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Abstract
Bram Stoker's Gothic novel Dracula (2018) highlights the construction of fear of the unknown through the figure of the foreigner, associated with the barbarian. In 19th-century Victorian London, this conception intertwines with a xenophobic and racist imaginary, in which everything that deviates from the Western European cultural and ethnic standard comes to be seen as a threat. Lombroso's criminological discourse (2010), by associating physical characteristics with delinquent tendencies, reinforces the characterization of Vlad Tepes as an invader from "corrupted" lands, showing a certain intentionality. The bibliographical and interpretative analysis, articulating the novel with the historical and cultural context, indicates that Stoker mobilizes stereotypes of his time to amplify the feeling of danger. The results reveal that the fear of the unknown in Dracula is not merely a fictional element, but a literary expression of structural prejudices of the period.
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