Author Archives: William the Bloody

About William the Bloody

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

Little Red Riding Hood Rides Again–and Again and Again and Again

Posted on 25th March 2015 by William the Bloody

One of the fairy tales that seems to attract multiple reinterpretations and adaptations is ‘Red Riding Hood’: Angela Carter’s subversive wolf stories (including ‘The Company of Wolves’) and Marissa Meyer’s SF version ‘Scarlet’ (in her Lunar Chronicles series) are excellent … Continue reading →

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Frankenstein and Fantasmagoriana

Posted on 25th March 2015 by William the Bloody

This is the first of three very interesting articles by Maximiliaan van Woudenberg on an important source of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein–the collection of ghost stories in Fantasmagoriana (1812).

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Sir Christopher Frayling and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber

Posted on 25th March 2015 by William the Bloody

Sir Christopher Frayling has applied his immense erudition to many areas of popular culture but will be best known here, perhaps, for his pioneering study, Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula (1978), which made academic research into vampire fiction respectable. … Continue reading →

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Versions of Cinderella

Posted on 25th March 2015 by William the Bloody

Fairy tales, as we’ve shown in quite a few posts on this blog, are prone to myriad reinventions and adaptations, not least in cinema. There are countless variations on ‘Cinderella’; here’s a summary of some of the recent film versions. … Continue reading →

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Value and Ideology in YA Fiction

Posted on 25th March 2015 by William the Bloody

When studying popular culture (that created for younger people in particular), the question of value inevitably appears. YA fiction is often seen as not worthy of serious regard, particularly if it’s ‘genre’ fiction such as paranormal romance (gritty realism is … Continue reading →

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CFP: Reimagining the Gothic: An Interdisciplinary Showcasing Event, University of Sheffield, 9 May 2015

Posted on 23rd March 2015 by William the Bloody

An invitation to present critical papers or creative work on the Gothic. Sheffield Gothic would like to announce an interdisciplinary showcasing event and symposium on the theme of Re-Imagining the Gothic. We aim to explore how the Gothic can be … Continue reading →

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Film and Fairy Tale

Posted on 23rd March 2015 by William the Bloody

The reinvention of fairy tale through literary and cinematic adaptation is a whole area of debate in itself. These three pieces look at different aspects of film versions of fairy tales: first, ‘The 25 Best Live-Action Fairy Tale Movies Ever, … Continue reading →

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Werewolves in the woods – a 12th century account of strange happenings on the borders of Meath

Posted on 23rd March 2015 by William the Bloody

An eerie mediaeval Irish werewolf tale from Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland.

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Prince Lestat: A New Era for the Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice

Posted on 23rd March 2015 by William the Bloody

Leigh McLennon reviews Anne Rice’s return to The Vampire Chronicles with Prince Lestat, asking how Rice has adapted her vampires to suit the changed social conditions since the series began.

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Barry Forshaw ‘Sex and Death: Vampires from Coleridge to Hammer’

Posted on 23rd March 2015 by William the Bloody

Instructive extract from Barry Forshaw’s British Gothic Cinema on the vampire theme in Gothic fiction from Coleridge’s ‘Christabel’ through ‘Carmilla’ and dracula to its incarnation in cinema.

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