• Rashmi Naik

This paper investigates the concept of “othering” as a socio-cultural, racialised and gendered process of marginalisation, with specific reference to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Othering functions by classifying individuals or communities as different from a socially accepted norm, and thereby denying them full human dignity, agency and subjectivity. In Victorian fiction, othering intersects with imperial anxieties, race-based hierarchies, gendered expectations, class divisions and sexual control. Through a close reading of Jane Eyre, this paper demonstrates how Jane and Bertha Mason are both systematically excluded in different contexts, and how their identities are shaped and narrated through Victorian imperial ideology. Likewise, in Dracula, Count Dracula becomes a symbolic container of nineteenth-century British fears — the fear of Eastern invasion, racial degeneration, gender inversion and moral collapse. Female vampires in Dracula further destabilise the ideal of the “Angel in the House”, and are punished for sexual transgression. This study argues that othering is not incidental to these texts; it is foundational to their narrative strategies. Through the comparison of these two canonical novels, the study reveals how othering structures dominant ideology, moral boundaries and power relations within Victorian culture.

"Othering as Narrative Strategy: Race, Gender and Power in Jane Eyre and Dracula.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no.642-645, March-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903P84.pdf

"Othering as Narrative Strategy: Race, Gender and Power in Jane Eyre and Dracula.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 3, page no. pp642-645, March-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1903P84.pdf