Sebastian Baczkiewicz Afternoon Plays on Radio 4

This afternoon saw the beginning of Series 2 of Sebastian Baczkiewicz's Pilgrim plays on Radio 4. Four episodes will be aired at 2.15pm on Tuesdays, and can be heard again on BBC iPlayer.

Pilgrim is a semi-urban fantasy, which tells the story of William Palmer. A pilgrim on route to Canterbury in 1185, Palmer was cursed by the King of Faerie for claiming that the church could wipe out all belief in the fairy world. His punishment was to forever live between the mortal and fairy worlds. Series 2 begins with The Drowned Church, in which the spirit of a young man drowned in 1757 returns to collect mortal souls and drag them away with him. William Palmer - or Billy the Pilgrim - must face the young man, and confront decisions he has made in the past, in order to save those close to him and the community of Skaymer.

The Pilgrim character of interest here is that of Freya, William Palmer's ward. Freya is a werewolf, as well as being a young woman left in ignorance of Palmer's true identity. This makes for an interesting dynamic. At one point in The Drowned Church, Freya becomes angry as she realizes that there are things she doesn't know about her guardian. One of her bones of contention is that she feels her hard work in dealing with the wolf side of her identity is not being fully appreciated. It is clear that Freya is prone to change at the full moon, but that this can be reigned in through an act of self-control. Moreover, Freya feels (as do the others around her) that her wolf-side is somehow wrong, and that change into a wolf represents a failure in herself. Baczkiewicz's she-wolf comes across as a young woman struggling to deal with an aspect of her personality that is not fully within her control, and then berating herself when she doesn't quite manage it. From the first episode of this week's series, I felt that there was almost a suggestion that Freya's battle with werewolfism could be paralleled with a young person coming to terms with a mental health disorder.

I will be listening to the rest of Baczkiewicz's series this week, and will be following the character of Freya with interest. I find the idea of a radio presentation of a werewolf very interesting. In these days of over-used CGI and special effects, to convey a transformation through a purely audio medium is quite a bold step. I look forward to hearing how Baczkiewicz and Radio 4 team tackle this (if, in fact, they do).

Unfortunately, I get the impression that the character of Freya was more fully introduced in Series 1 of Pilgrim, which was aired in 2008. This series is no longer available on iPlayer - so if anyone has any suggestions as to how I could obtain a recording of the first series of plays, please let me know.

You can listen to Series 2 of Pilgrim on BBC iPlayer by clicking here.

More Tweenage She-Wolves...

Following on from my post on Mattel's Monster High dolls, here's another she-wolf for the tweens - this time brought to us by the good folks at Disney.

Wizards of Waverly Place was created for the Disney Channel in 2007. Now in its third series, the show focuses on the three Russo siblings - Alex, Justin and Max - who are the children of a former wizard and a mortal. They live in Manhattan, and juggle keeping their wizard life a secret while living as normal American teens. Sound familiar? It's pretty hard not to think Sabrina the Teenage Witch meets Hannah Montana. And like its predecessors, the show is proving a huge hit with its pre-teen/tween audience. The first film was made in 2009, and a sequel has recently been announced. The 10-12 year olds that I teach tell me that Selena Gomez, the show's star, is rapidly replacing Miley Cyrus in their affections.

The episode that interests me here is Season 2, Episode 2: Beware Wolf. The episode begins with Justin (David Henrie) announcing that he is going on a blind date with a girl he has met on 'WizFace' (the social networking site for wizards). His family warn him not to do it, as the last girl he met on WizFace turned out to be a centaur. Nevertheless, a knock on the door reveals Isabella (Sarah Ramos) - an apparently 'cute' and normal young woman. Isabella and Justin immediately hit it off - much to the annoyance of Justin's sister Alex (Gomez). But Isabella is not what she seems. When Justin leaves the room, she takes Alex's jumper in her mouth and plays with it like a dog. Later, she laps water out of glass, and then bounds around a park, catching frisbees and selling 'hello' to everyone she sees.

Isabella, you see, is a werewolf. And when Justin kisses her, he becomes a werewolf too. His sister laughs; he is terrified; Isabella takes it all in her stride, casually dismissing everything Justin thinks he knows about werewolves as a 'stereotype'.

