The Open Graves, Open Minds Project began by unearthing depictions of the vampire and the undead in literature, art, and other media, then embraced werewolves (and representations of wolves and wild children), fairies, and other supernatural beings and their worlds. The Project extends to all narratives of the fantastic, the folkloric, and the magical, emphasising that sense of Gothic as enchantment rather than simply horror. Through this, OGOM is articulating an ethical Gothic, cultivating moral agency and creating empathy for the marginalised, monstrous or othered, including the disenchanted natural world.
The Prizes will be announced at the IGA Conference at Mount-Saint Vincent University in Halifax in late July. Congratulations to all the short-listed authors! You can catch up on all the book prize news on the IGA blog here
Congratulations to OGOM’s Daisy Butcher who has submitted her PhD thesis today: ‘Monsters of (In)fertility: The Plant-Woman and the Female Mummy in Victorian Gothic Literature’. Daisy has been a joy to supervise & a huge asset to OGOM. She has been affiliated to the project for the last seven years on a funded bursary from the University of Hertfordshire. Some of you will know of Daisy from her Evil Roots collection in the Tales of the Weird Series published by the British Library. We can’t wait to see what you do next Daisy #botanicalgothic. We’re looking forward to working with you on some new projects including our next conference Bodies Of Water: Mermaids, Selkies and other Marine and Freshwater Hybrids.
The Flowers Personified by J. J. Grandville, from Les Fleurs Animées translated by N. Cleaveland, Esq. (New York, 1847)
Jane Gill is a Doctoral Student at the University of Hertfordshire and an OGOM Member
In the depths of winter, I embarked on a journey to Dublin with two main objectives: to visit Marsh’s Library and to present my first conference paper at University College Dublin. Founded in 1707, Marsh’s Library is a delightful and historic gem, standing as the oldest public library in Dublin. For the first one hundred and fifty years of its existence, it was the only public library in the city. The Humanities Institute at University College Dublin hosted the Cannibal Consumption: Culture, Capitalism, Critique conference for doctoral students on the 1st of March. Despite the unexpected snowfall, the conference proceeded as planned, offering a unique backdrop to this significant event.
Exploring Marsh’s Library
Photo by Jane Gill
The library’s collections are particularly rich in eighteenth-century Irish politics, history, folklore, and literature. My visit was specifically aimed at examining works on Irish fairy folklore by Lady Jane Wilde. Approaching the library, one ascends a steep set of stairs to reach the grand entrance porch.
The day I visited the library was a warm spring day, but I can imagine the steps being treacherous with black ice, or even with normal ice or snow. Upon arrival, I received a very warm greeting from the head librarian, Amy Boyle. She guided me to the reading room and briefed me on the rules and procedures for handling the old books.
Prior to my visit, I had requested a few of Lady Wilde’s books, and the librarian informed me that they would be brought over from the Farmleigh library site. Once I had followed all the procedures and settled into the reading room, my research began. I had requested three books: Lady Jane Wilde’s Ancient Legends of Ireland, and Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland, and Irish Fairy Tales by William Butler Yeats.
Lady Jane Wilde
Of the three books, the first one was by far the most useful as it contained a wealth of information and background detail on fairy legends in Ireland. I took numerous photos and made extensive notes on this first book. The other two books were useful in some ways, but not as useful as Ancient Legends of Ireland (which I discuss in the next section).
Photo by Jane Gill
It’s a lesser-known fact that Lady Jane Wilde, mother of Oscar Wilde, was not only a writer but also a celebrated Irish folklorist. Her works provide profound insights into the intertwining of Irish fairy beliefs and the landscapes they inhabit. She described fairies as having a complex relationship with humans, believing that ‘death is the penalty to all who approached too near, or pried too curiously into the mysteries of nature.’
These fairies are depicted with both a benevolent aspect, harmonizing with nature, and a darker side. The notion of fairies abducting human girls to offer them to the ‘Evil One’ creates a sinister undertone, echoing themes of the monstrous feminine. There exists a fascinating overlap between fairy and mermaid lore, fueled by the myth that fairies are fallen angels. According to Lady Wilde:
Some fell to earth, and dwelt there, long before man was created, as the first gods of the earth. Others fell into the sea, and they built themselves beautiful fairy palaces of crystal and pearl underneath the waves; but on moonlight nights they often come up on the land, riding their white horses, and they hold revels with their fairy kindred of the earth, who live in the clefts of the hills, and they dance together on the greensward, under the ancient trees, and drink nectar from the cups of the flowers, which is the fairy wine.
From Lady Jane Wilde, Ancient Legends of Ireland (London: Chatto & Windus, 1899).
