4. The Besieged City This intended invasion, as Stephen Arata points out, is linked to the cultural fear of Britain being in decline towards the end of the century (622). This "pervasive narrative of decline" (Arata 623) is thematised in Dracula and other late-Victorian literature through the "narrative of reverse colonization" (Arata 623). As the name already suggests, reverse colonisation deals with the fear of the coloniser becoming the colonised through the invasion of a more "primitive" culture (Arata 623). However, according to Arata, reverse colonisation is not only rooted in fear but also stems from a cultural guilt: "In the marauding, invasive Other, British culture sees its own imperial practices mirrored back in monstrous forms" (623). Nonetheless, Arata concludes that although this type of narrative has the "potential for powerful critiques of imperialist ideologies, […] that potential usually remains unrealized" (623). …show more content…
He illustrates how in Transylvania "there is hardly a foot of soil in all this region that has not been enriched by the blood of men, patriots or invaders" (Arata 628; Stoker 27) and then asks Jonathan: "Is it a wonder we were a conquering race?" (Arata 628; Stoker 34). Arata illustrates how the Count 's invasion of the empire foreshadows its decline by quoting Jonathan 's prediction that "[t]his was the being he [Jonathan] was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless" (Arata 629; Stoker 53/54). Through Jonathan 's prophecy, the reader feels as though not only London but the empire itself (with all its values) is under