So what can we make of the Disney Channel's female werewolf? At first glance, she appears to be a completely domesticated she-wolf. Isabella's 'werewolf' characteristics manifest entirely in behaviour suited to a pet dog. When Alex suggests that she-wolves eat their human mates, Isabella tells her that this is a misconception: werewolves are actually 'very loving' (said as she nuzzles Justin like a friendly puppy). She then warns Justin that one of the main dangers of being a werewolf is 'chasing cars'.

When Justin is told that he is now a werewolf, he screams and falls behind a sofa. Stretching his hands (in a gesture reminiscent of the transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London), he prepares himself for what he thinks will be a painful metamorphosis. Isabella laughs condescendingly and tells him that actually transformation is quick and painless (and, as she later points out, nothing to do with the full moon). Hey presto - both Justin and Isabella are suddenly in 'werewolf' form.

This transformation apparently simply entails the two characters gaining some extra fur and remarkably dog-like face paint. Unsurprisingly (this is a Disney Channel family show after all), their clothes are undamaged. But more strikingly, their personalities/memories/thought processes are utterly unchanged. Justin acquires no particularly lycanthropic tendencies, apart from the habit of leaping up onto rocks and elonging 'ooooo' syllables at the end of words. Isabella is not changed at all, except for becoming slightly more hirsute and acquiring a puppy-like black nose.

And yet - there is something about this episode that, I would argue, links Isabella with a particular tradition of presenting the female werewolf. Note the major change that this show makes to the werewolf mythos - it is not the bite of the werewolf that transforms Justin: it's the kiss. Of course, the kiss is a chaste peck on the cheek (again - this is Disney), but as soon as Justin accepts a, shall we say, less than platonic relationship with the she-wolf, he is lost. So the troublesome sexuality of the female werewolf rears its head again, albeit in a saccharine, sanitized form. We might also remember here that Clawdeen Wolf, Mattel's shop-til-you-drop 'wolf in chic clothing', includes 'flirting with boys' as one of her interests. A glance at the other Monster High characters reveals that it is only the werewolf who is so upfront about her emerging sexuality: the vampire is a pink clothes-loving 'girly-girl'; the mummy has a steady boyfriend; the zombie is studious and wears 'nerd glasses'. Clawdeen is 'fierce', wears micro miniskirts and cropped tops, and opening announces her interest in boys. It should be remembered here that Wizards of Waverly Place's Isabella was first encountered by Justin as he looked through the 'World Wide Wiz-Web' for girls who wanted to date boys.

That this episode of Wizards of Waverly Place contains a subtle warning about the female of the species is made clear by the final lesson that Justin learns. Having been told expressly by his parents not to contact girls on WizFace, he is forced to admit that they were right, before his father will give him the cure for werewolfism. He is mocked by his whole family and repeatedly told that the girls he will meet on social networking sites will not be what they seem. In the final scene, the centaur girl (who seems lovely and totally interested in getting to know Justin, despite the fact that she is half horse) returns to ask for a second date. However, Justin has learnt his lesson - and runs away as quickly as he can.

So, the Disney Channel reminds its young viewers that meeting people on social networking sites is dangerous. Particularly, it warns young men that the women they meet may well turn out to be monsters - and that they should never ever kiss them. The fact that they have chosen a female werewolf to deliver this message reveals that the unsettling sexualization of the female werewolf lives on for another generation. Isabella (and Clawdeen) are the new breed of tweenage she-wolves. I just can't work out if they'll grow up to be Veruca from Buffy, Carrie from Sex and the City, or some horrifying hybrid of the two.

Why do I have the disturbing sensation that we'll soon be finding out?

Watch Season 2, Episode 2: Beware Wolf of Wizards of Waverly Place on You Tube.



Acknowledgement: I would like to thank my Yr. 5 pupil, Amy Ninian, for pointing me towards this episode of Wizards of Waverly Place.

She-Wolf Fringe Poster

Here's our fabulous poster for the She-Wolf Fringe Events. It's been designed for us by Helen Taylor, one of my undergraduate students at Manchester. I'm pretty impressed by the she-wolf she's created for us. If you have anywhere that you could display the posters, please get in touch with me (Hannah Priest) and I can either email you a pdf or pop some paper copies in the post.

