LITERATURE QUESTIONS
THE GOTHIC NOVEL
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Stoker’s “Dracula”
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Beckford’s “Vathek”
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Ancient civilizations worldwide
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Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto”
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Detailed explanation-1: -Despite the occurrence of vampiric creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published.
Detailed explanation-2: -It appears that the folklore surrounding the vampire phenomenon originated in that Balkan area where Stoker located his tale of Count Dracula. Stoker never travelled to Transylvania or any other part of Eastern Europe. (The lands held by the fictional count would be in modern-day Romania and Hungary.)
Detailed explanation-3: -The story of Sekhmet, the Egyptian feline warrior goddess associated with both plague and healing, is considered by some to be one of the oldest vampire tales. Legend holds that the sun god, Ra, sent his daughter Sekhmet down to punish humankind for their disobedience.
Detailed explanation-4: -The vampire first made its way into English literature in John Polidori’s 1819 short story “The Vampyre”. Polidori’s vampire, Lord Ruthven, is inspired by a thinly disguised portrait of the predatory English poet, Lord Byron, in Lady Caroline Lamb’s novel Glenarvon (1816).
Detailed explanation-5: -In Hindu folklore, the vetala is an evil spirit who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession of corpses. They make their displeasure known by troubling humans. They can drive people mad, kill children, and cause miscarriages, but also guard villages.