CFP: E-Gothic: Assemblage and Anxiety in the Networked World

Posted on 8th October 2014 by William the Bloody

A CFP for an edited collection,  E-Gothic: Assemblage and Anxiety in the Networked World, which will ‘explore and interrogate the Internet as a new, crucial medium for the culture of terror. The  ‘web’ is an anarchic zone in which new possibilities for the curation and performance of identity coincide with an advancing hyperconnectivity and the acceleration of informational transactions. In what ways, we are asking, has all of this been instrumental in the proliferation of an online Gothic culture?’

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The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole

Posted on 7th October 2014 by William the Bloody

Some beautiful images from the British Library’s edition of the founding Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1765).

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Gothic Origins: Film, Fiction and History

Posted on 7th October 2014 by William the Bloody

A very useful compilation of articles from Routledge journals on the Gothic. Unfortunately, the free access to these ended in September, but still worth looking at.

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CFP: Posthuman Gothic (Published Collection) – Call for Chapters

Posted on 7th October 2014 by William the Bloody

Chapters requested for a collection on posthuman Gothic.

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Marcus Sedgwick: where I write

Posted on 7th October 2014 by William the Bloody

A fascinating photographic exploration of the places that have inspired Marcus Sedgwick’s new novel, The Ghosts of Heaven. Marcus is an award-winning novelist whose work has been a focus and inspiration for the OGOM Project and who has also generously contributed to it through talks, seminars, and a chapter in the OGOM book.

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Gothic Manchester Festival 2014, 23rd-26th October 2014, Manchester

Posted on 7th October 2014 by William the Bloody

A fabulous set of events, covering all things Gothic, at MMU’s Gothic Manchester Festival

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Gothic Spaces / Gothic Places, 25th October 2014, Manchester Metropolitan University

Posted on 7th October 2014 by William the Bloody

A great conference at MMU relating the Gothic and spatiality, part of MMU’s Gothic Festival. Catherine Spooner, who has contributed much to the OGOM project, will be speaking:

‘This day conference brings together some of the UK’s foremost gothic scholars to explore the spatial dimensions of the mode in an exciting and accessible way. There will be papers on the Lancaster witches, on dark green gothic and haunted forests, on gothic architecture, the psychology of place and on gothic psychogeography and much more. You don’t have to be a gothicist or an academic.  Just bring your interest in and knowledge of the dark.’

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Sideways in Time: Alternate History and Counterfactual Narratives – March 30-31, 2015, Liverpool

Posted on 7th October 2014 by William the Bloody

An exciting conference at the University of Liverpool that embraces fantasy, SF, steampunk, and–I’m sure Gothic and the Undead:

‘Sideways in Time is an Alternate History Conference to be held at the University of Liverpool – in association with Lancaster University. This interdisciplinary conferences will bring together scholarship in science fiction, fantasy, historical and literary fictions, as well as historians and counterfactual thought-experiments, to discuss those fictional narratives that deals with alternate histories and parallel worlds.’

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Vampires, Werewolves, and the Recession

Posted on 6th October 2014 by firekrank

Well this looks promising: a contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet with vampires and werewolves set against the backdrop of the financial crisis in Italy. Literally, every part of that description thrills me to the core.

I mean sure, this does continue the trend of representing vampires and werewolves as mortal enemies but this time in the guise of star-crossed lovers. Something which we haven’t seen since, well, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009). And was I the only person who saw something rather homosocial between Jacob and Edward? (Jacob ends up with mini-Edward in female form for frick’s sake).

But it is interesting to note that our favourite working-class monsters, the lycanthropes, will be transformed into hot-headed financial traders whilst the vampires remain aristocratic and representing old money. I look forward to seeing if this film draws on the symbolism of Wolf (1994) and The Wolves of Wall Street (2002) in connecting lycanthropy, masculinity and excessive risk-taking with business hierarchy and dominance. (Heather Schell has written an interesting paper on this which introduces some ideas regarding our obsession with cultural evolution, werewolves and ‘real’ men). Seems likely there will a be couple of good puns on the term ‘alpha’.

Hopefully, there will be just the right mix of heartbreak, horror and genre-awareness to make this a good addition to monster films. Fingers crossed.

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Vampire MA Studies (Uni of Herts, four years on)

Posted on 6th October 2014 by Sam George

I mentioned that this is the fourth year of my course: ‘Reading the Vampire: Science, Sexuality and Alterity in Modern Culture’ in the OGOM news blog and I thought you might like to see the  course description and weekly schedule 2014 Open Graves, Open Minds is now the leading text book used and the reading material for the course reflects this as it contains very fine essays by Catherine Spooner, Bill Hughes, Marcus Sedgwick and many more, all of which tie in with the novels I chose for the weekly reading in the beginning.  It is quite amusing at this stage too (when there are quite a few copycat bloodsucking courses springing up) to look back at some of the scoffers and detractors who commented in the early days when I first invited vampires into the academy (and when the media mistakenly thought we had developed a whole degree on vampires!!). Here are some headlines and extracts:

‘Coffin Boffin Syllabus: Twilight craze sparks chance to study all things undead as part of a new University degree’ (STV Entertainment News)
‘Twilight Gets Scholarly Treatment’ (NY Times)
‘Wanna Study Edward Cullen?’ (Mediabistro)
‘Vampires make leap to academia’ (Wall Street Journal)

Listen up, Lestat lovers: The University of Hertfordshire in England will be offering a master’s degree in vampire lit, apparently the only one of its kind in the world. We imagine that the program, which begins this September, will cover all the bloodsucking basics, from Nosferatu to Twilight and of course Anne Rice. Extra credit for anyone who scores an interview with a vampire (Globe and Mail)

I can’t even express how badly I wish I could take this course. Maybe I am just a big vamp-geek, but the idea of taking an intellectual look at vampire fiction throughout time makes me so giddy that I want to bounce around like a six-year-old on caffeine pills. http://www.vampires.com/university-offers-course-in-vampiric-literature

Gothic studies have been popular in universities for some time but vampire studies still require some explanation. However, like the vampire we have endured and I’ll be welcoming the new students on Wednesday.  I cannot wait!! Let the feast begin. I’ll be blogging about our workshops here…..

our locally sourced oak coffins were also used for serving the Gothic cup cakes!!

our locally sourced oak coffins were also used for serving the Gothic cup cakes!!

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