Showing posts with label Hic Dragones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hic Dragones. Show all posts
Monday 19 March 2012
Wednesday 22 February 2012
GUEST POST: Bryan Sitch (The Manchester Museum)
Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory
When Hannah contacted me about contributing a paper to a conference she is organising on the subject of Monsters, I immediately thought of the presentation I gave - or rather a colleague gave on my behalf - at a conference a year or so ago. In the paper I made a brief survey of objects in the Manchester Museum archaeology collection depicting monsters, including Odysseus in the Cyclops’ cave on an ancient Greek vase and figurines of the chimera or chimaera, the sirens and the sphinx.
At that time I was very interested in sacrificial theory, but I was only able to touch upon the topic in passing because most of the paper was devoted to monstrous objects in the Museum collection. One of the questions I posed was if, as has been argued by Adrienne Mayor in her fascinating book The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2001), some of the monsters in ancient Greek myths were inspired by discoveries of fossilised bones from long-extinct Mediterranean megafauna, then how do we explain weird composites or hybrids like the chimaera or the sphinx in which the bodies of completely different creatures are mixed together? The former animal had the body of a lioness with a snake for a tail and a goat’s head sticking out of its back. It's like one of those books for children in which you turn a page and the head of one person is superimposed upon the body of someone else who is in turn superimposed over the lower body of another person. Reading Rene Girard's books about sacrificial theory seemed to offer a solution. Girard is a French academic who has worked for many years in the USA
His argument goes something like this: in the distant past members of a community that facing a flood or a famine or pestilence might experience into a state of collective anxiety such that the members of that community become progressively more agitated to the point where a total break-down of order and respect for social distinction is threatened. Girard compares the situation to a pan of milk about to boil over. What prevents the pan boiling over and a collective descent into anarchy – what Girard calls the ‘sacrifical crisis’- is the selection of a victim or scapegoat who acts as a lightning rod, exorcising the communal frenzy and bringing about a return to normality. Typically the victim is accused of having committed horrendous crimes and suffers a violent death in which all the members of the community take part. The victim is selected on the basis of disabilities or blemishes (and sometimes being unblemished is the excuse). Think of the myth of Oedipus with his club foot for example. Once order has been restored the community rationalises its violent treatment of the victim, who undergoes a change of status. Girard calls this the ‘mythic crystallisation’. Instead of being held responsible for the break-down of social order the victim is seen as having brought about its resolution and becomes a sanctified figure.
There are a number of things here that are relevant. Firstly, people who suffer from a disability or a blemish can be perceived as monstrous as well as being accused of monstrous crimes by other members of the community. Think of Oedipus who murdered his father and married his mother. Secondly Girard characterises the descent into chaos as a lack of respect for order and degree and social hierarchies. The people involved become so agitated that they can no longer make sense of what they are seeing. In the collective madness their perceptions are confused, resulting in the mixing of different categories, such as animal and human, and the creation of monstrous compilations and hybrids.
Monstrosity, therefore, is an important part of Rene Girard’s work on scape-goating. This offers potentially a way of understanding monsters, of which hybrids like the chimaera and the sphinx in Greek mythology are such memorable examples.
Bryan Sitch
Deputy Head of Collections and Curator of Archaeology
The Manchester Museum
Images:
1. Bronze Figurine of a Sphinx
2. Terracota Depicting Medusa
Bryan Sitch will be speaking on 'Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory' at the Hic Dragones Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject Conference, to be held at the Manchester Museum on 12-13 April 2012. For more information about the conference, please visit the Hic Dragones website.
When Hannah contacted me about contributing a paper to a conference she is organising on the subject of Monsters, I immediately thought of the presentation I gave - or rather a colleague gave on my behalf - at a conference a year or so ago. In the paper I made a brief survey of objects in the Manchester Museum archaeology collection depicting monsters, including Odysseus in the Cyclops’ cave on an ancient Greek vase and figurines of the chimera or chimaera, the sirens and the sphinx.
At that time I was very interested in sacrificial theory, but I was only able to touch upon the topic in passing because most of the paper was devoted to monstrous objects in the Museum collection. One of the questions I posed was if, as has been argued by Adrienne Mayor in her fascinating book The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2001), some of the monsters in ancient Greek myths were inspired by discoveries of fossilised bones from long-extinct Mediterranean megafauna, then how do we explain weird composites or hybrids like the chimaera or the sphinx in which the bodies of completely different creatures are mixed together? The former animal had the body of a lioness with a snake for a tail and a goat’s head sticking out of its back. It's like one of those books for children in which you turn a page and the head of one person is superimposed upon the body of someone else who is in turn superimposed over the lower body of another person. Reading Rene Girard's books about sacrificial theory seemed to offer a solution. Girard is a French academic who has worked for many years in the USA
His argument goes something like this: in the distant past members of a community that facing a flood or a famine or pestilence might experience into a state of collective anxiety such that the members of that community become progressively more agitated to the point where a total break-down of order and respect for social distinction is threatened. Girard compares the situation to a pan of milk about to boil over. What prevents the pan boiling over and a collective descent into anarchy – what Girard calls the ‘sacrifical crisis’- is the selection of a victim or scapegoat who acts as a lightning rod, exorcising the communal frenzy and bringing about a return to normality. Typically the victim is accused of having committed horrendous crimes and suffers a violent death in which all the members of the community take part. The victim is selected on the basis of disabilities or blemishes (and sometimes being unblemished is the excuse). Think of the myth of Oedipus with his club foot for example. Once order has been restored the community rationalises its violent treatment of the victim, who undergoes a change of status. Girard calls this the ‘mythic crystallisation’. Instead of being held responsible for the break-down of social order the victim is seen as having brought about its resolution and becomes a sanctified figure.