Other fairies, however, are demoniacal, and given to evil and malicious deeds; for when cast out of heaven they fell into hell and there for the devil holds them under his rule, and sends them forth as he wills upon missions of evil to tempt the souls of men downward by the false glitter of sin and pleasure. Lady Wilde’s narratives vividly illustrate how some fairies found their way into the sea, establishing a compelling connection between fairies and mermaids.
Cannibal Consumption: Culture, Capitalism, Critique
The theme of this conference wasn’t directly linked to my PhD thesis (Ecophobia and the Monstrous Feminine in the Gothic Literature and Visual Art of the Long Nineteenth-Century link), but it did have a loose connection to my MA dissertation research on the Kraken in fin de siècle literature. I woke up early, as is my habit—I tend to be prepared and allow extra time for travel. When I looked out the window, I was surprised to see snow falling from the sky, a sudden change from the sunny and mild weather we’d been having. Undeterred, I made my way to the bus stop and took the bus to the University College Dublin campus.
Walking across the campus in a blizzard was quite challenging, but I managed to arrive early. Serendipitously, I reached the venue at the same time as the keynote speaker, Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, and we commiserated about the weather. Despite the challenges posed by the snow, there was a silver lining: being scheduled third on the program meant I presented to a smaller audience, which was less daunting, as many attendees were delayed by the snowy conditions.
The conference was a hybrid conference which meant that the other two speakers on my panel were both online speakers. My paper, titled ‘You Are What You Eat: Fungal Consumption in the Nautical Gothic Fiction of William Hope Hodgson’, resonated well with the audience and received positive feedback. During the Q&A session, however, the hybrid setup posed some challenges. While I sat alone at the table, the other panelists appeared on a screen behind me, creating an unusual dynamic. Despite this setup, I addressed all the queries raised by the audience and took part in a lively and successful discussion.
Engaging in archival work is a deeply enriching experience that I would wholeheartedly recommend to any current or aspiring PhD student in literature or history. I applied for funding for my trip from the Doctoral College at the University of Hertfordshire (my university). They had a competitive call for small bursaries for research activities for doctoral students. The funds covered my accommodation and flight, plus subsistence for the research library trip and the conference fee. Securing this bursary is an accomplishment that will provide valuable practice for future grant applications.
You can contact Jane via email on j.gill5 [@] herts.ac.uk; X @JEG_Writer
We’re beyond excited to reveal that the next OGOM conference will be a collaboration with the Haunted Shores network called ‘Bodies of Water: Mermaids, Selkies, and other Marine and Freshwater Hybrids’. We are keen to explore the connection between mermaids and the Gothic; the overriding theme will be one of enchantment. The CFP will be posted over the summer and the conference will be held in the Spring of 2025. Like the mermaid, it will be hybrid in form. The event will include mermaid themed entertainments and a seaside trip. More will be announced soon.
I will be giving a free online talk for the University of Hertfordshire’s Literature Research Seminar Series on Wed 17 April at 1.30. The concept of gothic has had an association with fairy from its inception; I’ll be exploring how we lost our fear of fairies and how they came to be associated with spirits of the dead in folklore. Are Fairies immortal or can they fade and die?
Joining details below. All welcome. Do come along and join in the discussion!
Literature, Folklore and Fairytale
17 April 1.30
Sam George: ‘Shadow Worlds: The Dark Origins of the Victorian Fairy’
There’s an interesting overlap between witches and fairies in folklore, this is seen, for example, in the shared idea of their uncanny voyages and the unusual vessels they choose to travel in. According to A Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), witches like to ‘saile in an egge shell, a cockle or muscle shell, through and under the tempestuous seas’.
A witch goes to sea in a sieve (Charles Turner, 1807, Wellcome Collection)
The belief that witches could sail in eggshells endured into my own childhood and led to us harbouring many superstitions around crushing the shells so they were not stolen by witches! It seems that fairies too are drawn to egg shells. According to Lady Wilde’s Superstitions of Ireland (1887), ‘egg-shells are favourite retreats of the fairies, therefore the judicious eater should always break the shell after use, to prevent the fairy sprite from taking up his lodgment therein’. Eggchanting!
Fairy and child discover an Easter egg, 1930 (Mary Evans Picture Library)
I thought this was a topical piece of lore ahead of this weekend’s pace egging and it allows for a mischievous gothicising of Easter. Happy holidays OGOMERS!!
Northumbria University, UK, 30-31 May 2024. Deadline: 31 March 2024
Researchers working in the broad field of “Horror Studies” are invited to submit abstracts about their research for an in-person conference, hosted by the Horror Studies Research Group at Northumbria University (UK), on 30-31 May 2024. The event will be free to attend.