Update: She-Wolf Fringe Events

Here's an update on our She-Wolf fringe events... novelist Tom Fletcher is going to be joining us for the discussion panel on Wednesday 8th September. Tom's first novel, The Leaping, was published by Quercus. We're really happy that he's taking part - it should be a great night.

For more information on the She-Wolf fringe events, contact Hannah Kate.

Paranormal Cultures: Submissions Sought

Paranormal Cultures

Edited by Olu Jenzen and Sally R. Munt

Following on from the successful Paranormal Cultures Conference at the University of Sussex (June 2010), the conference organisers and editors Jenzen and Munt are inviting contributions to a collection of essays to be submitted to Ashgate Publishing.

We are particularly interested in essays that emphasise social or sociological aspects of the paranormal, in contemporary contexts. However, textual and historical subjects are also welcome. We have a broad definition of 'paranormal' - if you are wondering if your idea fits please ask!

If you would like to submit a proposal, please send us a 1 page outline by September 30th 2010. Chapters will be due by January 2011, for a final publication in 2012.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Email: Olu Jenzen and Sally R. Munt

Olu Jenzen is an early career researcher who has published on the uncanny, sexuality, and Jeanette Winterson. Sally R. Munt was Principal Investigator on the AHRC/ESRC Queer Spiritual Spaces Project and Director of Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies.

Books We Like...

Lancashire's Sacred Landscape: from Prehistory to the Viking Age, ed. by Linda Sever (The History Press, 2010)

A new collection published by The History Press, and edited by a good friend and colleague of mine. As a Lancashire lass myself (well, near enough), I think it's great to see a book exploring some of the rich historical and folkloric heritage of the county. Here's what the publishers say:

Lancashire, situated in the north west of England, does not at first tend to conjure up an image of 'a sacred landscape'. But look a bit deeper and one will discover a vast array of sites of ritual and early worship. Archaeological remains of prehistoric stone circles, cairns and burial chambers, pre-Christian place-names, Anglo-Saxon and Viking stone sculpture, as well as tales of fairies and 'otherworldly' creatures within the folklore and legend are spread throughout the county. Within this book the reader will find a discussion of all these, including a comprehensive gazetteer of prehistoric sites, listings of place names, locations of stone sculpture and detailed analyses of carvings and the inscriptions upon them, as well as a personal, experiential approach to landscape. Extensive photographs illustrate the sites described within the chapters.

The contributors to this book are from a variety of academic disciplines - geology, archaeology, art history, history, place-name and folklore research. They have spent many years deeply engaged in their own different areas of research in order to produce this wide-ranging material. Each chapter is accompanied by details of how to visit the sites in discussion.

For more information, please click here.

If Barbie was a Werewolf...

Mattel's new range of Bratz-style dolls have hit the shops. Monster High is a new range of toys, apparently selling out quite rapidly. The range features a number of monster-girls, complete with accesories, fashionable outfits and cute pets. And, yes, there is a female werewolf available. Clawdeen Wolf is - according to the packaging - 'a wolf in chic clothing'. According to the official Monster High website, Clawdeen hates gym (because she can't wear her platform heels) and loves 'shopping and flirting with boys'.

What interests me, though, is the reference to Clawdeen's problems with body hair. The website states:

My hair is worthy of a shampoo commercial and that's just what grows on my legs. Plucking and shaving is definitely a full time job but that's a small price to pay for being scarily fabulous.

So a female werewolf can't make it to toyshop shelves until it has been shaved. It seems there is nothing 'scarily fabulous' about hairy legs - and certainly nothing we can market to children.

Clawdeen Wolf and the other Monster High dolls are certainly cute, but I can't help but feeling somewhat uncomfortable about this particular presentation of the female werewolf - or, indeed, this particular presentation of teen femininity. It seems that even the werewolf - so often used as a symbol or metaphor for all that is uncontainable, bestial and unknowable about human nature - can be incorporated into the capitalist commodification of beauty and sexuality.

She-Wolf Conference Criticized by Werewolf

During my regular cyber-surveys of all things werewolf, I've come across a few mentions of the conference on blogs, livejournal and other sites. We certainly seem to have caught people's attention. However, tonight I discovered that not all the attention is positive. I found A Werewolf Blog in Brooklyn, a blog written by a 'modern day werewolf from Brooklyn'. The female werewolf who authors the site has taken some offence at the ways in which we are marketing the She-Wolf Conference. In particular, she's not happy about the link I have made between the 'female monster' and the 'female werewolf'.

