familiar world‖ (25). I will not agree with this statement in the approach I have taken to my interpretation of the novels. On the contrary, the principle basis of this thesis will rest upon the notion that the events of the novels can be explained and interpreted by the laws of each of the writer‘s respective epoch and background. While for the heroes it may be unclear what is evil, how it is expressed and under what laws it is governed, for this thesis this is not the case as evil has already being defined in its links with the social, specifically in the form of eugenics, scientific racism and totalitarianism. For instance, Powermen and their practices are already understood to be an undeniable evil and as Todorov teaches us through Peter Penzoldt ―For many authors, the supernatural was merely a pretext to describe things they would never have dared mention in realistic terms.‖ (158) Todorov continues the thought by saying that other examples that are seen in literature as ―(…) the themes of ―the other‖: incest, homosexuality, love for several persons at once, excessive sexuality‖ (158) can all be reflective points of society or its immorality.

The themes of ―the other‖ that Todorov mentions are not so extremely basic and important, nowdays that is why I refer to an even more fundamental depiction of the idea is being of a difference race, of a different kind, which still bother us. As I will show through further analysis, engaging in interracial relation is a big taboo not only in Dracula, which also involves incest21, but also in the Lord of The Rings, where the interaction between an elf and a human is not necessarily prohibited, but it is something out of the ordinary and encounters great opposition in society. The same stands for the mixed weddings between pureblood and mud-blood wizards in Harry

Potter, though in this case it is through the act of disapproving that these weddings

come to be considered evil.

It is crucial to keep in mind that though there are correlations to be drawn between the novels and trends in society, I do not consider the novels as direct allegories of our times. Just as Tolkien, given by Curry, himself stated in the prologue of one of the editions of the Lord of the Rings, and which I agree with, ―I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and

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wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of the readers.‖ (Curry 8) He then continued with what is perhaps even more vital to this study, by saying ―(…) no allegory does not, of course, say there is no applicability. There always is.‖ (Curry 8) This remark is an absolutely pivotal part of what I want to pass to the reader of this thesis. Namely, that the novels, especially Dracula and the Lord of the Rings, simultaneously presented a resistance and an applicability both to their time and our own, and it is due to this fact that their belonging to the literary genre of fantasy made them easier for people to read, love, and embrace.

Returning to Todorov‘s theory, the fantastic occupies the duration of the uncertainty, whilst the characters find themselves not being able to explain the events happening around them. Once they ―choose one answer or the other, we leave the fantastic for a neighboring genre, the uncanny and the marvelous.‖ (Todorov 25) By distinguishing the fantastic from the uncanny and the marvelous, Todorov gives a glimpse into what the three genres do share, specifically the ambiguity of the fantastic. In fact, though in the uncanny there are disturbing or unnatural events, they evoke fear due to their occurrence in a world where reason reigns, rather than due to the question of whether they are a reality or not. In accord with Freud, Todorov argues that the sense of the uncanny is linked to the appearance of an image that originates in the childhood of the individual or the race. The literature of horror in its pure state belongs to the uncanny. (Todorov 47) The uncanny is even more profound in Dracula where everything that is happening is highly disputed by the characters as they try to explain all of the events through reason and science. The characters experience a struggle that brings them against everything they know, forcing them to face laws that belong somewhere outside of their own perception and a creature who is very well acquainted with their ways and world, but is not truly a part of it.

While in the uncanny the heroes are struggling to accept the fantastic, and find it hard to swallow that is why in their agony they are trying to find other rational explanations, in the marvelous the supernatural is accepted as a fact. In the Lord of the

Rings and Harry Potter the reader finds himself in worlds that work under different

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heaven‘s sake - you‘re wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out - well – anything!‘ (Rowling 24) exclaims a muggle to the wizards as they discuss the looming evil that is Voldemort; but as the wizard's reply makes clear, they are on equal terms, ‗The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister.‘ (Rowling 24)

Unlike in Harry Potter where the wizarding world exists on a plane parallel to the muggle world, the Lord of the Rings takes place in a separate world, though one which shares problems with our own, having in mind that the Lord of the Rings was written during the years of the great wars its easy to trace connections between the wars in Europe and the wars in Middle Earth. I would even venture to say that all three of the novels are a prefect representation of the perceptions prevalent in each of their eras, with aspects even being directly applicable to contemporary society.

In this section, I explained some of the fundamental points that I will use from Tzvetan‘s Todorov theory for the analysis of the literature that is under study. To continue with the theoretical assumption on which I will be basing my arguments, in the following section I will analyze Ihab‘s Hassan theory of Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective.

