This inter- and multidisciplinary conference focuses on the relationship between the monstrous and the geographic. We welcome proposals by academics, teachers, independent researchers, students, artists, NGOs and anyone interested in manifestations of monstrosity in space.
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Recent blog posts
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09/05/2022
2022 is the YEAR of the VAMPIRE!! 100 years of Nosferatu, 125 years of Dracula, 150 years of Carmilla, 175 of Varney the Vampire, 25 years of Buffy and many more. OGOM has a special focus on vampire studies, so … Continue reading →
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01/05/2022
I was very honoured to be invited by Emily Paterson-Morgan of The Byron Society (@EPatersonMorgan) to give my talk, ‘Rebellion, treachery, and glamour: Lady Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon and the Byronic vampire’. It’s an expanded version of the talk I gave … Continue reading →
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Events: Gothic networking, Dracula, vampires
20/04/2022
Some exciting events coming up! Some alluring vampire-themed material here, too, with what looks an intriguing contemporary dance adaptation of Dracula, and a festival of vampire films, discussed by Prof. Stacey Abbott, who has collaborated with OGOM from the beginning. … Continue reading →
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CFPs: Hauntings, Southern Gothic, YA, fantasy, female Gothic, queer Arthuriana
20/04/2022
Conference papers and articles for publication requested: 1. CFP: Hauntings Halloween Symposium, online, 30 October 2022. Deadline: 1 June 2022 The CFP is now live for our second annual Halloween Symposium! The theme this year is ‘hauntings’ and presentations on … Continue reading →
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Events and CFPs: Vampires, pedagogy, Candyman, folk horror, Gothic adaptation, Gothic women
04/04/2022
Quite a diverse selection here of CFPs, forthcoming events, and resources; OGOM’s Dr Sam George and Dr Bill Hughes discussing vampiric matters among them! 1. Polidor’s The Vampyre, In Our Time, Radio 4, 9.00/21.30, 7 April 2022 Melvyn Bragg and … Continue reading →
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Goblin mode: the trend’s mythical origins, and why we should all go ‘vampire mode’ instead
01/04/2022
Goblin mode Sam George, University of Hertfordshire “Goblin mode” is taking the current pandemic-ridden world by storm. This state of being is defined by behaviours that feel reminiscent of deep lockdown days – never getting out of bed, never changing … Continue reading →
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New links and CFP: Anne Rice, African myth, fantasy journal, Daphne Du Maurier
01/03/2022
We’ve added some new links to the OGOM website, expanding its potential as a research tool for students, early career researchers, and established scholars. 1. Sam George on Anne Rice OGOM’s Dr Sam George gave a talk recently on BBC … Continue reading →
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Nosferatu at 100: The Vampire as Contagion and Monstrous Outsider
14/02/2022
Online Event: Saturday, 12 March 2022, 10.00 – 14.35 GMT 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the release of F. W. Murnau’s classic vampire film, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. The Open Graves, Open Minds Project are hosting an online event to … Continue reading →
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CFP and Events: Lady Caroline Lamb, Byron, and rebellion
10/01/2022
A few related items here, centering on Byron and rebellion and including the Byronic vampire. 1. Rebellion, treachery, and glamour: Lady Caroline Lamb’s Glenarvon and the Byronic vampire, The Byron Society, Art Workers Guild, London, 20 April 2022, 6.30-8.00 pm … Continue reading →
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25/12/2021
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! We live in Gothic times but the principle of hope will emerge from the darkness. Facebook40Tweet0Pin0LinkedIn0Shares40Print0Email0
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21/12/2021
I’ve left this a bit late, I know, but I want to express our mourning over Anne Rice, who died 11 December 2021. Rice’s novel Interview with the Vampire (1976) is, as I’m sure you’ll know, a pivotal moment in … Continue reading →
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CFPs and Events: Crones, vampires, Alice, Blake, Shelley, Burns Night
18/12/2021
An assortment of conference CFPs and calls for articles, plus online events. 1. CFP: Crones, Crime, and the Gothic, In-person Conference, Falmouth University UK, 10-11 June 2022. Deadline: 1 April 2022. Older women have traditionally been portrayed negatively in folklore, … Continue reading →
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Call for articles: Murder she wrote, Supernatural Cities, 1980s horror
01/12/2021
Some calls for articles in journals and edited collections. Be warned that the deadline for the Murder, She Wrote collection is very soon–15 December 2021! 1. Call for chapters: Edited collection – ‘Something very sinister is going on here’: The … Continue reading →
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Events and CFP: Radcliffe, mermaids, Byron, Gothic Excursions, Haiti and Vodou
26/11/2021
Some interesting online events coming up along with some prerecorded ones, plus another Byron CFP. Be warned: the first two events are very soon–Monday and Tuesday! 1. Radcliffe Beyond Udolpho, The Gothic Women Project, 29 November 2021. For the November … Continue reading →
