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Dracula pp 69–93Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Spirited Away: Dream Work, the Outsider, and the Representation of Transylvania in the Pied Piper and Dracula Myth in Britain and Germany

Part of the Palgrave Gothic book series (PAGO)

Abstract

The Pied Piper is a peculiarly German construct, but with the English retelling of the story by Robert Browning, the figure is transported to a kind of metaphorical crossroads between Germany, Romania and England. This essay explores the effects of this shift and the significance of Transylvania as the supposed destination of the children. It draws some parallels with the Dracula myth, which was transported to Germany from the Britain and Romania of the novel via the film Nosferatu. An historicist method is employed, which is illuminating with regard to national identity and otherness, but this is shown to be increasingly problematised with every retelling. In the final phase of the argument this approach is supplanted by a desire to redeem the utopian, magical force of the fairy tale in the present.

Keywords

  • The pied piper
  • Robert browning
  • Germany
  • Romania
  • England
  • Transylvania
  • Dracula
  • Nosferatu
  • Historicist method
  • National identity
  • Otherness
  • Utopian
  • Fairy tale

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, England

    Sam George

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  1. Sam George
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Correspondence to Sam George .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. West University of Timișoara , Timișoara, Romania

    Marius-Mircea Crișan

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George, S. (2017). Spirited Away: Dream Work, the Outsider, and the Representation of Transylvania in the Pied Piper and Dracula Myth in Britain and Germany. In: Crișan, MM. (eds) Dracula. Palgrave Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63366-4_5

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