Of course, it has never been my intention to cause offence. But I would like to offer a brief defence. Theoretical considerations of the 'monster' are becoming more common in academic discourse; literary studies, film studies, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, history, legal studies, theology... and many other disciplines are becoming more and more engaged with exploring the concept of the 'monster' and the impact this has on our understanding of the 'human'. Though in everyday parlance the word can simply refer to something repellant, unpleasant or dangerous, academics seek to go beyond this and question the far-reaching implications of 'monster-production', 'monstrosity' and the 'monstrous'.

I would suggest that this is even more problematic when examining the female 'monster'. Women - werewolf or otherwise - are monsterized and dehumanized in many discourses. So what happens when we create or are confronted by the monstrous monster? The other of the other? The inhuman non-human? Does this double otherness, as many critics have suggested, give the female monster more power? Or does it render her utterly abject?

These are the questions I wanted to raise and discuss by organizing She-Wolf. And, if you have a look at our programme, you'll see that our speakers will be grappling with these questions from different perspectives and from different theoretical positions. I believe that our discussions will cover many of the representations of the female werewolf in art, literature and culture - but will also explore what it means when we distinguish between the human and the monster.

I hope this clears up some of the thinking behind the conference. Despite the animosity the author clearly feels towards the conference, I would recommend giving A Werewolf Blog in Brooklyn or the downloadable zines a go. It's an interesting read, particularly if you're familiar with a lot of the recent pop culture representations of female werewolves.

Feel free to comment!

She-Wolf Fringe Events

In addition to our academic conference programme, we are also running two 'Fringe' events on Wednesday 8th September. These events are open to the public, and booking is not required.

She-Wolf: Writing the Female Monster
Wednesday 8th September, 6-8pm

A creative writing discussion panel and workshop, featuring Manchester's very own Vampire Queen Rosie Lugosi, and Chantal Bourgault du Coudray, screenwriter and author of The Curse of the Werewolf. Writers will be performing and reading their work, and discussing the rewards and challenges of writing the female monster. Other local writers will be in attendance to discuss their work, and the panel will be chaired by Manchester poet Hannah Kate.

Film Screening: Ginger Snaps
Wednesday 8th September, 8.30pm

Following on from the workshop, we will be screening the classic female werewolf flick Ginger Snaps. Come and join us for some lycanthropic fun!

Both events will be held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Engine House, Chorlton Mill, Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY. Tickets cost £3 per event, or £5 for both (payable on the night). For more information, please email Hannah Kate or call 07968188727.

12th Global Conference: Perspectives on Evil

Thursday 17th March - Saturday 19th March 2011

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues surrounding evil and human wickedness. Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on issues on or broadly related to any of the following themes:

1. Wrestling with 'Evil'

• does the language of 'evil' make sense in the 21st Century?
• what is 'evil'? What is the concept of 'evil'?
• when we use the term 'evil' what do we seek to convey?
• understanding the language of evil
• 'evil' and other possibilities: morally objectionable; morally wrong; bad; immoral; iniquitous; reprobate; sinful; wrong; depraved; diabolical; heinous; malevolent; wicked

2. The Nature of Evil

• the contexts of evil; the 'meaning' of evil as context dependent
• the roots of evil
• what counts as evil? Evil, Evils. Is there such a thing?
• the boundaries of evil; the forms of evil; types of evil; instances of evil. Universal evil?
• the practices of evil
• taking evil seriously; enjoying evil; satisfying evil

3. Explanatory Frameworks

• what are we looking for? The possibility of explanations
• what is an explanation?
• what does or should an explanation seek to achieve?
• is evil capable of explanation?
• explanation as evil

4. Understanding Evil

• from the perspectives of the disciplines (indicative examples: anthropology, art, art history, criminology, cultural studies, history, legal studies, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology)
• from the perspectives of professions (indicative examples: accountants, architects, diplomats, doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, planners, teachers, vets; people working in economics, forensics, medicine, nursing, politics, prison services, psychiatry)
• from the perspectives of vocations (indicative examples: people working in altruistics vocations, professional vocations, voluntary vocations, religious vocations, humanitarian campaigning and activities)
• from the perspectives of ngos (indicatives examples: United Nations, international ngos, business oriented ngos, governmental ngos, quangos, civil society ngos; people working with interest groups, lobbying activities; charity organisations; relief organisations; occupational organisations; not-for-profit networks)