There are a number of things here that are relevant. Firstly, people who suffer from a disability or a blemish can be perceived as monstrous as well as being accused of monstrous crimes by other members of the community. Think of Oedipus who murdered his father and married his mother. Secondly Girard characterises the descent into chaos as a lack of respect for order and degree and social hierarchies. The people involved become so agitated that they can no longer make sense of what they are seeing. In the collective madness their perceptions are confused, resulting in the mixing of different categories, such as animal and human, and the creation of monstrous compilations and hybrids.
Monstrosity, therefore, is an important part of Rene Girard’s work on scape-goating. This offers potentially a way of understanding monsters, of which hybrids like the chimaera and the sphinx in Greek mythology are such memorable examples.
Bryan Sitch
Deputy Head of Collections and Curator of Archaeology
The Manchester Museum
Images:
1. Bronze Figurine of a Sphinx
2. Terracota Depicting Medusa
Bryan Sitch will be speaking on 'Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory' at the Hic Dragones Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject Conference, to be held at the Manchester Museum on 12-13 April 2012. For more information about the conference, please visit the Hic Dragones website.
Tuesday 21 February 2012
The Monster Mash
Friday 13th April 2012
Sachas Hotel
Manchester, United Kingdom
8pm-late
A deliciously decadent and moreishly monstrous costume ball.
Dress code: formalwear, smart Goth, steampunk, cyberpunk, Victorian, fancy-dress
Ticket price: £25 - follow this link for TICKET INFORMATION.
For more information, see the Hic Dragones website. This event is part of a weekend of monster and horror-themed events in Manchester, see the Hic Dragones website for more info.
Sachas Hotel
Manchester, United Kingdom
8pm-late
A deliciously decadent and moreishly monstrous costume ball.
Dress code: formalwear, smart Goth, steampunk, cyberpunk, Victorian, fancy-dress
Ticket price: £25 - follow this link for TICKET INFORMATION.
For more information, see the Hic Dragones website. This event is part of a weekend of monster and horror-themed events in Manchester, see the Hic Dragones website for more info.
Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject
Kanaris Lecture Theatre and Conference Room
Manchester Museum, Oxford Road,
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Thursday 12th April – Friday 13th April 2012
Conference Programme
Thursday 12th April
9.00-9.30am: Registration
9.30-11.00am: Opening Remarks (Dr. Hannah Priest, University of Manchester) and Session 1: Monsters in Popular Culture (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Matthew Freeman (University of Nottingham): Who’s Monster?: Monsters, Subjectivity, and the Figure of the Child in Doctor Who
(ii) James Campbell (University of Stirling): ‘Welcome to the Madhouse’: The Conflation of Monstrosity, Madness and Mental Illness in DC Comics’ Batman Franchise
(iii) Christina Wilkins (University of Southampton): Transatlantic Differences and the Importance of Religion in Post-9/11 Monsters
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 2a: Literary Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Tagliaferri (The Graduate Center, CUNY): S’el fu sì bel com’elli è ora brutto: Dante’s Vision of Lucifer
(ii) Imke Heuer (University of Southampton): ‘A brood of monsters like myself’: Joshua Pickersgill’s The Three Brothers, Byron’s The Deformed Transformed and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
(iii) Giulia I. Sandelewski (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham): Vengeful or Revenger? Renaissance Drama as a Lens for Vallgren’s Hercules Barefoot
Session 2b: Making Monsters (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Temple-Cox (Independant Researcher): Making Myself a Monster: Self-Portraiture as Teratological Specimen
(ii) Rosie Garland (Independent Researcher): ‘The Girl You Never Loved But Always Looked For’: Occupational Therapy and the Development of the Performance Persona Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen
(iii) Susanne Hamscha (FU Berlin): “Gaga, Ooh La La”: Lady Gaga and the Pleasures of Being a Freak
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.30pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 3a: Embodying Monstrosity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Tracy Fahey (Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT): Invisible Monsters: Gothic and the Diabetic Body
(ii) Michel Delville (University of Liège) and Andrew Norris (Institut Supérieur des Traducteurs et Interprètes): Monstrosity, Hunger and Resistance
(iii) Lorie Hamalian (California State University): Swans and Prawns: Monster Metamorphoses and Hybrid Identities in Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Blomkamp’s District 9
Session 3b: Monsters of Literature (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Jessica George (Cardiff University): Celtic Subject and Racial Other in Arthur Machen’s ‘The White People’
(ii) Kay Lint (University of Hertfordshire): ‘Mangy fur and red, smouldering eyes’, The Monstrous Dog in Graham Masterton’s Charnel House
(iii) Rick Hudson (Bath Spa University): ‘Their Hand Is At Your Throat, But Ye See Them Not’: Monstrous Absence in the Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
3.30-4.00pm: Coffee
4.00-5.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 4a: Folk Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Carla Bascombe (University of the West Indies): Monsters of the Caribbean: A Portrait of the Traditional Torturer in the Untraditional Tale
(ii) Alexandra McGlynn (Independent Researcher): Kappa: Buttocks-Ball Eating Monsters of Shintõ Suijin
