Departing from the dominant contextual approach to literary criticism, the book takes a Lacanian view of several popular British fantasy texts of the late 19th century, including Bram Stoker's Dracula. This paradigm reveals the significance of the historical context; the advent of a modern urban democratic society in place of a traditional agrarian one. It is in the wake of the demise of traditional authority; father, aristocracy and church that such atavistic horrors as vampires emerge. Sharoni demonstrates how these texts bring to light the crucial function of apparently obsolete...