Speakers will each deliver a 15-minute talk about their research, followed by extended discussion and questions from the conference delegation. We invite submissions from scholars at any career stage, but we particularly welcome abstracts from early career researchers and new voices in the field. The event is intended to provide a supportive space in which to develop new ideas, network, and forge new collaborations with fellow Horror Studies researchers.
Poetry has been an integral part of the Gothic mode since its inception. However, the connection between poetry and the Gothic seems a less explored area of critical inquiry, in comparison to fiction. While the Graveyard Poets and other Anglophone poetry movements are already considered foundational to the Gothic mode, our edited collection seeks to broaden the scope of what can be conceived of as “Gothic poetry” or poetry inspired by the Gothic.
We welcome papers that take a flexible view of the Gothic, locating it in various cultural contexts and languages from the long 18th century to the 21st century. We also welcome those who take a more historicist view of the Gothic to submit their work. What constitutes a Gothic poet? How do we conceptualize Gothic poetry differently from other genres? We invite essays that rethink the connection between poetry and the Gothic. Investigations of Gothic poetry and its connection to other genres and media are also welcome.
Although the role of terror in aesthetic experiences is a commonplace in Romantic criticism, the problematic nature of monstrosity itself beyond narratives of anxiety remains to be explored systematically. This panel considers the intersections between the emergence of monster literature proper – through figures such as Lord Ruthven in John Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre’ (1819) and the creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) – and the ways in which monstrous constructions inform the Romantic Gothic. Moving beyond the premise that the monsters of the early Gothic are Romantic figures, this panel seeks to interrogate how Romantic monstrosity translates into depictions of space – and what this means for negotiations of agency. While the sublime is linked to human experience and hence to an anthropocentric vision, this panel seeks to locate monstrosity as a mechanism by which the non-human undermines the human. Surveying a range of texts by Ann Radcliffe, Anne Bannerman, Mary Robinson, Mary Shelley, and John Polidori, the panel explores the depiction and performance of monstrosity in the Romantic Gothic with a view to highlighting its centrality and its distinction from sublime terror. Finally, looking forward, through an analysis of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things (2023), which draws on Shelley’s Frankenstein, we suggest a genealogy of constructions of monstrosity rooted in Romanticism, considering what this means for contemporary narratives of liminality.
Thursday, May 16 · 5 – 6:30pm GMT+1 Hybrid event Lecture Theatre 3, Ground Floor, Geoffrey Manton Building Rosamond Street West, Manchester, M15 6EB
Join us at Manchester Metropolitan University to hear more about three exciting new publications in Gothic Studies which address new debates relating to death, screen studies, Gothic and Romantic literary culture and sound studies.
This celebratory launch will showcase the cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and archival work undertaken by members of our Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies and their international collaborators. We are delighted that Eric Parisot will be joining us online from Adelaide, Australia and David McAllister will join us in person from London to speak about their editing roles on Graveyard Gothic.
This is a free hybrid event, so you are welcome to join us either on campus in central Manchester or online via Teams. If booking via Teams, the link will be emailed to you three days before the event and as a reminder at lunchtime on the day of the event itself.
5. Georgic Gothic: EcoGothic, Antipastoral and Global Horror
Essay collection proposed for International Gothic Series, Manchester University Press. Deadline: 6 December 2024
In their most recent overview of ecoGothic research, William Hughes and Andrew Smith note the prevalence of ‘intersecting and fruitful links between animals, plants, and food’ and that ‘Gothic engagements with food have become a significant area of investigation’ in recent studies. Agriculture is also filled with risk, personal and existential. Tales of horror arise from fear of nonhuman nature overpowering the human. These fears collide at the agricultural interface – the field, the wood, the cow.
EcoGothic can provide ways of questioning assumptions about human actions and lifestyles, even when they appear positive, and this interrogation can help to change the relationships between human, nonhuman, or more than human Others. Climate breakdown increases pressure on farmers, especially those striving for some alleviation through agriculture itself.
Environmental studies have recently come to revisit the georgic mode, by which agriculture and its labour can be depicted. In Virgil’s long poem, the Georgics, there is an insistent recognition that farm labour is ‘relentless’, often with meagre reward, and that both practice and politics of land ownership can be dangerous. However, Virgil also detailed the intimate, reciprocal relationship with nonhuman, and how hope was an ever present impulse to further endeavour. Novels, paintings and now films and digital media add to earlier poetic genres, offering new perspectives on ancient combinations of hope and misery. Unease permeates agricultural writing: farming hurts – there are well known examples such as Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) – hard labour alongside brutal machinery.