Session 4b: Monsters of Cinema (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Michael C. Bongiorno (CUNY, College of Staten Island): Another One for the Fire: Spectatorship, Apparatus and Recognition in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
(ii) Joshua Peery (Independent Researcher): Fear the Ma(SHE)ne: Monstrous Female Machines in Sci-Fi Cinema
5.00pm: Close
7.30pm: Conference Dinner at Felicini
*****
Friday 13th April
9.30-11.00am: Parallel Sessions
Session 5a: Old Monsters, New Faces (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Rachel Mizsei Ward (University of East Anglia): Munchkin Cthulhu, My Little Cthulhu and Chibithulu: The Transformation of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu from Horrific Body to Cute Body
(ii) Carys Crossen (University of Manchester): ‘The loup-garou has a duty: justice’: The Law, Justice and Vigilantism in Contemporary Lycanthropic Fiction
(iii) Kim Wilkins (University of Queensland): Writing the Medieval Monstrous
Session 5b: Spaces of Monstrosity
Chair: TBC
(i) Ersi Ioannidou (University of Brighton): Dismembered Domesticity: the House as Monster
(ii) David Allen (Midland Actors Theatre): Expedition Everest
(iii) Garfield Benjamin (University of Wolverhampton): Virtual Monsters: Becoming Death and the Quantum Immortal
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 6a: Of Monstrosity and Humanity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Maria Chatzidimou (Aristotle University of Thessaloni): I am not an elephant! I am not a man! I am a colonized abject! : Re-viewing David Lynch’s The Elephant Man
(ii) Ian Pettigrew (University of Miami): The Monster’s Choice to Be Human: Guillermo del Toro’s Incarnations of a Hitchcockian Theme
Session 6b: More Literary Monstrosity (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Martyn Colebrook (University of Hull): ‘The Last Banned Book in Britain’: David Britton, Michael Butterworth, Lord Horror and Monstrosity
(ii) Eva Bru (Independent Researcher) The Spectacle of the Monstrous: Enforcing Normalcy in Mercè Rodoreda’s Death in Spring
(iii) Kristy Butler (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick): Breaking the Frame: Alternative Histories, Monstrous Ideologies and the Political Gothic
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.00pm: Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory: Workshop with Bryan Sitch (Manchester Museum) (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
3.00-3.30pm: Coffee
3.30-4.30pm: Session 7: The Monstrous Human (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Abby Bentham (University of Salford): The Monster in Me: On Cultural Fascination with the Fictional Psychopath
(ii) David McWilliam (Lancaster University): Demystifying the Folk Devil: The Humanization of Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’s Monster (2003)
Manchester Museum, Oxford Road,
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Thursday 12th April – Friday 13th April 2012
Conference Programme
Thursday 12th April
9.00-9.30am: Registration
9.30-11.00am: Opening Remarks (Dr. Hannah Priest, University of Manchester) and Session 1: Monsters in Popular Culture (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Matthew Freeman (University of Nottingham): Who’s Monster?: Monsters, Subjectivity, and the Figure of the Child in Doctor Who
(ii) James Campbell (University of Stirling): ‘Welcome to the Madhouse’: The Conflation of Monstrosity, Madness and Mental Illness in DC Comics’ Batman Franchise
(iii) Christina Wilkins (University of Southampton): Transatlantic Differences and the Importance of Religion in Post-9/11 Monsters
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 2a: Literary Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Tagliaferri (The Graduate Center, CUNY): S’el fu sì bel com’elli è ora brutto: Dante’s Vision of Lucifer
(ii) Imke Heuer (University of Southampton): ‘A brood of monsters like myself’: Joshua Pickersgill’s The Three Brothers, Byron’s The Deformed Transformed and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
(iii) Giulia I. Sandelewski (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham): Vengeful or Revenger? Renaissance Drama as a Lens for Vallgren’s Hercules Barefoot
Session 2b: Making Monsters (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Temple-Cox (Independant Researcher): Making Myself a Monster: Self-Portraiture as Teratological Specimen
(ii) Rosie Garland (Independent Researcher): ‘The Girl You Never Loved But Always Looked For’: Occupational Therapy and the Development of the Performance Persona Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen
(iii) Susanne Hamscha (FU Berlin): “Gaga, Ooh La La”: Lady Gaga and the Pleasures of Being a Freak
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.30pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 3a: Embodying Monstrosity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Tracy Fahey (Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT): Invisible Monsters: Gothic and the Diabetic Body
(ii) Michel Delville (University of Liège) and Andrew Norris (Institut Supérieur des Traducteurs et Interprètes): Monstrosity, Hunger and Resistance
(iii) Lorie Hamalian (California State University): Swans and Prawns: Monster Metamorphoses and Hybrid Identities in Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Blomkamp’s District 9
Session 3b: Monsters of Literature (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Jessica George (Cardiff University): Celtic Subject and Racial Other in Arthur Machen’s ‘The White People’
(ii) Kay Lint (University of Hertfordshire): ‘Mangy fur and red, smouldering eyes’, The Monstrous Dog in Graham Masterton’s Charnel House
(iii) Rick Hudson (Bath Spa University): ‘Their Hand Is At Your Throat, But Ye See Them Not’: Monstrous Absence in the Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
3.30-4.00pm: Coffee
