A Level Eng Lit CW-what would you compare to Dracula?

[cherrypez]

Having a brain blank and can't think of post 2000 texts which would be good to compare to Dracula- other than those already having been picked of course! Any ideas welcome!

Twilight series (is that too obvious)
something by Sarah Walters perhaps

I presume at A Level it isn't just 'think of a vampire'? What's the brief?

Hah! We're having this exact debate with our 6th formers, post 2000 must count as 'literature', no translations. It's harder than it initially seems. Let the Right One In was rejected by the exam board, so Twilight won't cut it. I think we went down the 'female sexuality' angle and picked something along those lines as we really struggled with the supernatural theme that met all the other criteria.

Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas might work (although is grim grim and may be a bit offensive to some 17 year olds)
guardian review here

Brief is anything highbrow enough not to be rejected by exam board (Eduqas/WJEC). I've found myself suggesting lots of books and I'm running out of ideas!

The Radleys - Matt Haig

Wow- I have been thinking of various combinations of texts for coursework for years and this one has me stumped! Am now distracting myself from marking and scouring the internet looking for ideas...

The historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian could be good.

The Little Stranger- Sarah Waters

Did the exam board set Dracula and you have to find a comparative text? Am not familiar with Eduqas - we're with OCR and they give us free rein for our coursework: three post-1900 texts (one must be post-2000), one poetry, one prose, one drama, no translations, literary merit. Apart from that, the world's our oyster!

The bloody chamber?

Have never read The Historian - it looks brilliant though! But over 700 pages...

The Bloody Chamber isn't post-2000.

The historian is a bit of a slog but it’s a good read. Should be high brow enough as well

One thing to remember is that Dracula is essentially about people’s fear of science and foreigners, essentially the new world. This opens up the field for comparison novels.

And not just fear of science and foreigners, as Kannet says, but also anxiety about women and female freedom and capacities. Stoker's novel is partly about the late 19thc 'New Woman', and various hoary old virgin/whore dichotomies, so you could compare a contemporary novel which plays with ideas about scheming vs nurturing women?

I keep wanting to suggest Atwood's The Robber Bride, but it's 1993...

Does it have to be a comparable genre or could you chose an Ian McEwan and do something about presentation of character or setting?

Thank you to everybody for your suggestions, I am googling them all and assessing in my mind their suitability...sorry for drip feed but I have a specific student in mind who has a particular area of interest...he wants to write about societal expectations and conventions. His two proposed books were both rejected by the exam board today so we are frantically trying to come up with ideas. I've sent him links to all potential ideas. Thanks all!

Some ideas on the Student Room website.

American psycho is the comparative text one of my a level students is doing. It's interesting to look at the idea of the monster within society.

Faronothemaddingcrowd I considered that but it's a 1990s text sadly.

What about "the power" by Naomi Alderman? Poss not high brow enough but does fit the brief for your student?

What about Never Let Me Go? Science, fear of other, etc? I think it's post 2000 iirc?

So Dracula is a gothic classic and heavy on gothic stylisms and themes so you would be looking at another significant gothic novel either of the same time period or at a later period to compare and contrast stylistic developments over time or at during the samish period. Another option might to be to opt for a more modern gothic novel, We Once Lived in a Castle for example shows to gradual shift away from thundery nights and vampires to an aethetic of dilapidated grandeur and the evils of the human psyche. Alternatively you could look at a gothic satire like The Woman in White. Satires make good comparisons because, through exaggeration, they throw into stark relief stylistic motifs used in a certain genre and through humour and mockery they question and explore the value of these stylistic techniques. Alternatively you could look outside genre instead focusing on themes. The overarching theme of Dracula is the enemy unknown I suppose you could call it the fear of the unknown arising for the arrogant assumption the humanity knows all there is to know. This could well be pared with something like War of the Worlds for example. whatecer you do don't just pick sonething with the same plot/vampires and just go off that, you won't get more than a C. The purpose of comparative essays is to analyse stylish techniques and exploration of central themes through compare and contrast not a tit for tat quasi factual comparison.

Poppy Z Brite?

Lost Souls is good.