EcoGothic offers a way of way of examining the balance between hope and experience, Virgil’s ‘Fate’, ally and enemy in one. ‘Staying with the trouble’, as Donna Haraway has explored, can be a way of working through disaster. At the beginning of her text, Haraway includes the georgic impulse to recreate through the earth: ‘we require each other in unexpected collaborations and combinations, in hot compost piles’. Compost – decay – renews the earth.
This essay collection seeks contributions that investigate the connections between gothic and georgic which are not limited to the downsides of darkness, but explore how the mysterious, uncanny and disruptive provoke responses in their ability to influence minds and behaviours in order to improve multispecies engagement. Contributors can source material from any nation or period: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film and digital. Of particular interest is farming beyond the UK, for example in Ireland and Australia, Africa and Asia, places that nourish their own ecoGothic elements.
Please direct enquiries and send abstracts as Word docs (400 words plus short bio) to Sue Edney by 31st May 2024. If accepted, you will be invited to submit a draft chapter of up to 7000 words by 6th December 2024. sue.edney@bristol.ac.uk
Some exciting news, OGOM is going to be editing a special edition of Gothic Studies on Ethical Gothic. This will add to the issues we have already edited on the vampire 15.1. (2013) Undead Reflections: The Sympathetic Vampire and its Monstrous Other and the werewolf 21.1 (2019) Werewolves and Wildness. The new issue, 29.2 will appear in July 2027. We will be looking for essays on this theme for inclusion in the volume in the near future. We’ll also be hosting an Ethical Gothic Symposium to share ideas and develop papers for the issue. We look forward to finding out more about others whose research might address these concerns (including writers). Thank you to Emily Alder and the editorial team at Gothic Studies for this opportunity.
The OGOM Project extends to all narratives of the fantastic, the folkloric, and the magical, emphasising that sense of Gothic as enchantment rather than simply horror. Through this, OGOM is articulating an ethical Gothic, cultivating moral agency and creating empathy for the marginalised, monstrous or othered, including the disenchanted natural world.
We have rescheduled Shabnam Ahsan’s UH Research Seminar, ‘Skins and Cloaks: New Identities in 21st-century Fairy Tales’. It’s now on 13 March at 1.30 pm.
OGOMERS are cordially invited to join me for the Literature Research Seminar series at the University of Hertfordshire. These take place online once a month on Wednesdays at 1.30. The papers are 35 mins and we have 20 minutes for discussion. The forum welcomes PhD students and MA students in related fields and is friendly and supportive. If you’d like to join us please follow the links. This semester we are having an excursion into folklore, fairy tale and the gothic. The programme up to Easter is as follows:
24 January 1.30
Kaja Franck, ‘Atavistic Trolls and Immorality in Nordic Ecogothic’
Centre for Myth Studies, University of Essex
The Centre It promotes the study of myth, from ancient to modern, and raises awareness of the importance of myth within the contemporary world.
Mythopoeic Society
The Mythopoeic Society is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of members of the informal Oxford literary circle known as the “Inklings.”
Sheffield Gothic
Sheffield Gothic is a collective group of Postgraduate Students in the School of English at The University of Sheffield with a shared interest in all things Gothic.
Echinox Journal
Caietele Echinox is a biannual academic journal in world and comparative literature, dedicated to the study of the social, historical, cultural, religious, literary and arts imaginaries
Folklore
Journal of The Folklore Society. A fully peer-reviewed international journal of folklore and folkloristics, in printed and digital format
Gothic Nature
Gothic Nature: New Directions in Ecohorror and the Ecogothic
Gothic Studies
The official journal of the International Gothic Association considers the field of Gothic studies from the eighteenth century to the present day.
International Journal of Young Adult Literature
an academic peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing original and serious scholarship on young adult literature from all parts of the world.
Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies
The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies (ISSN 2009-0374) is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, electronic publication dedicated to the study of Gothic and horror literature, film, new media and television.
Journal of Popular Romance Studies
The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is a double-blind peer reviewed interdisciplinary journal exploring popular romance fiction and the logics, institutions, and social practices of romantic love in global popular culture.
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
An interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of the fantastic in Literature, Art, Drama, Film, and Popular Media
Monsters and the Monstrous
Monsters and the Monstrous is a biannual peer reviewed global journal that serves to explore the broad concept of “The Monster” and “The Monstrous” from a multifaceted inter-disciplinary perspective.
