Professor David Peimer
Understanding Transylvania: Myths and Legends- Dracula and Others
Summary
Professor David Peimer discusses the role of myths and legends, specifically exploring Transylvania and the great Dracula myth.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
Well, I think that’s what I was trying to allude to. Yes. And it starts with Frankenstein, with Mary Shelley and others that it’s all part of… if you like the shadow darker side of I think scientific endeavors and the scientific rational of the 19th century. I think Dracula is part of that whole meilleu, of that whole era of the triumph of science, the attempted triumph of science and rationalism of the enlightenment, which then of course the flip side smashes completely.
When the story becomes two-dimensional, goodies and baddies, simple right and wrong, and there’s no, and that’s it. It becomes dangerous and it becomes afterwards kitsch.