Aurally bloodcurdling : representing Dracula and his brethren in BBC Radio drama

McMurtry, LG

Abstract

The most hideous aspects of Dracula and his vampire brethren are visual ones – pallor, dark hirsute hands, piercing eyes, razor-sharp fangs. The settings, too, in Dracula are integral to creating mood: for example, Harker’s journey into Transylvania includes descriptions that “are so thrilling and visual that they have acquired a permanent place in the popular imagination” (Reijnders 2011: 231). How could adaptors dramatizing Dracula possibly bring that kind of menace to a genre that relies entirely on one sense – the aural one – thereby giving the audience of radio drama the appropriate chills?
In this article, I propose to examine the way the fearful aspects of Dracula and his brethren, as described in the original source material of novel or short story, such as LeFanu’s Carmilla, Stevenson’s Olalla, and Forrest’s The Voyage of the Demeter, have been adapted for audio purposes, what techniques are used, whether they be in terms of writing or sound effects, and how successful the adaptations have been in maintaining a mood of terror and menace and in representing the memorable settings.

• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 17, 2017
• Book Title: Dracula and the Gothic in Literature, Pop Culture and the Arts
• ISBN: 9789004306172
• Publisher URL: http://www.brill.com/products/book/dracula-and-gothic-literature-pop-culture-and-arts#TOC_1
• Related Public URLs: http://www.brill.com/