CFP: 10th Medieval English Studies Symposium

19-20 November 2011
Poznań, Poland

The 10th Medieval English Studies Symposium, organised by the School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, will be held in Poznan from 19-20 November, 2011. MESS10 will have as its aim bringing together specialists in the areas of medieval English literature and linguistics. Two plenary lectures, at least two parallel sessions and over twenty section meetings are planned.

Literature Section at MESS10

Princes and Paupers: Class, Money and (social and physical) Otherness in medieval and medievalist literature in English

The main aim of the literary section is that class and wealth and their literary representations appear in the form of endorsements as well as admonitions. Princes and Paupers feature in secular literature of advice as well as in religious works on sins and transgressions, both types offering insight into the nature of medieval social life. Early medieval penitentials outline not only ideas on penance (exile which meant social exclusion being one of the most frequently prescribed punishments), but first and foremost demonstrate how crimes were punished differently according to the social class of the perpetrators. Mess10 welcomes all papers dealing with the above mentioned aspects of medieval literature but we will also try to accommodate other papers, if need arises.

500-word abstracts should be submitted by the end of August 2011, preferably by email, in the .rtf or .doc format. As the number of paper slots is limited, all proposals will be reviewed by the organising committee and the authors will be notified about acceptance by mid-September 2011. Participants without papers are also welcome.

Venue

The conference will be held at Collegium Iuridicum Novum building, officially inaugurated in December 2010 to house the AMU Faculty of Law and Administration (Polish: Wydział Prawa i Administracji).

All the rooms offer audio and video equipment, including data projectors.

Registration

New registration forms will soon be available on the conference website.

All enquiries concerning the Symposium should be addressed to the organisers, preferably by e-mail.

For more information, see the main website here.

Review: Tales From the Asylum: A Steampunk Compilation (The Last Line, 2010)

Tales From the Asylum is a collection of steampunk short stories, published by small press The Last Line in 2010. I came across the book at the 2010 Bram Stoker Film Festival, where the publishers had a stall. I was intrigued by the overall concept of the book (and more on that below), but also by what the publishers (and one of the authors) told me about the book's conception. The writers involved in the project are all steampunks themselves, and wanted to write a book that reflected what they termed the 'grassroots' of steampunk. Unlike many recent anthologies, which they felt were produced by writers 'trying out a new genre', this collection is intended as a journey into the world of the 'true' steampunk.

Although this is a short story collection, it is not simply an anthology of genre fiction. The stories are linked together by a framing narrative. The 'Asylum' of the title is a crumbling, and somewhat mysterious, mental facility, and the frame story follows Arkwright - a warden of sorts - as he visits the cells of the last ten inmates. Each individual story narrates the circumstances and histories of these 'cases', who, as the blurb on the back states, "can never be released". In between stories, the narration returns to Arkwright, and gives some unsettling hints about the real purpose of the asylum. Arkwright himself appears in one of the stories, deepening the connection between the warden, his charges, and the institution to which they all belong.

The stories included cover a range of sinister material - from vampires and vampire hunters to the malevolent force of nature that is the ocean. The collection begins with Rich Blackett's 'Stargazer', which narrates the story of an airship rigger through a series of transcribed interviews. Andrea Burnett's 'Voices from the Past' offers (somewhat fraudulent) mediums, and Karl Burnett's 'The Toothless Jaw' is a classic Victorian tale of a haunted locket and its effects on all those who come into contact with it. Locations are varied - from the fishing village of L.M. Cooke's 'The Call of the Deep' to the moon (in Herr Doktor's 'Sea of Tranquillity'), and characters range from a would-be vampire hunter (in Matt Adams' 'Blood Hunt') to a rather unsettlingly jovial fellow in Ian Crichton's 'Ghost Ship'.