3.2. Ihab Hassan and the Freedom of Postmodernism

―I do not know how to give literature or theory or criticism a new hold on the world, except to remythify the imagination, at least locally, and bring back the reign of wonder into our lives.‖ (Hassan 516)

Having already explained earlier in the chapter the reasons why this thesis will act against the idea of modernity, I will proceed by explaining the reasons why I chose a postmodern approach when it comes to the criticism of literature. Because each of the three novels represent a different station on the course of European history during the 20th century, I will use them as landmarks reflecting society. Dracula is the rise of modernity, the Lord of the Rings its fall and Harry Potter the new millennium, where a balance between good and evil is seemingly achieved.

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As Hassan describes, ―I can propose no rigorous definition of it, any more than I could define modernism itself‖ (Hassan 503). I agree with the idea that we cannot give rigorous definitions, but I believe that two tendencies can be agreed upon. Modernism is composed of constructed definitions, ideas, identities, methods, genres and races, all of which are often justified by science. Postmodernism, on the other hand, arose after the great catastrophe of WWII and was characterized by a denial towards doctrinal ideologies, definitions, genres and races. According to Daniel Bell, it thus signifies ―The end of the creative impulse and ideological sway of modernism, which, as a cultural movement, has dominated all the arts, and shaped our symbolic expressions, for the past 125 years.‖(7) Ihab Hassan goes one step further and argues that ―Postmodernism only disconnects. Fragments are all he pretends to trust. His ultimate opprobrium is ―totalization‖. (Hassan 505) In such a way, ―totalization‖ becomes the opprobrium for this thesis, as it is one of the biggest products of the modern world and one of the most fatal. The totalitarian state, the Powerman as its leader, and the action of the Holocaust are the trinity of ultimate ―evil.‖ Generally speaking, modernity could thus be characterized as the era where reason and science prevailed and as they were combined with the binding power of the nation state, they created the nation state with its totalitarian tendencies, which were not disputed and questioned until the postmodern era.

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comprehend and its mechanisms are a mystery. It may be that Marx and Freud cannot satisfy our desire for understanding this enigmatic thing which we call power, which is at once visible and invisible, present and hidden, ubiquitous‖. (511) It is thus not coincidental that I will use Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism and Foucault‘s theory on Panopticism, especially to analyze Sauron and Voldemort‘s totalitarian tendencies.

Since ―criticism obeys human imperatives‖ (Hassan 510) and since it is considered to be a tool, I will use literary criticism so that it will give me freedom of interpretation, particularly as ―meaning is tied to shared linguistic and cultural understandings, on the one hand (…) yet meanings are always open, in principle, to re-interpretation along new and different lines, including ones unsuspected by the author.‖ (Curry 11) This last statement, ‗unsuspected by the author,‘ is really crucial simply because the objective here is not to accuse nor attribute the negative qualities to Bram Stoker, Tolkien or Rowling, but rather it is to analyze what the novels meant for their eras. It is natural that the authors reflected and were affected by what the times were dictating and even though social darwinism and eugenics are theories that are considered now as evil, it is not until after the tragedies of the first half of the twentieth century that they were declared as such. Europe had to pass through fire, war and death before it realized that these theories, underneath their thin humanistic façade, could and would be used to achieve totalitarian objectives. Though today, Tolkien could be accused of racism, especially since The Hobbit was one of the favorite books of Nazi Germany and in the whole of the trilogy there appears the 'Aryan' message, whether through the pagan norse or the Anglo Saxon, this was not necessarily the case. In fact, it is generally unclear what Tolkien's or Stoker's personal views were, but as is clearly visible in the disgust for all these theories in Harry

Potter, to a degree each author was a true child of their era either through their

reflection on society or their disapproval of it. Furthermore, it is important to constantly remember that as much as a novel cannot be fully separated from the author and the author from society, The contents of books cannot be separated from the sense that particular readers make of them. (Curry 11)

Though the only postmodern text is Harry Potter, the two modernist texts,

Dracula and the Lord of the Rings, will be examined in the same way. It is vital to be

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will be used as evidence in the attainment of my conclusions. With postmodernism, the authority of the Powermen will be questioned, simultaneously questioning the legitimacy of all of the evils of modernity. Modernism brought destruction as something to be condoned by clear reason and this resulted with power being associated with something frightening, as was exemplified with the rise of nations and their downfall in the form of the Holocaust. The development of the process becomes clear when looking at the three novels in sequence. Namely, it begins with Bram Stoker in the victory of science, continues with Tolkien through whom science is questioned and nature is portrayed as the winner, and comes to an end with Rowling when the magic of love comes back to life, as was exemplified at the conclusion of the Harry Potter series when Harry declined the option of becoming another Powerman.

To end this section, where I focused on Hassan's theory of postmodernism and before moving on to Imagology in the next section, I bring up the following quote, written by Bauman, but taken from Curry, as it manages to encompass the purposes of my thesis.

