Dracula and the Fear of Degeneration

In this lecture, Ken Gemes examines how nineteenth-century degeneration theory moved beyond science and medicine into popular literature, focusing on two major case studies: Bram Stoker's Dracula and the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. Gemes reveals how Dracula draws on degenerationist rhetoric, casting its villain as an exotic, atavistic Eastern figure coded with antisemitic tropes, from foul smells to references to 'old Jerusalem.' He also explores the novel's anxieties about the New Woman, gender mixing, and homoerotic desire, showing how domesticity serves as the story's resolution against perceived threats. The lecture then pivots to Baudelaire, presenting him as a heroic figure who refused to separate good from evil. Rather than treating corruption as something escapable or confined to degenerate outsiders, Baudelaire insisted that infection and evil are universal, implicating every reader. For Gemes, this makes Baudelaire a vital counter to the scapegoating logic of degeneration theory.