Out of all of the hundreds of audiobooks that my kids and I have listened to together, I think Dracula might be our favorite. It's got so much to offer, from its status as a classic of literature to its Gothic horror vibes to its vampire creation mythology to its depiction of some of the best characters ever to grace the pages of a novel, particularly my personal badass heroine, Mina Harker, a woman who can write shorthand, has memorized London's entire train schedule, is a loyal friend and wife, and is the only one of Dracula's victims who lived to tell the tale.
Here are some of the things that my teenagers and I did during our brief Dracula unit study. This was part of their high school English credits, although the cross-curricular art activities were also recorded as part of their Studio Art credits.
Audiobook Narrated by Gildart Jackson
The kids and I loved Gildart Jackson's narration, so much so that we've specifically looked for him when picking other audiobooks (he also does an awesome Frankenstein!).
We also loved Dracula!
The trick when you read Dracula with kids, or really probably any iconic work of literature, is to remind them that once upon a time, Dracula wasn't iconic--it was just Stoker's newly-published book! There weren't a ton of vampire tropes or cliches to tap into, because he'd mostly just invented them. You literally start the novel thinking that you're going along on one of Jonathan Harker's boring work trips. Probably, you're just going to be reading an epistolary travel novel about the wonders of verdant Transylvania. I love imagining it, how the Victorian reader must have grown ever more suspicious of the mysterious Dracula, how they'd gasp in shock at the big reveal: Dracula is a VAMPYRE!!!
Other semiotically rich elements worth much discussion include everyone's shitty, misogynistic treatment of Mina, how even with her misogynistic depiction Mina is still the most badass of all the Dracula characters (how/why did Stoker write her to be completely disregarded but also the most efficient, practical, and intelligent?!? Did he do it on purpose or by accident?), and the absolutely hilariously bonkers depiction of Quincy, the "American." Like, he literally carries a Bowie knife--had Stoker ever seen one of those to know how impractical that is? The kids and I howled with laughter every time he had a line of dialogue.
To make some comparative literature analyses, pair with any other vampire novel ever written. Excerpts from the Twilight novels are fun because they're just so corny, or you could do something well-written like Interview with the Vampire or 'Salem's Lot. I'm currently reading The Historian, and I am VERY into it! For a quicker project, go for a Goosebumps book or even a picture book, or do a sub-genre like paranormal romance with Dead Until Dark. So many semiotically rich vampires! 1931 Dracula Film
This first (and best!) Dracula film has a lot to add to the study, and everything about it is ICONIC.
I mean, come on: Bela Lugosi? Iconic!
This 1931 movie introduced conceits that you don't even realize are conceits, they're so ingrained. The "Transylvanian" dialect that Dracula speaks in? That's from here! Turning into a bat that talks in squeaks, and the vampire's subjects can understand those squeaks? Yep, that's from here, too. It's super funny to watch this film, then turn on just, like, the first ten minutes of Hotel Transylvania.
For a deeper analysis, pair with any vampire movie that came afterwards. We watched The Hunger for a recent Family Movie Night, because David Bowie, and it had some interesting things to say about age, sexuality, and the power dynamics of romantic love. Funnily enough, Dracula ALSO has interesting things to say about age, sexuality, and the power dynamics of romantic love!Art Experiences
I used to get the Dover Publications free samples weekly, and the kids LOVED them! These Dracula paper dolls from Dover are a good inspiration for artistic response, because kids can then create the costumes for them. They can go old-school vampire tropes, or Victorian fashions, or make modern reimaginings of the novel's characters. I want to see Mina Harker as a steampunk heroine!
My younger teenager is very into the art of the book, so I've been encouraging her to create book cover images and design book jackets for the books we read together. You can actually get those printed to fit your favorite books, you know!
Artistic kids who want to use the book for more cross-curricular explorations can also illustrate memorable scenes or quotations. If they need some inspiration, check out my favorite edition of Dracula, this one illustrated by Edward Gorey (there's also an Edward Gorey Dracula toy theater that I covet). Even kids who don't see themselves as super artistic can create memes; memes are one of my favorite student creations, because kids love them, they get to show off how witty and sarcastic they are, and the most successful memes show natural evidence of a sophisticated understanding of the book.
Place-based Studies
I'm not very excited about Romania or Bran Castle when it comes to a Dracula study, because I'm not convinced that Bram Stoker even knew of those places, or of Vlad the Impaler. He liked the name "Dracula" when he read it somewhere, and his inspiration for the novel was Whitby, England. We didn't visit there when we went to England this summer, but we DID make a point of collecting ourselves some Gothic vibes. Next time I visit England, which I hope will be soon, I want to go north and see Whitby!
But I mean, you know, if I was IN Romania I'd definitely go to all the Vlad the Impaler sites.
To add rigor and more composition practice to any of these activities, just tack on a writing assignment! Write an opinion piece about Stoker's depiction of one of these now-iconic characters. Write a compare/contrast essay with another vampire book or film. Write Dracula fanfiction that changes the ending or the setting or a key plot detail. Write a research paper on the history of the vampire myth, or Gothic horror, or Whitby Abbey. Write an essay explaining your artistic process and decision-making when creating the book cover or illustrations. Create a travel brochure for Dracula's Transylvania. There are so many ways to make high schoolers suffer!
P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, confrontations with gross men, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!
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