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Contemporary Gothic Reading Group

Rethinking Contemporary Gothic: An Interdisciplinary Study Day, June 3 2011. This study day aims to showcase some of the research currently being conducted on contemporary Gothic at Lancaster, with the intention of opening up new avenues for exploration and discussion. It will incorporate papers from current postgraduate students and staff on topics as diverse as vampire humour and sarcasm in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Trauma Gothic and the creation of postcolonial England. The day will be rounded off by a keynote by Professor Fred Botting of the University of Kingston entitled 'Love Your Zombie'. The day is free and open to all but requires registration. For more details contact Dr Catherine Spooner. Download our poster.

Open to all postgraduates and staff

Wednesday 3.30-5pm, fortnightly, starting Week 1

County Meeting Room 1 (in the Department of English and Creative Writing)

Join us for informal discussion of contemporary Gothic fiction. Members of all departments are warmly welcome. Bring a coffee mug!

Further information from Dr. Catherine Spooner

2011-12

Term 1

Week 1 (12 Oct): Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Week 3 (27 Oct): Gillian Flynn, Dark Places

Week 5 (9 Nov): John Ajvide Lindqvist, Harbour

Week 7 (23 Nov): Michelle Paver, Dark Matter

Term 2

Week 1 (18 Jan): Mark Gatiss, The Vesuvius Club

Week 3 (1 Feb): Anita Desai, The Zigzag Way

Week 5 (15 Feb): Karen Russell, Swamplandia

Week 7 (29 Feb): Marcus Sedgwick, White Crow

Term 3

Week 1 (25 Apr): Deborah Harkness, A Discoverie of Witches

Week 3 (9 May): Mary Sharratt, Daughters of the Witching Hill

Week 5 (23 May): Celia Rees, Witch Child

Week 7 (6 Jun): Natasha Mostert, Season of the Witch

2010-11

AUTUMN TERM

Week 2 (20 Oct): Zombie, Joyce Carol Oates

Week 4 (3 Nov): Selected stories from Desert Gothic, Don Waters

Week 6 (17 Nov): The West Wing, Edward Gorey

Week 8 (1 Dec): Fireproof, Raj Kamal Jha

Week 10 (15 Dec): The Spook's Apprentice, Joseph Delaney

SPRING TERM

Week 2 (26 Jan): The Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko

Week 4 (9 Feb): Selected stories from The New Uncanny, ed. Sarah Page and Ra Vickers, plus Freud, 'The Uncanny'

Week 6 (23 Feb): Selected stories from The New Uncanny, ed. Sarah Page and Ra Vickers, plus Rainer Maria Rilke, 'Some Reflections on Dolls'

Week 8 (9 Mar): What Was Lost, Catherine O'Flynn

SUMMER TERM

Week 2 (4 May): The Book With No Name, Anonymous

Week 4 (18 May): World War Z, Max Brooks

Week 6 (1 June): Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, S. G. Browne

Week 8 (15 June): Dorian, Will Self

Week 10 (29 June): We Need To Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver

2009-10

TERM 2
This term we are looking at a comination of critical essays and short stories.

Week 1 (13 January):

THEME: TENTACLES

China Mieville: 'M. R. James and the Quantum Vampire' (NB: pp. 62-74 of the pdf)
http://www.urbanomic.com/CollapseIV.pdf

M. R. James, 'Count Magnus'
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/james/mr/antiquary/chapter6.html

H. P. Lovecraft, 'The Call of Cthulhu'
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031h.html#04

Week 3 (27 January)

THEME: SHERLOCK HOLMES

Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Man With the Twisted Lip'
Neil Gaiman, 'A Study in Emerald'

Week 5 (10 February)

THEME: GOTHIC CHILDREN

Steven Bruhm, 'Nightmare on Sesame Street', Gothic Studies 8.2, November 2006
Joyce Carol Oates, 'Extenuating Circumstances', 'The Guilty Party' and 'Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly' from Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque

Week 7 (24 February)

THEME: EROTICISM AND DEATH

Selections from Bataille
Tim Lebbon, 'Every Wrong Turn'
Clive Barker, Hellbound Heart (chapter 1)

Week 9 (10 March)

THEME: LATIN AMERICAN GOTHIC?

Jorge Luis Borges, 'The Garden of Forking Paths', 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote', 'The Circular Ruins', 'Funes the Memorious' and 'The Immortal' from Labyrinths

TERM 3

Week 1 (21 April)
William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine

Week 3 (5 May)
Meera Syal, Anita and Me

Week 5 (19 May)
Laurell K. Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Novels)

Week 7 (2 June)
Juan Rolfo, Pedro Paramo

Week 9 (16 June)
Thomas Ligotti, Teatro Grottesco

ARCHIVE:  TERM 1

Week 1 (7 October):

Charlaine Harris, Dead Until Dark
The novel that inspired the HBO series True Blood – starting on Channel 4 on Monday 5 October.

Week 3 (21 October):

Paul Magrs, Never the Bride
The first of the ‘Brenda’ series, in which the Bride of Frankenstein sets up a B&B in Whitby.
Paul will be appearing at Lancaster Litfest on Saturday 24 October.

Week 5 (4 November):

John Ajvide Linquist, Handling the Undead
Let the Right One In author’s take on zombies.

Week 7 (18 November):

Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted
Visceral horror and postmodern games on a writers’ retreat.

Week 9 (2 December):

Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
To get us in the mood for Christmas, it's The Jungle Book in a cemetery!