5. Representations of Evil

• art, art history, visual culture
• cinema, tv, theatre, radio
• music; metal
• media
• technological and multi-media representations
• video games and on-line communities
• subcultural formations and identities
• fashion and evil
• gothic subjectivities and Othering

6. Confronting Evil

• how is it possible to confront evil?
• can evil be resolved? Should evil be resolved?
• the work of Truth and Reconciliation commissions; the International Criminal court; the role of law and local criminal justice procedures
• the work of international organisations
• the role of charities

The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st October 2010. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 4th February 2011. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters of emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Stephen Morris
Hub Leader (Evil)
Independent Scholar
New York, USA

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader (Evil)
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK

The conference is part of the 'At the Interface' programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s) or for inclusion in the Perspectives on Evil journal (relaunching 2011).

For further details about the project please click here.

For further details about the conference please click here.

2nd Global Conference: Magic and the Supernatural

Thursday 17th March - Saturday 19th March 2011

Prague, Czech Republic

Bewitched. I Dream of Jeannie. The Exorcist. Charmed. Buffy. Dr. Who. Dracula. Dark Shadows. Twilight and The Twilight Zone. Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton. Dresden Files. Harry Potter. The fascination and appeal of magic and supernatural entities pervades societies and cultures. The continuing appeal of these characters is a testimony to how they shape our daydreams and our nightmares, as well as how we yearn for something that is "more" or "beyond" what we can see-touch-taste-feel. Children still avoid stepping on cracks, lovers pluck petals from a daisy, cards are dealt and tea leaves read.

A belief in magic as a means of influencing the world seems to have been common in all cultures. Some of these beliefs crossed over into nascent religions, influencing rites and religious celebrations. Over time, religiously-based supernatural events ("miracles") acquired their own flavour, separating themselves from standard magic. Some modern religions such as the Neopaganisms embrace connections to magic, while others retain only echoes of their distant origins.

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project seeks to examine issues surrounding the role and use of magic in a wide variety of societies and cultures over the course of human history. People with access to magic or knowledge of the supernatural will also be examined.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on issues on or broadly related to any of the following themes:

• Magic as "paranormal", anything alleged to exist that is not explainable by any present laws of science
• the distinctions between "magic" and "religion" and "science"
• Magical thinking and the equation of coincidence with causality
• Folk magic and "traditional" systems of magic
• "Magick" and "Wicca" as religious systems in modern society
• Witchcraft in the European context
• "Witchcraft" and animism in African or Asian contexts
• Magic as illusion, stagecraft, sleight-of-hand
• Magic in modern literature (ex. Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, the saga of Middle Earth, the Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) and in traditional literatures (folk or fairy tales, legends, mythologies, etc.)
• Magic in art and the depiction of magical creatures, practices or practitioners
• the association of magic with the "monstrous" or "evil"; does one imply the presence of the other?
• the portrayal of magic, magical creatures, and magical practices or practitioners on television and in film
• the roles or uses of magic in video games, on-line communities, role-playing games, subcultural formations and identities
• the similarities and differences of magical creatures across societies and time periods
• the interplay of "magic" and "religion" as well as "science"
• the "sciences" of demonology and angelology
• the role of divination or prophecy in societies or religions
• the use of "natural" vs. "supernatural" explanations for world events
• Magic and the supernatural as coping mechanisms for individuals and societies

The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st October 2010. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 4th February 2011. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:

Stephen Morris
Hub Leader (Evil)
Independent Scholar
New York, USA

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader (Evil)
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK

The conference is part of the 'At the Interface' programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details about the project please click here.

For further details about the conference please click here.

Books We Like...

Hosting the Monster, ed. by Holly Lynn Baumgartner and Roger Davis (Rodopi, 2008)

A inter-disciplinary collection of essays exploring monsters, the monstrous, identities and boundaries. This collection grew out of the Fifth Global Monsters and the Monstrous Conference, held at Mansfield College, Oxford in 2007.

I'm sure eagle-eyed readers will spot the chapter on medieval werewolves written by yours truly!

For more information, click here.