One of the real strengths of the collection lies not in what the narratives say, but rather in what they don't say. My personal favourite out of the eleven narratives is Arkwright's 'The Hollow Man'. Unlike the other stories, this piece is not framed as the 'history' of a particular inmate. Nor does it begin with any introduction or situation. "Scream!" it begins, and then "I hung in a void, no knowledge of where I was." The lack of any real explanation creates a wonderfully unsettling piece of macabre horror, heightened by the references in the framing narrative to a place where "nothing human had ever passed" and a cell with a bricked-up door.

Similarly, the true purpose and history of the asylum is left, in part, to the reader's imagination. Though there are threads of a story - in the frame story and in some of the pieces themselves - and various references to sinister government forces and committees (including a familiar gentleman whose brother lives in Baker Street), this is handled with some subtlety and opacity.

While I did enjoy all the stories in this collection, I do have a couple of criticisms. The first is that there are quite few issues with editing (spelling and punctuation particularly). However, since I know that the publishers are aware of these, it seems somewhat churlish to dwell on them.

The second issue I have is more to do with my own tastes. While the book is written by steampunks - and having met some of them, I can certainly vouch for this - I'd question just how 'steampunk' some of the stories actually are. Personally, I prefer steampunk fiction that imagines a future world, based on Victorian technology (or some version of this), but not definitively set in this period. While the stories in this collection employ many of the tropes of steampunk - airships, brass rockets and automata all feature - they are quite clearly grounded in the nineteenth-century. Indeed, in the first story, the date of "1898" is given explicitly. Only one of the stories (Rich Blackett's 'Ring of Silence') hints at the more 'fantastical' technology associated with steampunk fiction, with the bodily modifications of Nell Fenton suggesting a sort of future version of Victorian technology.

As such, it might be better to class this collection as 'Victoriana' rather than steampunk per se. Indeed, several of the stories owe a debt to the nineteenth-century writers that are credited as the forerunners of the steampunk genre (H.G. Wells and Jules Verne) or to writers of 'classic' speculative fiction (M.R. James and Edgar Allen Poe) rather than to more recent literary creations. This is not to say that the stories aren't effective, but that they might be better described as tales of the Victorian uncanny.

Nevertheless, there is a real exhuberance and enthusiasm to the collection, which makes it a compelling read. Each writer has put their own stamp on their story, while the framing device gives a pace and movement to the overall narrative. It is fitting that the reader is asked to "follow in Arkwright's footsteps", as this is an apt description of the experience of reading the book. We move from one tale to the next as though following the path the warden takes through the asylum. The end result is something more than a series of stories simply linked by theme.

Overall, I recommend Tales From the Asylum: a book to have at hand for those days where you just fancy a bit of Victorian creepiness.

Can Zombies Be Gothic?

Two things have inspired tonight's post. Firstly, I have just returned from an international conference on the Gothic in Warsaw. Secondly, I read Rachel Caine's Kiss of Death - the eighth Morganville Vampires book - today. I'm a huge fan of the Morganville books, and my paper at the Warsaw conference was on YA vampire fiction, so I was very interested to see the change in direction the eighth book took. I'll give a brief summary (spoiler warning) first, and the reasoning behind this post should become a bit clearer.

Caine's young adult vampire series is set in the Texas town of Morganville. The series follows the adventures of Claire Danvers, who is a 16/17-year-old student at Texas Prairie University. After being bullied in her college dorm, Claire takes up residence at the Glass House with a group of slightly older teens. It is here that she learns the truth about Morganville - it is run by vampires, who 'protect' (own) the humans and demand 'taxes' (blood) from them. The series continues with Claire negotiating the town's rules, forming alliances with the 'old' vampires, working for the somewhat crazy vampire Myrnin and getting into a relationship with human teen Shane. As I argued in my paper at the Warsaw conference, the series draws on a number of tropes of the Gothic - particularly the invocation of an imagined past, with its concomitant morality and societal regulation.