Postmodernity, can be seen as restoring to the world what modernity, presumptuously, had taken away; as a re-enchantment of the world that modernity had tried to disenchant. . . . The war against mystery an magic was for modernity the war of liberation leading to the declaration of reason‘s independence. . . world had to be de-spiritualized, de-animated: denied the capacity of subject. . . . It is against such a disenchanted world that postmodern re-enchantment is aimed. (13)

3.3. Imagology

“The postmodern text, verbal on nonverbal, invites performance: it wants to be

written, revised, answered, acted out. Indeed so much of post modern art calls itself performance, as it transgresses genres. As performance, art (or theory for that matter) declares its vulnerability to time, to death, to audience, to the other.‖ (Hassan 507)

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starting point. With Imagology I will revise the novels and deconstruct them and try to find another a different way of saying history. Art and thus literature are vulnerable when it comes to ―the other‖ and I will analyze this vulnerability with the help of Imagology, since it studies ―the origin and function of characteristics of other countries and peoples, as expressed textually, particularly in the way which are presented in works of literature, plays, poems, travel books and essays‖ (Beller 7)

With imagology I have the opportunity to present a theory of how people and more specially literature demonizes ―the other‖. With ―the other‖ being the different national characters, and how they are used, in order to, create another national character. Imagology, comes against older theories that want the national characters as being always there, and uses a more constructivist approach giving more emphasis not on the identity but, more on the way that a national character identifies himself. Nationality and ―national cultures‖ are now seen as patterns of identification rather than as identities 22.

Here it should be noted that this thesis will not deal with national characters. Choosing the novels that are under study was obvious to me that what plays important role is ―the other‖ and the general threat that constitutes. Furthermore Joep Leersen one of the theorists of imagology defines that after 1900 stereotypes are less prominent in literature. That is why in this thesis I am not analyzing specific attitudes towards certain nationalities, but I would say towards certain spaces, races, and differences, that sometimes might remain undefined.

One of the basic principles of imagology is that should analyze images as history would do, and this is a something that I will closely follow in my thesis. It‘s not important to see if the image of ―the other‖ and in extend social darwinism and totalitarianism actually worked or not, it‘s not important to judge if it was humane or not. What is important and crucial is to show why people invested in these ideas, why people permitted these ideas to evolve and finally the historical consequences of these ideas that are under study and are treated as evil.

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By this principle I will analyze ―the other‖ and how it was pictured through the novels that are under study. In Dracula, the Count represents the idea of ―the other‖ a threatening ―other‖ that comes from the east. In the Lord of the Rings, Sauron and his armies are presented as the totalitarian evil, and in Harry Potter, Voldemort is presented again as the evil ―other‖. What is interesting though is to see and realize the shift in people minds. In Dracula, ―the other‖ is given in times where people were afraid of the new world, a time were theories that now seem preposterous, were considered to be good for the survival of the race. In the Lord of the Rings, ―the other‖ is presented as the modernity and its products. The great eye of Sauron symbolizes the totalitarian nation state. Furthermore there are some hints of revulsion against these theories that permitted people to abuse other people as if they were products. In Harry

Potter we see a totally different shift. What was considered to be almost humane

(Dracula) and controversial (the Lord of the Rings) now it is portrayed as the ultimate evil. It took two great wars and a holocaust for Europe to construct the idea of the totalitarian man and to understand that ―the other‖ is used for

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CHAPTER 1. THE “OTHER”, DRACULA

1.1. Invasion From The East

1.1.1. Introduction - Summary of the Novel

Bram Stoker‘s Dracula was written in 1897. The novel is composed in a very innovative manner. It is mainly a gathering of the characters' journals and their personal portfolios concerning the shivery events that they experienced. The book is written in a way that gives the idea that all of the people gathered together and shared their personal knowledge, gained through their experience of fighting against Dracula. The story begins with Jonathan Harker, a young British man and one of the main characters of the novel, traveling to Transylvania to assist Count Dracula in a real estate transaction. From the start, Harker‘s entry to ―The Carpathian mountains, one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe‖ (Stoker 4) is accompanied with an uncertain and curious fear. There is a sort of uncertainty about the exact location of Dracula‘s castle, which is in an unknown and unexplored area, not mentioned on the map. During his journey Harker writes in his journal of all those things that impressed him about Transylvania, Bukovina, and in general, the area of Moldavia. He soon discovers, however, that there is something not quite right with the nature of Dracula and that he is there not for a typical legal transaction. Nonetheless, he becomes Dracula‘s prisoner - not to be freed, but kept hostage due to his discovery of too many things.

While attempting to escape from Dracula‘s castle and discover more about Dracula himself, Harker falls under the spell of the Brides of Dracula, three lustful female vampires. Though saved by Dracula, the latter only want him alive long enough to establish his legal presence in London. The mystery surrounding Dracula‘s purpose behind this is revealed to Harker and the reader when it becomes clear that Dracula‘s plan is to go and live in London to mingle with people and create more creatures like him. Harker thus decides that he must escape captivity and does so by narrowly missing death as he jumps from a window and into a river beneath the castle. Upon regaining consciousness, he finds himself gravely ill in a monastery.