Contents:

Hosting the Monster: Introduction
Holly Lynn Baumgartner and Roger Davies

"I Live in the Weak and the Wounded": The Monster of Brad Anderson's Session 9
Duane Kight

The Monster as a Victim of War: The Returning Veteran in The Best Years of Our Lives
Amaya Muruzabal Muruzabal

Human Monstrosity: Rape, Ambiguity and Performance in Rosemary's Baby
Lucy Fife

The Monstrous and Maternal in Toni Morrison's Beloved
Inderjit Grewal

The Witch and the Werewolf: Rebirth and Subjectivity in Medieval Verse
Hannah Priest

It's Never the Bass: Opera's True Transgressors Sing Soprano
Holly Lynn Baumgartner

Joseph Merrick and the Concept of Monstrosity in Nineteenth Century Medical Thought
Katherine Angell

Herculine Barbin: Human Error, Criminality and the Case of the Monstrous Hermaphrodite
Jessica Webb

Literary Monsters: Gender, Genius, and Writing in Denis Diderot's 'On Women' and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Cecilia A. Feilla

Sweet, Bloody Vengeance: Class, Social Stigma and Servitude in the Slasher Genre
Sorcha Ni Fhlainn

It Cam from Four-Colour Fiction: The Effect of Cold War Comic Books on the Fiction of Stephen King
David M. Kingsley

The Monsters that Failed to Scare: The Atypical Reception of the 1930s Horror Films in Belgium
Liesbet Depauw

"a white illusion of a man": Snowman, Survival and Speculation in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake
Roger Davis

Updated Conference Programme

She-Wolf: Female Werewolves, Shapeshifters and Other Horrors in Art, Literature and Culture

Kanaris Lecture Theatre
Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, Manchester

Thursday 9th-Friday 10th September 2010

Programme

Thursday 9th September

10.00-11.00 Registration

11.00-11.30 Opening Remarks

11.30-1.00 Session 1: Monstrous Sexuality (Chair: Carys Crossen)

Tim Snelson (University of East Anglia): 'Women Can Be Wolves Too': The Cry of the Werewolf (1944), the Female Monster and the Contested Bodies of Wartime Women

Kerstin Frank (University of Heidelberg): Angela Carter's Wolf-Girls: Power Struggles, Transformation and Gender in her Rewritings of 'Little Red Riding Hood'

Eva Bru -Dominguez (University of Birmingham): Reclaiming Desire: the She-Wolf in Merce Rodoreda's Death in Spring

1.00-2.00 Lunch

2.00-3.00 Museum Workshop: Monstrous Material Culture (led by Sam Alberti and Bryan Sitch)

3.00-3.30 Coffee

3.30-5.00 Session 2: Shapeshifting Sisters (Chair: Hannah Priest)

Linda McGuire (Independent Researcher): Magical Transformations: Owl Women and Sorcery in Latin Literature

Laura Wilson (University of Manchester): Dans Ma Peau: Shape-shifting and Subjectivity

5.00 Close

Friday 10th September

9.30-11.00 Session 3: Of Otherness and Conformity (Chair: Linda McGuire)

Brian Feltham (University of Reading): Imagined Identities - The Woman in the Wolf Suit

Willem de Blecourt (Meertens Institute, Amsterdam): The Case of the Cut-Off Hand. On Female Werewolves and Incest Metaphors

Carys Crossen (University of Manchester): 'The Complex and Antagonistic Forces that Constitute One Soul': Religious Conviction versus Feminist Principles in Clemence Housman's The Werewolf

11.00-11.30 Coffee

11.30-12.30 Keynote Addess: Peter Hutchings (Northumbria University): The She-Wolves of Horror Cinema: Marginality, Transformation and Rage

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-3.00 Session 4: Fantasy and the She-Wolf (Chair: Brian Feltham)

Nickianne Moody (Liverpool John Mores University): Supernatural Hierarchies: The Place of Werewolves in the Paranormal Romance and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

Hannah Priest (University of Manchester): I Was a Teenage She-Wolf: Boobs, Blood and Chocolate

Jacquelyn Bent and Helen Gavin (University of Huddersfield): An Uberwald Werewolf Howled in Patrician Square

3.00-3.30 Coffee

3.30-5.00 Session 5: Creating the She-Wolf (Chair: Nickianne Moody)