4.00-5.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 4a: Folk Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Carla Bascombe (University of the West Indies): Monsters of the Caribbean: A Portrait of the Traditional Torturer in the Untraditional Tale
(ii) Alexandra McGlynn (Independent Researcher): Kappa: Buttocks-Ball Eating Monsters of Shintõ Suijin
Session 4b: Monsters of Cinema (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Michael C. Bongiorno (CUNY, College of Staten Island): Another One for the Fire: Spectatorship, Apparatus and Recognition in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
(ii) Joshua Peery (Independent Researcher): Fear the Ma(SHE)ne: Monstrous Female Machines in Sci-Fi Cinema
5.00pm: Close
7.30pm: Conference Dinner at Felicini
*****
Friday 13th April
9.30-11.00am: Parallel Sessions
Session 5a: Old Monsters, New Faces (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Rachel Mizsei Ward (University of East Anglia): Munchkin Cthulhu, My Little Cthulhu and Chibithulu: The Transformation of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu from Horrific Body to Cute Body
(ii) Carys Crossen (University of Manchester): ‘The loup-garou has a duty: justice’: The Law, Justice and Vigilantism in Contemporary Lycanthropic Fiction
(iii) Kim Wilkins (University of Queensland): Writing the Medieval Monstrous
Session 5b: Spaces of Monstrosity
Chair: TBC
(i) Ersi Ioannidou (University of Brighton): Dismembered Domesticity: the House as Monster
(ii) David Allen (Midland Actors Theatre): Expedition Everest
(iii) Garfield Benjamin (University of Wolverhampton): Virtual Monsters: Becoming Death and the Quantum Immortal
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 6a: Of Monstrosity and Humanity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Maria Chatzidimou (Aristotle University of Thessaloni): I am not an elephant! I am not a man! I am a colonized abject! : Re-viewing David Lynch’s The Elephant Man
(ii) Ian Pettigrew (University of Miami): The Monster’s Choice to Be Human: Guillermo del Toro’s Incarnations of a Hitchcockian Theme
Session 6b: More Literary Monstrosity (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Martyn Colebrook (University of Hull): ‘The Last Banned Book in Britain’: David Britton, Michael Butterworth, Lord Horror and Monstrosity
(ii) Eva Bru (Independent Researcher) The Spectacle of the Monstrous: Enforcing Normalcy in Mercè Rodoreda’s Death in Spring
(iii) Kristy Butler (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick): Breaking the Frame: Alternative Histories, Monstrous Ideologies and the Political Gothic
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.00pm: Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory: Workshop with Bryan Sitch (Manchester Museum) (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
3.00-3.30pm: Coffee
3.30-4.30pm: Session 7: The Monstrous Human (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Abby Bentham (University of Salford): The Monster in Me: On Cultural Fascination with the Fictional Psychopath
(ii) David McWilliam (Lancaster University): Demystifying the Folk Devil: The Humanization of Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’s Monster (2003)
4.30-5.00pm: Closing Remarks
5.00pm: Conference Close
This conference is being run by Hic Dragones, and information on registration can be found on the Hic Dragones website. The registration fee is £75 (including refreshments) or £97 (including a 3-course conference dinner on Thursday 12th), and the deadline for registration in 30th March 2012. Following the conference, there will be a series of public events with a horror/monstrous theme. For more information about the public events, please click here.
Monday 23 January 2012
OUT NOW: Variant Spelling by Hannah Kate
My debut poetry collection is now available from Hic Dragones and Amazon, priced £6.99.Here's what the publisher has to say about me:
Hannah Kate is a North Manchester-based poet, author and editor. Her work has appeared in a number of local and national magazines, as well as an anthology published by Crocus Books. She is a freelance teacher of English, Maths and Creative Writing, and reviews genre fiction and academic writing for a number of organizations. This is her first full-length collection of poetry.
And here's what the blurbs say:
“Delicate and strong, Hannah’s words beautifully communicate the impossibilities of communication. She explores the subtexts of what we do with our language in ways that will resonate with anyone who finds their own feelings and intents too big for semi colons.” Dominic Berry, Poet
“The poems in Variant Spelling evoke a North in revolt; a place of abandoned dyeworks, soot, winter, granite and grease. Through the ‘shifting vowels’ of the title poem they celebrate a world at odds with the imposed culture of the South. It is at its most rebellious in Praise God, where Hannah ‘praises the God of the North’, a place where the ‘air hangs with burning witches’.” Rosie Lugosi, Poet and Performer
I've blogged about the collection on my creative blog, and there's a sample poem up there. But here's another one - hope you enjoy!
Sir Ywain
On the wood on the bracket
of a cathedral seat,
there’s a picture of a knight
dressed for battle.
On second thoughts
he looks as if he’s already been fighting
for a long, long time.
He looks like he’s wounded his foe.
But the knight isn’t going to win this one,
because a portcullis has fallen,
missing his body
but carving his horse in half.
Poor knight.
Without a horse he won’t be able to fight.
Without a fight he won’t be able to win.
It looks like
he’s going to lose this battle.
But then again
the picture of the knight
on the wood on the bracket
of a cathedral seat
is just a picture of a man
sitting on half a horse.
Variant Spelling is available now, from Hic Dragones.
Friday 14 October 2011
Further Adventures in Wonderland: The Afterlife of Alice
Registration is now open for the Hic Dragones Further Adventures in Wonderland: The Afterlife of Alice conference. See here for more details.
