The Epistolary Genre
Dear Rogelio,
My name is Melissa and I am a psychology major at UC Santa Cruz. I am writing to you in order to introduce myself and learn more about you. As you wrote in your introduction post on Canvas, I am also interested in climate change research. Also, my family is from central America too but they came to Los Angeles around 1980.
Thus far Dracula has been a fantastic read and an excellent follow up to the last novel I read, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which I would highly recommend if you enjoy gothic novels. I found the method of storytelling to be very interesting how it is told through journal entries and letters.
I think some potential research topics in Dracula are the themes of evil and occultism. The occult is a fascinating topic and one which I often find myself drawn to like a bee to a flower in need of pollination. The vampires in this novel are an archetype of the supernatural, mysterious in nature and utterly intriguing. It is this intrigue of the unknown that draws me into its research. Where did the earliest tales of vampires come from? How was this mythology birthed? Much like the themes of occultism, studying the mystery of evil has me ensorcelled. In searching for its meaning and purpose, I feel as though I were a lost explorer, like Harker searching Dracula’s castle.
I’m very interested in hearing what your experience reading the novel has been like as well as your research topics regarding it.
Best Regards,
Melissa
She/her/hers
