Author Archives: William the Bloody

About William the Bloody

Cat lover. 18C scholar on the dialogue and novel. Co-convenor OGOM Project

Another set of Top Ten Shapeshifters (Part 1)

It’s taken me a while to respond to Kaja and Sam’s excellent lists of their top ten shapeshifters (here and here). Here are the first five of my own favourites (not in order of importance). 1. Circe, in Homer, Odyssey … Continue reading

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Fantasy and dystopia in the Middle East

It hardly needs saying that fantastic literature, especially in its dystopian mode, is frequently written as political critique. It is potent way of writing against oppression especially under extremely authoritarian and censorial regimes. This is an excellent essay by Alexandra … Continue reading

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Marina Warner, ‘Angela Carter: fairy tales, cross-dressing and the mercurial slipperiness of identity’

Always fascinating, Marina Warner explores the themes of metamorphosis and identity, fairy tales and cross-dressing in the works of Angela Carter, drawing on the archives at the British Library. Angela Carter, as we have said before, is a writer central … Continue reading

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Gail Carriger

Gail Carriger writes fiction which is a lively fusion of steampunk with paranormal romance, notably the Parasol Protectorate and Custard Protocol series. She has set up a new website; I’ve added it to the links visible on the Blog page. … Continue reading

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International Gothic Association: website changes

The International Gothic Association (IGA) is redesigning its website and Kathleen Hudson, the site’s designer, has circulated this invitation to contribute: Hello everyone! We are in the process of building a new website for the International Gothic Association, and hope … Continue reading

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Stacey Abbott on iZombie

The rise of the sympathetic monster has been a unifying theme of OGOM’s research. Of all the monsters to feature in paranormal romance and similar narratives that humanise the undead and the monstrous, the zombie is surely one of the … Continue reading

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Shapeshifters and Werecats

I’m still compiling my own top-ten shapeshifters in response to Sam’s and Kaja’s lists, but I came across this paranormal romance about a werecat, and I am very tempted: https://www.amazon.com/Cats-Tale-Melissa-Snark-ebook/dp/B00IVPYACA?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&tag=indautlan-20

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Beauty and the Beast: A modernist transformation by Clarice Lispector

‘Beauty and the Beast’ seems to me to be a rather important fairy tale. It’s the architext of paranormal romance, the story whose narrative form and themes lies at the heart of all those romantic encounters between human and other, … Continue reading

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Dracula; the first edition

On this day (16 May), 1897, that seminal text of open graves and the Undead, Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published. The British Library’s website (an excellent resource) has a valuable little piece on that first edition here.

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Maria Tatar

Maria Tatar is John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literature at Harvard University and an expert on children’s literature, German literature, and folklore. She is editor of the Norton Classic Fairy Tales. She coedited (with Erika Eichenseer) the … Continue reading

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