Jazmina Cininas (RMIT University): The Girlie Werewolf Hall of Fame: Historical and Contemporary Representations of the Female Lycanthrope

Chantal Bourgault du Coudray (University of Western Australia): 'You Should Write a Werewolf Screenplay': Meeting the Challenge

5.00 Conference Close

To register for this event, please click here

Vampire Conference in London (November 2011)

Vampires: Myths of the Past and the Future

An interdisciplinary conference organised by Simon Bacon, The London Consortium in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London

Deadline for submissions: 30 April 2011
Conference dates: 2nd-4th November 2011
Venue: Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

Myths of vampires and the undead are as old as civilisation itself, wherever humans gather these 'dark reflections' are sure to follow. Whether as hungry spirits, avenging furies or as the disgruntled dearly departed, they have been used to signify the monstrous other and the consequences of social transgression. Embodying the result of a life lived beyond patriarchal protective proscription that quickly changes from dream to nightmare and from fairy tale to ghost story.
However their manifold and multifarious manifestation also provides a point of opposition and resistance, one that subverts majority narrative and gives agency to the disenfranchised and oppressed within society. This is seen most clearly in the late twentieth century where, in a plethora of filmic and literary texts, amidst a growing 'sympathy for the devil' the vampire is constructed as a site of personal and social transition. Here alternative narratives (e.g. feminist, ethnic, post-colonial discourses etc) find expression and ways in which to configure their own identity within, or in opposition to, the dominant cultural parameters revealing hybridity as the catalyst for future myth making.
In the course of the past century the vampire has undergone many transformations which now see them as a separate evolutionary species, both genetically and cybernetically, signifying all that late capitalist society admires and desires thus completing its change from an adhorational figure to an aspirational one; the vampire is no longer the myth of a murky superstitious past but that of a bright new future and one that will last forever.
This interdisciplinary conference will look at the various ways the vampire has been used in the past and present to construct narratives of possible futures, both positive and negative, that facilitate both individual and colelctive, either in the face of hegemonic discourse or in the continuance of its ideological meta-narratives.

Keynote speakers include:

Stacey Abbott
Milly Williamson
Catherine Spooner

We invite papers from a wide range of disciplines and approaches such as: anthropology, art history, cultural studies, film studies, history, literary studies, philosophy, psychology, theology, etc.

Possible themes include, but are not limited to:

• Myths, fairy tales and urban legends
  
• Cross cultural colonisation, vampiric appropriation and reappropriation
  
• Cinema, Manga/Anime and gaming


• Fandom, lifestyle, 'real' vampires and identity configuration


• Minority discourse and the transcultural vampire


• Genetics, cybernetics and the post human


• Blood memory, vampiric memory and the immortal archive


• Dracula vs. Nosferatu; Urban vs. Rural


• Globalisation, corporations and 'Dark' societies


• Immortality, transcendence and cyberspace


• Old World/New World and vampiric migration


• From stakes to crosses to sunlight


• Blood Relations and the vampiric family


• Abjection, psychoanalysis and transitional objects

Papers will also be considered on any related themes. Abstracts of 300 words should be submitted to Simon Bacon no later than April 30th 2011.

Books We Like...

Rosie Garland, Things I Did While I Was Dead (Flapjack Press, 2010)

A powerful new collection of poetry by Rosie Garland (known to many as Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen). Garland moves between childhood, gender, sexuality, religious iconography, relationships, with characteristic flair and exuberance. The poems in this collection reveal a love of, and dexterity with, language that amuses and moves.

"I braid my hair in snakes with fingers sugar sticky.
Hang necklaces of breasts beneath my chin.
Turn women to butter, men to stone.
When I dance, the sky drops water, the earth moans."
(from 'Lilith')

"I take your hand, wait
for the magic: some old god's
shoulder turning over in the dirt;
a raven come to omen the stones;
a black dog flicker at the corner
of eyeshot."
(from 'The Promise of Ghosts')

A highly recommended collection. Rosie will also be taking part in the She-Wolf discussion panel on Wednesday 8th September 2010 - more details on this to follow.

See Flapjack Press for more details.

Registration Extended

We have moved the deadline for registration at the She-Wolf Conference to Friday August 20th. Click on the links on this page to go directly to the registration page.

I'll be posting an updated conference programme on here shortly - it's going to be a great event, and we'd love to see you all there.