This one-day inter-disciplinary conference in Manchester, UK, explores the influence, interpretation and representation of Alice in Wonderland in contemporary popular culture. Dress and style, music and film - Alice is out of the rabbit hole and into our collective psyche. This conference seeks to address the perennial popularity of Lewis Carroll's creation, and to explore her most recent incarnations.
Venue: The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester
Date: Thursday 1st December 2011
Programme:
9.30-10.00 Registration
10.00-11.00 Plenary Paper
Dr. Will Brooker (Kingston University): The Further Adventures of Alice
11.00-11.30 Coffee
11.30-1.00 Panel 1: Adaptation and Literature
Laura-Jane Maher (Monash University): Taking Liberties: Adaptation and Transmedia Narrative in Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars
Hannah Priest (University of Manchester): Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Whimsy: Genre Definition and Jeff Noon’s The Automated Alice
Deidre Flynn (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick): Adventures in the Postmodern Wonderland
1.00-2.00 Lunch
2.00-4.00 Panel 2: Performing Alice
Michael Goddard (University of Salford): Alice in Radioland: Radio Alice and the Movement of 77 Through the Looking Glass
Justine Houyaux and Neil Elliott Beisson (UMONS, Belgium): Waltz in Wonderland – Tom Waits and Alice
Guilia Sandelewski (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham): Behind Bars and yet in Wonderland – Alice Refracts Hamlet, Reflects Italy’s Fractured Identity
Alexander Sergeant (King’s College London): Twas Brillig! Nonsense, Play and Inconsequentiality in Paramount’s Alice in Wonderland (1933)
4.00-4.30 Coffee
4.30-6.00 Panel 3: Alice at Play
David Allen (Midland Actors Theatre): Alice In Wonderland – The Disneyland Dark Ride
Franziska Kohlt (University of Sheffield): Into the X-Box and what Alice Found There: American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns
Jennifer Hardy Williams (Calvin College): Alice Meets Lolita: Quinrose’s Alice in the Country of Hearts
To register, visit the website or email the conference convenors.
This one-day inter-disciplinary conference in Manchester, UK, explores the influence, interpretation and representation of Alice in Wonderland in contemporary popular culture. Dress and style, music and film - Alice is out of the rabbit hole and into our collective psyche. This conference seeks to address the perennial popularity of Lewis Carroll's creation, and to explore her most recent incarnations.
Venue: The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester
Date: Thursday 1st December 2011
Programme:
9.30-10.00 Registration
10.00-11.00 Plenary Paper
Dr. Will Brooker (Kingston University): The Further Adventures of Alice
11.00-11.30 Coffee
11.30-1.00 Panel 1: Adaptation and Literature
Laura-Jane Maher (Monash University): Taking Liberties: Adaptation and Transmedia Narrative in Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars
Hannah Priest (University of Manchester): Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Whimsy: Genre Definition and Jeff Noon’s The Automated Alice
Deidre Flynn (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick): Adventures in the Postmodern Wonderland
1.00-2.00 Lunch
2.00-4.00 Panel 2: Performing Alice
Michael Goddard (University of Salford): Alice in Radioland: Radio Alice and the Movement of 77 Through the Looking Glass
Justine Houyaux and Neil Elliott Beisson (UMONS, Belgium): Waltz in Wonderland – Tom Waits and Alice
Guilia Sandelewski (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham): Behind Bars and yet in Wonderland – Alice Refracts Hamlet, Reflects Italy’s Fractured Identity
Alexander Sergeant (King’s College London): Twas Brillig! Nonsense, Play and Inconsequentiality in Paramount’s Alice in Wonderland (1933)
4.00-4.30 Coffee
4.30-6.00 Panel 3: Alice at Play
David Allen (Midland Actors Theatre): Alice In Wonderland – The Disneyland Dark Ride
Franziska Kohlt (University of Sheffield): Into the X-Box and what Alice Found There: American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns
Jennifer Hardy Williams (Calvin College): Alice Meets Lolita: Quinrose’s Alice in the Country of Hearts
To register, visit the website or email the conference convenors.
Thursday 8 September 2011
A Journey Through Wonderland: Alice in Multi-Media
An exhibition of books, pictures, videos and more
The Portico Library, Manchester M2 3HY
7th October - 30th November 2011
Preview on Thursday 6th October
Lewis Carroll created, in Alice, one of the most enduring and endearing characters in literature. An escape from boredom plunges this easily distracted child into a surreal and fantastical Wonderland at once exciting and frightening as she meets, along the way, such whimsical, yet sinister, characters as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Duchess. Carroll had already imagined their appearance and John Tenniel, already an established illustrator, was given clear instructions on their depiction for the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland followed by her return to a dream-land in Through the Looking Glass.
Since its first publication in 1867 Alice has continued to inspire illustration, theatre, films, cartoons, toys and more. Walt Disney, Salvador Dali, Jonathan Miller are just three of the innumerable people who got the Alice bug and were inspired to produce their interpretation of one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling children’s stories ever.
This exhibition, curated by Emma Marigliano and Lynne Allan, for The Portico Library, seeks to capture some of the magic of the tale through a range of books, comics, pop-ups, artworks, film and other media along with a programme of events throughout October and November.
