Dracula tourism as pilgrimage?

Authors

• Tuomas Hovi University of Turku

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67368

Keywords:

Pilgrims and pilgrimages, Dracula, Count (Fictitious character), Transylvania, Romania, Tourist trade, Voyages and travels, Popular culture, Ritual, Implicit religion, Sacred space, Mythology, Romanian, Media and religion, Popular literature

Abstract

This article is about Dracula tourism in Romania and how it may be seen as pilgrimage. The author approaches this connection especially through the place myth of Transylvania and through the status Transylvania has in Western popular culture. The subject is approached purely from a ‘Western’ point of view, that is, in this article Romania, although a member of the EU and NATO, is treated not as part of the West but part of the East. This is due to the fact that in Western popular culture Romania and especially Transylvania have always been portrayed as the Other in relation to the West. Western popular culture plays a significant role in Dracula tourism.