ABSTRACT
Mention Romania and, for many people, one name springs to mind: Dracula. Whether Romania likes it or not, Count Dracula is the best known Romanian (Boia 2001a). There are many who know little (if anything) about Romania but they do believe that it is the place that Dracula comes from. And who, exactly, is this Dracula? In this sense we are talking about the sinister, shadowy, monstrous Count Dracula, an undead, predatory vampire who thrives on the blood of the living. Brought to life by Bram Stoker in 1897, Count Dracula has proved to be one of the most enduring and recognizable literary creations. The novel Dracula is known throughout the world: it has never been out of print and has been translated into numerous foreign languages. And its eponymous vampire has come to be almost synonymous with Romania: in the Western popular imagination, Romania is the ‘land of Dracula’. It is diffcult to think of another country that is so immediately identifed with a literary character – and a villain at that.