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CFPs: Gothic Interruptions, New Romanticisms, Byron, Angela Carter, Romance
26/11/2021
Some exciting CFPs for forthcoming conferences. The one we have all been waiting for, the International Gothic Association 2022 conference in Dublin is out at last!** Note that the deadline for the Angela Carter symposium is very soon–30 November. 1. … Continue reading →
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Lady Caroline Lamb (13 November 1785–25 January 1828) – Byronic vampires and romance
16/11/2021
Lady Caroline Lamb, whose birthday it would have been on 13 November (I’m a bit late!), famously judged Lord Byron ‘Mad, bad, and dangerous’, having had a brief and tempestuous affair with him. This relationship inspired her novel Glenarvon (1816), … Continue reading →
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Coffin Boffin’s #31DaysofHalloween
31/10/2021
Halloween is finally here! @DrSamGeorge1, The ‘Coffin Boffin’, would like to thank all those who have accompanied her on this Gothtober Halloween journey. If you are still to view the gothic wonders she has uncover, click to enjoy her spooky … Continue reading →
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Fairies weren’t always cute – they used to drink human blood and kidnap children
30/10/2021
Sam George, University of Hertfordshire When most people think about fairies, they perhaps picture the sparkling Tinker Bell from Peter Pan or the other heartwarming and cute fairies and fairy godmothers that populate many Disney movies and children’s cartoons. But … Continue reading →
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Mina’s Paprika Hendl, inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula
28/10/2021
Guest recipe post from Ella Buchan, co-author of A Gothic Cookbook (featured here also) Unlike Dracula’s cold cuts, this traditional Hungarian dish – also known as Paprika Hendl – is a warm welcome in a bowl, thick, rich and shot … Continue reading →
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22/10/2021
Some spookily exciting events coming up soon for Hallowe’en (and afterwards too): 1. North West Long Nineteenth-Century Seminar series, hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University (on line), 3 November 2021, 16:30 – 19:00 GMT. OGOM’s Dr Sam George will be talking … Continue reading →
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Archives
Noticing how many conferences/ books there are on Gothic spaces/ geographies/ locating the Gothic. Really interesting stuff! In order to amuse myself I hashed out a hypothetical paper on the relationship between the Gothic and Capability Brown’s faux-natural landscapes.
Also suggests that ecocriticism is starting to have an impact on other modes of literary studies.
Give us a taste of the hypothetical paper, Kaja! As to the impact of ecocriticism, I sincerley hope not! But I’m not going to start an argument 🙂
It’s less a hypothetical paper and more a series of bullet points but I will give it a go. (Also, yeah ecocriticism. It’s validating my whole theoretical approach).
Very briefly then, I would argue that there is a relationship between the work of Capability Brown and the landscapes he was creating and the representation of Gothic nature within the novels of Ann Radcliffe. Radcliffe’s texts present a version of nature that is torn between the sublime and the horrific (thinking about her pathetic fallacy particularly). Her representation of nature, like the texts in general, has a veneer of authenticity as it is located in an unverifiable past. However, the Gothic nature of Radcliffe’s novels has no real life precedent and is instead controlled from behind the scenes by the author. Whilst there may be storms and craggy mountains, ultimately, we are in safe hands and everything ends happily.
In comparison, Capability Brown’s move away from ordered gardens to a more romantic landscape suggests that he was trying to reconnect with an authentic version of nature. However, what he is actually doing is creating nature as he wants it to be – idealised and beautiful. What looks to be a beautiful, natural landscape replete with grottos and waterfalls has no relationship with the history of the land. It is transplanting the ‘real’ version of nature with one that exists for man’s pleasure alone.
Interestingly, Brown uses the language of literature to describe how he gardens:”‘Now there’ said he, pointing his finger, ‘I make a comma, and there’ pointing to another spot, ‘where a more decided turn is proper, I make a colon; at another part, where an interruption is desirable to break the view, a parenthesis; now a full stop, and then I begin another subject'” (Quoted in Peter Willis, “Capability Brown in Northumberland” Garden History 9.2 (Autumn, 1981, pp. 157–183) p. 158). He reads the landscape and makes it a text that can be controlled within set rules. Many descriptions of his work describe it as ‘nature perfected’.
Gothic nature is something which seems uncontrolled and terrible but is actually a man-made nightmare: it is nature without man’s control. This presentation of nature fits within wider ideologies regarding civilizing and culturing the wilderness and savage landscapes.
So, it’s not much but I reckon I could expand it to 3000 words with judicious use of quotations and theory. This is essentially me noodling around with theories and ideas.
(I also plan to write about ‘Nordicism’ as the new Orientalism and, a searing critique of how contemporary health fads are making the obesity crisis worse which will be called ‘Fat is a Class Issue).