Kiss of Death, however, offers something different. When new-vampire and aspiring musician Michael Glass (one of Claire's housemates) is offered the chance to record a demo CD in Dallas, the protagonists are given passes to leave Morganville. They have not travelled far before they arrive in the town of Durram. Here, they enter a diner replete with threatening "redneck" locals (who take an immediate dislike to the group of friends), stay at an abandoned motel (run by a shotgun-toting old lady) and are arrested by the town's sheriff on trumped up charges. They eventually escape, and arrive at Blacke - an even more deserted backwater town under siege from a group of 'vampires' that are suffering from a vampire 'disease' that had previously been eradicated in Morganville. (Claire and Myrnin's work to find a cure for this disease is the subject of the earlier books in the series.)

Even before the 'sick' vampires are described, horror-canny readers will notice that the tropes being utilized here are not those of vampire fiction, but those of the horror (specifically zombie) film. Sure enough, when the first of the Blacke vampires makes an appearance, it is clear that this is not the same sort of creature as has featured in the previous Morganville books: the most important difference, perhaps, is that he smells of death. Another Blacke vampire is described thus: "a shuffling, twisted old man with crazy eyes and drifting white hair". As these undead creatures approach, the heroes take a course of action that should be obvious to anyone familiar with zombie films - they run into a room, slam the door against the creatures and barricade themselves in. Near the end of the book, there is an acknowledgement that the teens have, indeed, been fighting a "vampire zombie army".

The departure that this book takes has prompted me to question: what exactly is the difference between a vampire and a zombie? And if we can say that vampire fiction belongs to the Gothic, can we say the same about zombie narratives? If zombies aren't Gothic, why are they not? What is that sets them apart from the Gothic sensibility?

In folkloric terms, the differentiation between the two types of undead is blurred, but in contemporary cinema, literature and art, there is a world of difference. Somewhere along the way, our revenants diverged. Though there is a huge amount of interesting material on folk beliefs in vampires and zombies, I'm not going to talk about that today. My interest is in popular culture, so I'm purely focusing on recent film, TV and literary representations in this post.

To start with, I'll offer a quick definition of the Gothic - though this is by no means absolutely definitive and I'm aware that I'm hurrying over some key points here. I agree with Catherine Spooner, who suggests (in Contemporary Gothic) that one of the clearest definitions of Gothic is to be found in Chris Baldick's introduction to The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales: Gothic texts should encompass "a fearful sense of inheritance in time with a claustrophobic sense of enclosure in space". Spooner elaborates on Baldick's definition by adding, "the dead rise from the grave or lay their cold hands upon the shoulders of the living".

Vampires and zombies are both forms of revenants - they are the walking dead (or undead) - and frequently "lay their cold hands upon the shoulders of the living". Moreover, they share a predilection for anthropophagic eating habits, feasting on the blood and brains of their victims. Being the walking dead, the two creatures occupy a liminal space between life and death, transgressing the boundaries and breaking taboos. This cannibalism and transgression seems to point directly to the Gothic, a genre (or perhaps, more accurately, mode) that often explores and revels in such liminality. It is not, therefore, here that the difference between the two creatures can be found.

It's worth also considering the question of the 'uncanny', a concept which is deeply connected to the Gothic. In the introduction to his The Uncanny, Nicholas Royle describes the concept thus: "it is a peculiar commingling of the familiar and unfamiliar", adding that it can take the form of "something strange and unfamiliar unexpectedly arising in a familiar context". The walking dead are a good example of this. The faces of these entities are familiar (indeed, they are often the 'family' of the human protagonists in zombie and vampire fiction), but the fact that dead do not stay buried, do not behave as they did when living, is 'unfamiliar'.

Theoretically, then, there is nothing to preclude zombies from the Gothic. They are liminal, taboo-breaking, uncanny creatures. And yet, contemporary representations of zombies are seldom read as 'Gothic'. I'd like, then, to suggest a few reasons why this might be.

1. Gothic Aesthetic

However we might theorize the Gothic, it must be noted that the mode is characterized by a certain aesthetic. When I did a quick Twitter poll this evening, people were quick to suggest that zombies cannot be considered Gothic because they are not "beautiful" enough. A brief survey of recent pop culture representations should be enough to reveal the difference between presentations of the vampire (pale, sparkly and Byronic) and presentations of the zombie (grey, flaky and shambolic). The fact that a zombie decays, while a vampire does not is perhaps of paramount importance here: grotesque and repugnant bodies stand in sharp opposition to the Gothic aesthetic.