Studies in the Fantastic
Studies in the Fantastic is a journal devoted to the Speculative, Fantastic, and Weird in literature and other arts
Supernatural Studies
Supernatural Studies is a peer-reviewed journal that promotes rigorous yet accessible scholarship in the growing field of representations of the supernatural, the speculative, the uncanny, and the weird.
The Lion and the Unicorn
The Lion and the Unicorn, an international theme- and genre-centered journal, is committed to a serious, ongoing discussion of literature for children.
Victorian Popular Fictions Journal
Victorian Popular Fictions is the journal of the Victorian Popular Fiction Association. The VPFA is a forum for the dissemination and discussion of new research into nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century popular narrativeo
Related Links
Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index
The Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index is a classification numeric system created to group similar folktales from different cultures
ACADEmy
LSAD centre for research into Art, Curatorial Studies, Applied Design and Art and Design Education
African Religions
With the Yoruba Religion Reader and similar resources
Angela Carter Society
Promoting the study and appreciation of the life and work of Angela Carter
Art Passions
Art Passions: Fairy Tales are the Myths We Live By
British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS)
The UK’s leading national organisation for promoting the study of Romanticism and the history and culture of the period from which it emerged.
British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS)
The British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS) is a multidisciplinary organisation dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge about the Victorian period.
Byron Society
The Byron Society celebrates the life and works of Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), a poet, traveller and revolutionary
Centre for Myth Studies, University of Essex
The Centre It promotes the study of myth, from ancient to modern, and raises awareness of the importance of myth within the contemporary world.
Fairy Investigation Society, The
a website that will gather together sources, links, bibliographical references and discussions on fairies and related supernatural creatures
Folklore Society
The Folklore Society (FLS) is a learned society, based in London, devoted to the study of all aspects of folklore and tradition, including: ballads, folktales, fairy tales, myths, legends, traditional song and dance, folk plays, games, seasonal events, ca
Ghoul Guides
Home to the Ghoul Guides – a digital multimedia project devoted to exploring, understanding, and enjoying the wonders and weirdness of the Gothic
Gothic Feminism
Gothic Feminism is a research project based at the University of Kent which seeks to re-engage with theories of the Gothic and reflect specifically upon the depiction of the Gothic heroine in film
Gothic Women Project
2023: The Year of Gothic Women. An interdisciplinary project devoted to spotlighting undervalued and understudied women writers
MEARCSTAPA
monsters: the experimental association for the research of cryptozoology through scholarly theory and practical application
Mermaids of the British Isles
a history of mermaids in the arts and cultural imagination of our early islands, which will map the place of these beguiling, and often deadly, figures in the national maritime imaginary, and explore our ancestors’ persistent reimagining of the mermaid
Open Folklore
Open Folklore is devoted to increasing the number of useful resources, published and unpublished, available in open access form for folklore studies and the communities with which folklorists partner
PCA Vampire Studies
A site dedicated to the Vampire Studies Area of the Pop Culture Association
Pook Press
Publisher of Vintage Illustrated Fairy Tales, Folk Tales and Children’s Classics
Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database is a freely available online resource designed to help students and researchers locate secondary sources for the study of the science fiction and fantasy and associated genres.
Sophie Lancaster Foundation
The charity, known as The Sophie Lancaster Foundation, will focus on creating respect for and understanding of subcultures in our communities.
Supernatural Cities
Supernatural Cities is an interdisciplinary network of humanities and social science scholars of urban environments and the supernatural.
Supernatural Studies Association
The Supernatural Studies Association is an organization dedicated to the academic study of representations of the supernatural, the speculative, the uncanny, and the weird across periods and disciplines.
The Thinker's Garden
we also love Plotinus and the Renaissance Platonists, as well as the Transcendentalists and Romantics. We are also drawn to the peculiarities of the Theosophists and hermeticists of the nineteenth century
Vamped
Vamped is a general interest non-fiction vampire site. We publish interviews, investigations, lists, opinions, reviews and articles on various topics.
Vampire Studies Association
TThe Vampire Studies Association (VSA) was founded by Anthony Hogg . . .“to establish vampire studies as a multidisciplinary field by promoting, disseminating and publishing contributions to vampire scholarship
Victorian Popular Fiction Association
The Association is committed to the revival of interest in understudied popular writers, literary genres and other cultural forms.
Wells at the World's End
I am reading through the complete works of H G Wells, in chronological order. This blog is for my jottings, as I go along.
YA Literature, Media, and Culture
YALMC is a resource for those of us researching, writing, writing about, interested in Young Adult Literature, Media, and Culture.
YA Studies Association (YASA)
The YA Studies Association (YASA) is an international organisation existing to increase the knowledge of, and research on, YA literature, media, and related fields