• The exhibition will launch at the preview on 6th October and will be opened by none other than Vanessa St Clair, great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell, the real little girl who was Carroll’s inspiration for his made-up Alice
• Leah Moore and John Reppion will delight graphic novel fans with a talk on their production of The Complete Alice on 12th of October
• From Hat Works Hat Museum, Stockport, Howard Green, will reveal the reason behind the Mad-Hatter’s insanity in his talk, Top Hats and Mercury on 25th October
This event is part of Manchester Science Festival; a programme of over 150 events, shows, debates, installations and more across Greater Manchester from 22 – 30 October 2011.
• Disney fans will be enchanted with Robin Allan’s talk, on 12th November, about Europe’s influence on Walt Disney
• Alan Shelston will talk about the grotesque in the Alice illustrations near the end of the exhibition on 29th November.
• In between there will be film/video showings, children’s activities and more. Look out for the full programme on our website and our Portico Quarterly newsletter.
All events begin at 6.30 and cost £7 per person, including wine and nibbles and may be booked by email, telephone or post.
Alice has been enjoying attention throughout the year in exhibitions and performances in the UK. The Portico will be linking in to some of those that will be taking place in the North West.
• Tate Liverpool launches a major exhibition of Alice with Lewis Carroll manuscripts and drawings as well as paintings and drawings from well-known artists and illustrators - from 4th November to 4th January
• A one-day inter-disciplinary conference - Further Adventures in Wonderland; the Afterlife of Alice - will be held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, on 1st December. The conference is organised by Dr Hannah Priest, founder of Hic Dragones, a creative writing and literature organisation based in Manchester.
We are most grateful for permission to use illustrations for publicity and promotion and for loans of books and artworks to the exhibition from the following (placed in no particular order):
Bryan Talbot, Manchester Metropolitan University Library Special Collections, Leah Moore and John Reppion, David Blamires, Walker Books for Anthony Browne’s illustrations, Rodney Matthews for his illustrations, Chris Beetles Gallery, Bryan Haworth, Robin Allan, Viv Doyle and the two curators Lynne Allan and Emma Marigliano
We are also grateful for the support of (in no particular order):
The Lewis Carroll Society, Vanessa St Clair, Manchester Science Festival, Manchester Children’s Book Festival, The Portico Library Trust, Dr Hannah Priest
For further information please contact Emma Marigliano, Librarian, telephone 0161-236 6785
The Portico Library, Manchester M2 3HY
7th October - 30th November 2011
Preview on Thursday 6th October
Lewis Carroll created, in Alice, one of the most enduring and endearing characters in literature. An escape from boredom plunges this easily distracted child into a surreal and fantastical Wonderland at once exciting and frightening as she meets, along the way, such whimsical, yet sinister, characters as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Duchess. Carroll had already imagined their appearance and John Tenniel, already an established illustrator, was given clear instructions on their depiction for the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland followed by her return to a dream-land in Through the Looking Glass.
Since its first publication in 1867 Alice has continued to inspire illustration, theatre, films, cartoons, toys and more. Walt Disney, Salvador Dali, Jonathan Miller are just three of the innumerable people who got the Alice bug and were inspired to produce their interpretation of one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling children’s stories ever.
This exhibition, curated by Emma Marigliano and Lynne Allan, for The Portico Library, seeks to capture some of the magic of the tale through a range of books, comics, pop-ups, artworks, film and other media along with a programme of events throughout October and November.
• The exhibition will launch at the preview on 6th October and will be opened by none other than Vanessa St Clair, great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell, the real little girl who was Carroll’s inspiration for his made-up Alice
• Leah Moore and John Reppion will delight graphic novel fans with a talk on their production of The Complete Alice on 12th of October
• From Hat Works Hat Museum, Stockport, Howard Green, will reveal the reason behind the Mad-Hatter’s insanity in his talk, Top Hats and Mercury on 25th October
This event is part of Manchester Science Festival; a programme of over 150 events, shows, debates, installations and more across Greater Manchester from 22 – 30 October 2011.
• Disney fans will be enchanted with Robin Allan’s talk, on 12th November, about Europe’s influence on Walt Disney
• Alan Shelston will talk about the grotesque in the Alice illustrations near the end of the exhibition on 29th November.
• In between there will be film/video showings, children’s activities and more. Look out for the full programme on our website and our Portico Quarterly newsletter.
All events begin at 6.30 and cost £7 per person, including wine and nibbles and may be booked by email, telephone or post.
Alice has been enjoying attention throughout the year in exhibitions and performances in the UK. The Portico will be linking in to some of those that will be taking place in the North West.
• Tate Liverpool launches a major exhibition of Alice with Lewis Carroll manuscripts and drawings as well as paintings and drawings from well-known artists and illustrators - from 4th November to 4th January
• A one-day inter-disciplinary conference - Further Adventures in Wonderland; the Afterlife of Alice - will be held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, on 1st December. The conference is organised by Dr Hannah Priest, founder of Hic Dragones, a creative writing and literature organisation based in Manchester.