This clip from the BBC's Being Human (Series 3, Episode 3) illustrates this perfectly. Here, the regular characters (one vampire, two werewolves and a ghost) encounter a zombie. Note the difference between the vampire Mitchell (physically very much the 'Byronic' type) and the zombie Sasha:



While the Gothic does not preclude the grotesque per se, there is something about the repulsiveness of the zombie body that stands at odds with the dominant romantic understanding of the genre. Furthermore, as the clip from Being Human attests, the decaying and putrifying body of the zombie lends itself to humour as often as horror, which again distances it from the overall aesthetic of the Gothic.

2. Rationality and Madness

The origins of the Gothic are closely intertwined with the Enlightenment, and with ideas of rationality and reason. Often in 'classic' or 'High' Gothic texts, we see the rational and enlightened world pitted against the forces of an irrational and benighted past (usually medieval and Catholic). By the time we reach the end of the 19th-century, we see this conflict reach possibly its most fully-developed form; in Bram Stoker's Dracula, the modern heroes battle against the ancient count with the aid of education, medical knowledge, typewriters and train timetables.

It goes without saying, I think, that zombies are not rational creatures; however, they are not strictly irrational either - at least not by the standards used in the Gothic. They do not adhere to 'older' ways of thinking; they do not think at all. The unrelenting mindlessness of the zombie sets it apart from both the traditional villain and the traditional hero of Gothic fiction.

Vampires, of course, do 'lose their minds'. Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a case in point, as is Rachel Caine's Myrnin. They are also prone to a certain type of melancholy, characterized by excessive guilt and self-reflection. Without wanting to open too many cans of worms, Stephenie Meyer's Edward Cullen might be considered as an example of this melancholic vampire.

And now the caveat: some texts do present beautiful or melancholy zombies. Some do allow for an exploration of the irrationality and passion of the zombie. And, conversely, one need only look to F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu for an example of a vampire who does not fit the model suggested above. This brings me to my third, and perhaps most important, distinction between the vampire and the zombie.

3. Place and Time

If we look again at Baldick's theorization of the Gothic, we see that it is characterized by "inheritance in time" and "enclosure in space", and it is in this that the zombie most clearly defies the generic conventions, and the vampire most clearly confirms them. Even a grotesque, irrational creature like Murnau's Count Orlok has a fundamental presence in 'time' and 'place'. His very name implies "inheritance in time", and the staging of the film in the Count's castle evokes the Gothic "enclosure in space". It is the combination of these that creates the claustrophobic terror of Murnau's film.

The zombie does not have this sense of inheritance. While vampires are creatures imbued to their very core with the past, zombies belong wholly in the present. Usually devoid of memory (note that in the Being Human clip, the otherwise fairly coherent Sasha has no memory of her own death), and with few (if any) links to their human lives, zombies exist in a temporal vacuum. That is not to say that the zombie is not a product of its time - this has been demonstrated by a number of scholars working on horror fiction - but rather that the individual zombie should be read as a creature devoid of past or future.

Additionally, though the embattled opponents of the zombie often find themselves 'enclosed' in space, the zombie itself has no connection to a particular locality. Unlike other revenants, zombies do not haunt a specific place. They may attack a house, a mall, a pub or a diner, but these attacks are based on the proximity of human victims, rather than a pre-existing individualized connection to the location itself. In the majority of pop culture representations, zombies roam - this itinerant nature is a distinct contrast to the vampire's Gothic enclosure in a particular building or town.

As noted above, the Gothic is closely connected to the notion of the uncanny. In turn, the uncanny is aligned with the Freudian concept of the unheimlich (literally, the 'unhomely'). The unheimlich suggests foreignness, strangeness and the alien, but also relies on a comprehension of its inverse: the heimlich (the homely or familiar). Zombies explode these categorizations in their denial of the 'home'. In zombie narratives, spaces are consistently repurposed and distinctions between the 'home' and 'not home' are collapsed as territories are continually refigured.

