Category Archives: Critical thoughts

Slaying Vampires: Romantic Origins, Theatrical Afterlives

Posted on 1st November 2018 by Sam George

. @DrSamGeorge1 talks about the fascinating history behind this vampire slaying kit, which feeds into the research of the @OGOMProject.#halloween pic.twitter.com/VIKQyktHZV — University of Hertfordshire (@UniofHerts) October 31, 2018 ‘ but those mine enemies, which would not that I should … Continue reading →

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Older than Dracula: in search of the English vampire

Posted on 25th October 2018 by William the Bloody

Older than Dracula: in search of the English vampire The Premature Burial. Antoine Wiertz (1854) Sam George, University of Hertfordshire The story of Count Dracula as many of us know it was created by Bram Stoker, an Irishman, in 1897. … Continue reading →

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Deviant Burial of ‘Vampire’ Child in C15th Italy

Posted on 14th October 2018 by Sam George

I am mapping ‘deviant’ burials for a piece I am writing on Wharram Percy, the medieval English village that mutilated its own dead, including many women and children. Whatever these people believed eventually took hold completely and led to them … Continue reading →

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Emily Brontë : bicentennial essays

Posted on 14th August 2018 by William the Bloody

A few days late, but here are a selection of articles celebrating the bicentenary of Emily Brontë, whose singular 1847 novel Wuthering Heights took the architexts of the Gothic novel and added new psychological depth. It also lay the foundations … Continue reading →

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Will the Blood Moon Come Too Soon?

Posted on 26th July 2018 by Sam George

Serpents, dragons, jaguars, bats and wolves are all associated with the eclipse, according the Smithsonian Magazine’s What Folklore Tells us About the Eclipse.  You have probably heard of the myth of the wolf who swallows the sun or moon causing an eclipse or … Continue reading →

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Genre, dreadpunk, mannerpunk, the female Gothic

Posted on 20th July 2018 by William the Bloody

What constitutes a genre or subgenre and whether even the concept of genre itself has any use is much debated; it’s certainly a focal point of OGOM research, where we’re often concerned with what happens when genres collide or mate, … Continue reading →

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Mermaids: ballads, novels, films

Posted on 20th July 2018 by William the Bloody

Mermaids and related creatures such as sirens and selkies have a perennial appeal; we at OGOM love them and they have featured in quite a few posts here. There may be deep Freudian reasons for our fascination but we’re certainly … Continue reading →

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: academia and Gothic heroines

Posted on 9th July 2018 by William the Bloody

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a foundational text in many ways–not least, for OGOM’s origins, being the series which, with its wit, humanity, and dark imagination led me into vampire studies. It’s probably the TV series most written about by … Continue reading →

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Fairy Tales: art, essays, and resources

Posted on 9th July 2018 by William the Bloody

Some more interesting links on fairy tales: Margaret Carrigan, in ‘What Can Fairy Tales Tell Us About Today? Two Video Artists Offer Modern Takes‘, reviews the video art of Ericka Beckman and Marianna Simnett, showing at London’s Zabludowicz Collection through … Continue reading →

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RIP Gérard Genette (1930-2018)

Posted on 12th May 2018 by William the Bloody

I am very saddened by the death of Gérard Genette (1930-2018). Genette, for me, was one of most rewarding of French literary theorists. He employed a structuralist methodology but in a way that avoided metaphysical excesses and that never lost … Continue reading →

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