We are most grateful for permission to use illustrations for publicity and promotion and for loans of books and artworks to the exhibition from the following (placed in no particular order):
Bryan Talbot, Manchester Metropolitan University Library Special Collections, Leah Moore and John Reppion, David Blamires, Walker Books for Anthony Browne’s illustrations, Rodney Matthews for his illustrations, Chris Beetles Gallery, Bryan Haworth, Robin Allan, Viv Doyle and the two curators Lynne Allan and Emma Marigliano
We are also grateful for the support of (in no particular order):
The Lewis Carroll Society, Vanessa St Clair, Manchester Science Festival, Manchester Children’s Book Festival, The Portico Library Trust, Dr Hannah Priest
For further information please contact Emma Marigliano, Librarian, telephone 0161-236 6785
Sunday 21 August 2011
CFP: Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject
April 12th-13th 2012
The Manchester Museum, Oxford Road
Manchester, United Kingdom
This two-day interdisciplinary, cross-period conference will explore humanity’s perennial fascination with the monstrous. From children’s toys to religious architecture, from medical and legal definitions to Gothic romance – cultural products resonate with fear, obsession and desire for the monster.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals are sought for 20-minute papers. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Monsters in literature, art, music and film
- Architectural monsters
- Subjectivity and the monster
- Objectification and the monster
- Historical definition of the monstrous
- Medical and legal monsters
- Theorizations of the monstrous
- Mythology, folklore and legends
- Hybrids and hybridity
- Cyborgs and the posthuman
Please send 300-word abstracts to the conference convenors by Sunday 1st January 2012. For more information, please see our website.
Following the conference, there will be a two-day public Monsters Convention in Manchester. We would be interested in hearing from anyone interested in offering a talk or seminar at this convention. Please email Dr. Hannah Priest.
The Manchester Museum, Oxford Road
Manchester, United Kingdom
This two-day interdisciplinary, cross-period conference will explore humanity’s perennial fascination with the monstrous. From children’s toys to religious architecture, from medical and legal definitions to Gothic romance – cultural products resonate with fear, obsession and desire for the monster.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals are sought for 20-minute papers. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Monsters in literature, art, music and film
- Architectural monsters
- Subjectivity and the monster
- Objectification and the monster
- Historical definition of the monstrous
- Medical and legal monsters
- Theorizations of the monstrous
- Mythology, folklore and legends
- Hybrids and hybridity
- Cyborgs and the posthuman
Please send 300-word abstracts to the conference convenors by Sunday 1st January 2012. For more information, please see our website.
Following the conference, there will be a two-day public Monsters Convention in Manchester. We would be interested in hearing from anyone interested in offering a talk or seminar at this convention. Please email Dr. Hannah Priest.
Wednesday 16 March 2011
CFP: Further Adventures in Wonderland: The Afterlife of Alice
Thursday 1st December 2011
A one-day inter-disciplinary conference in Manchester, UK, exploring the influence, interpretation and representation of Alice in Wonderland in contemporary popular culture. Dress and style, music and film - Alice is out of the rabbit hole and into our collective psyche. This conference seeks to address the perennial popularity of Lewis Carroll's creation, and to explore her most recent incarnations.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers are sought for this one-day conference in Manchester on representations and interpretations of Alice in Wonderland in popular culture. Possible themes may include (but are not limited to):
A one-day inter-disciplinary conference in Manchester, UK, exploring the influence, interpretation and representation of Alice in Wonderland in contemporary popular culture. Dress and style, music and film - Alice is out of the rabbit hole and into our collective psyche. This conference seeks to address the perennial popularity of Lewis Carroll's creation, and to explore her most recent incarnations.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers are sought for this one-day conference in Manchester on representations and interpretations of Alice in Wonderland in popular culture. Possible themes may include (but are not limited to):
- Film, TV and animated adaptations
- Musical adaptations
- Music - pop, punk, rock and metal
- Fashion - from alice bands to stripy tights
- Psychedelia and drug culture
- Gothic Alices - subcultures, dress, artwork
- Disney's Alice
- Merchandise, ephemera, collectibles
Abstracts of 250-300 words (for a 20 minute paper) should be sent via email to the conference convenors by Thursday 1st September 2011.
Selected papers may be invited for inclusion in an academic collection of essays following the conference.
For more information, please click here.
Sunday 27 February 2011
Save the Date: Hic Dragones Manchester Monster Convention
Thursday 12th - Sunday 15th April 2012
Venues tbc
Thursday 12th - Friday 13th April
Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject
A two-day, interdisciplinary conference exploring monsters and monstrosity. CFP coming soon.
Friday 13th April
The Monster Mash
A deliciously decadent and moreishly monstrous costume ball. Entertainment line-up and details to follow.
Saturday 14th - Sunday 15th April
MancMonCon
A two-day convention with talks, debates and exhibitions. Programme to follow.
Ticket info
Registration details will be posted soon. Registration will be available for one or more events, and full weekend passes will be available.
Entry to The Monster Mash will be included in some registration options, but individual tickets to this event will also be available.
For more information about any of these events, please check the Hic Dragones website or email the convenors.
Venues tbc
Thursday 12th - Friday 13th April
Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject
A two-day, interdisciplinary conference exploring monsters and monstrosity. CFP coming soon.
Friday 13th April
The Monster Mash
A deliciously decadent and moreishly monstrous costume ball. Entertainment line-up and details to follow.
Saturday 14th - Sunday 15th April
MancMonCon
A two-day convention with talks, debates and exhibitions. Programme to follow.
Ticket info
Registration details will be posted soon. Registration will be available for one or more events, and full weekend passes will be available.
Entry to The Monster Mash will be included in some registration options, but individual tickets to this event will also be available.