The two ideas go hand-in-hand. It is in the zombie's denial of the past that the rejection of the concept of 'home' is seen most clearly. How can a creature that exists solely in the present be said to 'haunt' anything? And, as the Gothic frequently situates inheritance and past in a particular locality, the rejection of an individual place implies a concomitant rejection of time. If the Gothic requires a particular utilization of time and place, how can we describe something as 'Gothic' if it is based in a rejection of both concepts?


There are, of course, exceptions that prove every rule. There are also far more facets and implications to both the 'Gothic' and 'zombies' than I have had time to consider tonight. So rather than offer any definite conclusion to this post, I'd like to throw it open to discussion... do you agree? Have I missed something? Can you offer any examples of 'Gothic zombies'?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.




References:

Baldick, Chris (ed.), The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)

Caine, Rachel, Kiss of Death (London: Allison & Busby, 2010)

Royle, Nicholas, The Uncanny (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2003)

Spooner, Catherine, Contemporary Gothic (London: Reaktion Books, 2006)

Interview with D.L. King

D.L. King is a YA and picture book author, currently querying literary agencies for representation. Her first YA novel, Scarlette Hood, is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in 18th France, against the backdrop of the Beast of Gévaudan 'werewolf' attacks of 1764-67. While retellings of fairy tales (including Little Red Riding Hood) are big box-office business at the moment, I was intrigued by King's project, and the influence of French 'werewolf' history on her work. I caught up with her recently to find out a bit more.

She-Wolf: So, tell me a little bit about your book...

D.L. King: Scarlette Hood is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in 18th-century France against the historical Beast of Gévaudan 'werewolf' attacks. Laced with horror, romance and Gothic undertones, this novel explores the dark side of the fairy tale, yet is grounded in historical reality. It answers the question: what if Little Red Riding Hood had been a real person.

SW: What made you decide to rewrite the story of Little Red Riding Hood?

DL: Back in January 2010, I was looking for some hip cross-stitch patterns. After doing some research, I found a really cool design by the Japanese designer Gera, which was a scene from Little Red Riding Hood.

SW: Fantastic! And the idea grew from there?

DL: As I was stitching away, some questions pulsed through my brain: what if LRRH was a real person? Where would she have lived? And if she was real, wouldn't that make an awesome YA premise? My fingers walked over to the keyboard, and before I knew it, I came up with a rough outline and notes for Scarlette Hood.

SW: A few retellings of Little Red Riding Hood have replaced the Big Bad Wolf with a werewolf (I'm thinking particularly of Angela Carter and Catherine Hardwicke's new film). What interests me about your work, though, is that it is based on a historical case of werewolf attack. Tell me more about the Beast of Gévaudan.

DL: A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away - well, June 30th, 1764, in the Gévaudan province of France, to be exact! - a fourteen-year-old girl named Jeanne Boulet was tending her flock near the town of Langogne. It seemed like any other day, until Jeanne encountered a strange animal. Little did she know she was about to become the first victim in a series of killings committed by an unidentified animal known as La Bete, the Beast of Gévaudan. The Beast was responsible for brutally killing almost one hundred people between 1764-1767, in the Gévaudan province (now the department of Lozère and part of the Haute-Loire department), but oddly enough this monster only attacked humans, never the livestock attended by peasants.

SW: This must have caused quite a panic! What did the Gévaudan people do?

DL: Many hunters, locals and soldiers tried to kill it, but the beast was too elusive. Finally, the case gained national attention when King Louis XV put up a reward of 6000 livres and sent his royal Gun-Bearer and soliders to the province to slay the animal.

SW: And did they?

DL: As the story goes, the King's Gun-Bearer M. François Antoine did indeed shoot a large wolf and brought it back to Versailles, claiming it as the monster and collecting his reward. But as the peasants were about to find out, this wasn't the end of their nightmare. More people were found dead and further sightings of the Beast surfaced. And like every great story of old, a hero was needed...

