Author Archives: William the Bloody

About William the Bloody

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

Mussorgsky – Night on the Bare Mountain (Bernstein)

Posted on 1st November 2015 by William the Bloody

Continuing the witches theme. Not strictly for Hallowe’en, but an eerie accompaniment to my Walpurgisnacht poem: Mussorgsky – Night on the bare mountain (Bernstein)

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Witches, Gothic Novels, and Cosmic Horror

Posted on 30th October 2015 by William the Bloody

I’ve been a bit lax on posting to the blog; I’ve found lots of interesting and useful material lately but haven’t had time to blog them–they’re usually on our Facebook group, though, and Kaja has been reposting some of these … Continue reading →

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Spectral Visions: The Creative Journey

Posted on 28th October 2015 by William the Bloody

The Spectral Visions group of Gothic researchers at the University of Sunderland have started a new blog to document their creative activities. Dr Alison Younger and Jenah Colledge very kindly asked me to contribute, so I’ve written a frivolous Walpurgisnacht … Continue reading →

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The First Global Fairy Census Wants To Hear About Your Close Encounters

Posted on 17th October 2015 by William the Bloody

A fascinating account by Jess Zimmerman of investigation into the existence of and encounter with fairies.

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CFP — Edited collection: Gender, Race and Sexuality in The Walking Dead

Posted on 16th October 2015 by William the Bloody

From Dawn Keetley, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania: praise for the blog and a call for articles in a volume on The Walking Dead: Hi Bill–I am very much enjoying the Open Graves blog! Anyway, wondering if you’d consider posting this CFP … Continue reading →

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Genevieve Valentine, ‘How the vampire became film’s most feminist monster’

Posted on 16th October 2015 by William the Bloody

A fascinating essay by Genevieve Valentine on the shifting nature of the powerful and ambivalent female vampire in cinema.

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Roger Luckhurst, ‘Why bother reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula?’

Posted on 16th October 2015 by William the Bloody

And again, Roger Luckhurst! This time, a succinct essay on the significance of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, placing it in the context of late nineteenth-century Britain and anxieties over Empire and otherness.

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Before Bram: a timeline of vampire literature

Posted on 16th October 2015 by William the Bloody

More useful information from Roger Luckhurst on the origins of the vampire. This timeline illustrates the ethnographic and literary precursors of Stoker’s Dracula.

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Roger Luckhurst, ‘The birth of the vampyre: Dracula and mythology in Early Modern Europe’

Posted on 16th October 2015 by William the Bloody

An extract here from Roger Luckhurst’s excellent introduction to the OUP World’s Classics edition of Dracula. The notion that the vampire is universal and archetypal is debunked, and its origins shown to lie in the Enlightenment response to folkloric panics … Continue reading →

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Maria Cohut, ‘Review: Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright’

Posted on 16th October 2015 by William the Bloody

Chris Riddel’s Goth Girl books are great fun, appealing to both young people and older people versed in literary knowledge. They’re wittily, pleasurably intertextual. Maria Cohut of the University of Warwick has written an enticing review here on the latest … Continue reading →

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