Reader-Writer Relationship and Key Themes

Very short blog post today because I still haven't finished the sleep mind-map and, following the re-take, anything Literature related makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a blunt instrument for failing again...anyway...last lesson we discussed reader-writer relationship, how that is built up and how different texts and form of writing e.g. newspaper extracts, diary entries are use to bridge the gaps between author-character-reader (while enhancing key gothic themes of real/not real...verisimilitude). We discussed how everything appears real, with fact merging with fiction and how, through use of different writing styles (letter, diary, newpaper) meant that readers weren't trapped in the same plot - through them we are given different perspectives and accounts and different writing styles come to characterise...characters. As well as this, we discussed the impact of the epistolary form in terms of the juxtaposition of tones, the sequencing which evokes mystery and the feeling of authenticity that you get from it. I also thought that, in structuring the novel in such a way, the writer allows the reader to connect and engage with the characters and story in that, when they all get together and piece together the evidence (following Lucy's death) they essentially put together and read what we read as the novel...because it's not written as a novel and written as, supposedly, the characters would read it, it does make you question the real/not-real ideas. Mr Francis also brought up the idea of the anti-Bible structure...which ties in with the religious themes...and...I think that the reading of letters that, as stated on numerous occasions, are not meant to be read by anyone else means that the theme of infringement of privacy is reflected and enhanced.

Lastly, we discussed ideas regarding the changing role and presentation of blood throughout the novel with regard to it first being described as a trickle, then a smear, then a spurt, then a gush...changing role and 'form' of blood almost reflects the changing shape and form of Dracula.