For more information about any of these events, please check the Hic Dragones website or email the convenors.
Thursday 10 February 2011
Submissions Wanted: Cottonopolis: Steampunk Manchester
Please note: the deadline for Cottonopolis submissions has been extended until October 31st 2011.
Submissions wanted for a new anthology of steampunk fiction set it Manchester. In the Age of Steam, Manchester ruled – the world’s first industrialized city; the first passenger railway station for new steam-powered transport; multi-millionaires pouring their money into Gothic libraries and trying to ignore the sprawling slums.
One 19th-century commentator wrote of Manchester: “A thick black smoke covers the city. The sun appears like a disc without any rays. In this semi-daylight 300,000 people work ceaselessly. A thousand noises rise amidst this unending damp and dark labyrinth ...the footsteps of a busy crowd, the crunching wheels of machines, the shriek of steam from the boilers, the regular beat of looms, the heavy rumble of carts, these are the only noises from which you can never escape in these dark half-lit streets”
What if these days had not come to an end? What if Cottonpolis, the Warehouse City, had gone from strength to steam-powered strength? We’re looking for new and established writers to contribute dark fiction tales for a new collection of stories that imagines that this ‘damp and dark labyrinth’ really was ‘unending’.
Editor: Hannah Kate
Publisher: Hic Dragones
What we want: Edgy dark steampunk fiction set in a fictionalized future Manchester. Some familiarity with the city and its history is advisable. Any interpretation within these bounds is welcome. Queer, trans, cis, straight are all welcome. Pure Victoriana is discouraged, as we are looking for stories set in an imagined future. (And, I should warn you, we are unlikely to be publishing any celebrations of imperialism!)
Word Count: 3000-5000
Submission Guidelines: Electronic submissions as .doc, .docx, .rtf attachments only. 12pt font, 1.5 or double spaced. Please ensure name, title and email address are included on attachment. Email to this address. Submissions are welcome from anywhere, but must be in English.
Submission Deadline: Monday 6th June 2011
Payment: 1 contributor copy (how we wish it could be more!)
For more information, visit the website or email us.
Submissions wanted for a new anthology of steampunk fiction set it Manchester. In the Age of Steam, Manchester ruled – the world’s first industrialized city; the first passenger railway station for new steam-powered transport; multi-millionaires pouring their money into Gothic libraries and trying to ignore the sprawling slums.
One 19th-century commentator wrote of Manchester: “A thick black smoke covers the city. The sun appears like a disc without any rays. In this semi-daylight 300,000 people work ceaselessly. A thousand noises rise amidst this unending damp and dark labyrinth ...the footsteps of a busy crowd, the crunching wheels of machines, the shriek of steam from the boilers, the regular beat of looms, the heavy rumble of carts, these are the only noises from which you can never escape in these dark half-lit streets”
What if these days had not come to an end? What if Cottonpolis, the Warehouse City, had gone from strength to steam-powered strength? We’re looking for new and established writers to contribute dark fiction tales for a new collection of stories that imagines that this ‘damp and dark labyrinth’ really was ‘unending’.
Editor: Hannah Kate
Publisher: Hic Dragones
What we want: Edgy dark steampunk fiction set in a fictionalized future Manchester. Some familiarity with the city and its history is advisable. Any interpretation within these bounds is welcome. Queer, trans, cis, straight are all welcome. Pure Victoriana is discouraged, as we are looking for stories set in an imagined future. (And, I should warn you, we are unlikely to be publishing any celebrations of imperialism!)
Word Count: 3000-5000
Submission Guidelines: Electronic submissions as .doc, .docx, .rtf attachments only. 12pt font, 1.5 or double spaced. Please ensure name, title and email address are included on attachment. Email to this address. Submissions are welcome from anywhere, but must be in English.
Submission Deadline: Monday 6th June 2011
Payment: 1 contributor copy (how we wish it could be more!)
For more information, visit the website or email us.
Monday 3 January 2011
Call for Submissions: Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny
Call for Submissions
Wolf-Girls
Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny
Submissions wanted for a new anthology of short stories of bad, bad, female werewolves. Kicking, biting, clawing, fighting: the new lycogyny is far from pretty. We're looking for new and established writers to contribute dark fiction tales for a new collection of stories filled with feral and feisty lupine femmes.
Editor: Hannah Kate
Publisher: Hic Dragones
What we want: Edgy dark fiction short stories about female werewolves. Male characters are, of course, allowed, but the central character(s) should be female. We have no preconceptions about what 'female' or 'werewolf' might mean - so all interpretations welcome. Any genre considered: dark fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, sci fi, steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, dystopian, crossover. Queer, trans, cis, straight are all welcome. High fantasy, revenge fantasy and anything about 'lunar cycles' and 'Mother Nature' will be considered, but are discouraged. Rather, we're looking for new takes on an old legend, stories that challenge and unsettle. (And it should go without saying that we won't be including any misogyny, misandry, homophobia, transphobia or racism!)
Word Count: 3000-5000
Submission Guidelines: Electronic submissions as .doc, .docx, .rtf attachments only. 12pt font, 1.5 or double spaced. Please ensure name, title and email address are included on attachment. Email submissions to this address. Submissions are welcome from anywhere, but must be in English.
Submission Deadline: Monday 4th April 2011
Payment: 1 contributor copy (how we wish it could be more!)
For more information, click here or email Hic Dragones.
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