Category Archives: Critical thoughts

Stan Lee, Spiderman and Troubled Teen Protagonists

Posted on 2nd March 2016 by firekrank

Today I happened to catch this excerpt from an interview with Stan Lee on BBC 5 live in which he was speaking about one of his most famous creations, Spider-Man. He was discussing the fact that when he first suggested Spider-Man … Continue reading →

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Trends in YA paranormal fiction

Posted on 2nd March 2016 by William the Bloody

While procrastinating the other day, I found myself browsing the recommendations that Amazon makes, following a chain of YA paranormal fiction. Three hours later, I recovered from my obsessive frenzy to find £260 worth of books in my basket. The … Continue reading →

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Angela Carter, Fairytales and Adaptation

Posted on 25th February 2016 by firekrank

Yesterday morning I noticed that #UpdateAFairytale was trending on Twitter. Of course I jumped right on board and had a merry time thinking up increasingly bizarre possibilities for contemporary fairy tales. Cinderella as a feminist campaigner against modern day slavery, … Continue reading →

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Paranormal Romance: Notes towards a definition II

Posted on 23rd February 2016 by William the Bloody

Continuing my tentative exploration of the hybrid, shape-shifting nature of the genre of paranormal romance below, here’s an extract from my plenary talk at the Company of Wolves conference. I hope you find this interesting and helpful (there are references … Continue reading →

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Paranormal Romance: Notes towards a definition I

Posted on 23rd February 2016 by William the Bloody

Following on from Sam’s excellent discussion on the elusive nature of the newly-emerged genre of paranormal romance, I thought it might be interesting to share my own fumbling towards defining the genre, which has formed a central part of my … Continue reading →

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‘The Witch’ (2015)

Posted on 22nd February 2016 by firekrank

Over the past few days, I have been enjoying watching the trailer for The Witch (2015), a horror movie about witchcraft, Puritanism, wilderness and the New World. The film has received excellent reviews and a recent Buzzfeed article, ‘The Movie That’s Going … Continue reading →

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Mythical Creatures from Philippine Folklore and Mythology

Posted on 22nd February 2016 by firekrank

Over on the Facebook site, Bill has shared this very interesting article about ‘Creatures & Mythical Beings from Philippine Folklore & Mythology’. The relationship between culture, nationality and folklore and is incredibly interesting. One of my neighbours is from Trinidad … Continue reading →

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Teen Gothic: P is for Paranormal – Still

Posted on 21st February 2016 by Sam George

  There has never really been a consensus about how we might define ‘paranormal’ or ‘dark romance’ and the ways it might differ from ‘urban fantasy’, or indeed how ‘dark fantasy’ is distinguishable from horror. Vampires are notably excluded from … Continue reading →

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Robot Rom Com: Could it Happen?

Posted on 16th February 2016 by Sam George

 I tweeted about the BBC article The Rise of the Romantic Robot earlier in the week. I found it to be very pertinent to debates we have been having on the Generation Dead course about the humanised vampire and the … Continue reading →

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The Difference between British and American Children’s Fiction

Posted on 10th February 2016 by firekrank

I read this article, ‘Why the British Tell Better Children’s Stories’, yesterday and found it very intriguing. Don’t be misled by the title, though the author of the article compares American and British children’s literature, they don’t make a definitive … Continue reading →

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