SW: And who was the hero of this particular tale?

DL: As local legend tells, a roughnecked native named Jean Chastel supposedly shot the Beast through the heart with a single silver bullet, putting an end to the monster's bloody three-year reign. And, allegedly, this was where the Hollywood idea of the silver bullet came from. Anyhow, after Chastel shot the animal, an autopsy was conducted. Inside the carcass, the surgeons claimed to have found part of a child's femur bone. This was enough evidence for the peasants to dub this monster as the Beast.

SW: And what did they do with the body after the autopsy?

DL: The animal was stuffed with straw and brought to Versailles by Chastel. However, King Louis basically laughed him out of the court, saying that the Beast had already been killed. Dejected, Chastel went home and left the carcass. It was then that it began to reek and was thrown out like last night's chamber pot contents.

SW: So, where did the Beast go?

DL: Just like the giant top secret government warehouse filled with countless crates in the Indiana Jones films, there is a rumour that the Beast's remains can be traced to the Paris Museum of Natural History's underground secured storage. However, no-one can be sure, and the Beast continues to be a cryptozoologist's dream - and one of the greatest werewolf mysteries of all time.

SW: It's a fascinating story. What is it about this tale that interests you in particular?

DL: I would say the actual mystery of what the Beast was is one of the most fascinating aspects of the legend. The local peasants thought it was a werewolf, but I've heard theories ranging from the Beast being a sub-species of hyena that escaped from a French menagerie, or some type of animal that escaped from a travelling circus, a pack of wolves that became accustomed to human flesh after scavenging battle fields, to an animal trained by a serial killer to do the murderer's dirty work - Jean Chastel has been accused of the crime.

SW: What's the strangest theory you've heard?

DL: The most outlandish idea I've heard was that the Beast was the infamous French author and aristocrat, the Marquis de Sade! After discovering this, I couldn't resist adding the Marquis in as a character in Scarlette Hood.

SW: What made you decide to combine the story of the Beast with Little Red Riding Hood?

DL: After reading Charles Perrault's version of LRRH, I was shocked to find that his original tale was much darker than the common story we all grew up with. Told as a cautionary tale warning young women of men's wolfish sexual appetites, this early version was very moralistic and resulted in a tragic ending for the heroine: the wolf 'devours' her.

SW: So this was the inspiration for your own telling of the tale?

DL: Even though I borrowed from all versions of LRRH, I knew I wanted to make my story dark like Perrault's and set it in France. But I also thought the novel would be more interesting if the wolf in the fairy tale was a werewolf. Lo and behold, as I was reading all the different versions of the tale, I found another French translation entitled The Grandmother where the wolf was in fact a bzou - a werewolf. [ed: 'bzou' is an Old French word for werewolf, and appears in some medieval French versions of the Little Red Riding Hood tale] So, I had my werewolf, knew I wanted to use a dark angle, and set the story in France, but I still wanted to pin down a real setting to use as a backdrop. After a little more digging, I got lucky. I found out about the Beast of Gévaudan after researching werewolf history and mythology. So I dressed up the wolf in the original fairy tale as the Beast, and wrote Scarlette Hood as if Little Red Riding Hood might have really happened.

SW: The Beast of Gévaudan is not a widely-known story - where did your interest in this period of French history begin?

DL: I've always been interested in history, but in college I had a roommate who loved the movie version of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Jane Seymour. Based on the novel and play by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, it a secret agent tale about a man who tries to save French aristocrats from the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. We watched it together, and I loved it. That was probably the start of the real love affair with French history. I also read Germinalby Emile Zola for a college class (it tells the tale of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s), and this further fed the fire. And finally, I read Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and watched The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables around the same time, and I was hooked for life.

SW: What about your interest in 'real' werewolf attacks?

DL: I've always liked werewolves, vampires, etc., but really my interest in 'real' werewolf attacks evolved out of this project. I really wanted to place Little Red Riding Hood in a historical setting and use a werewolf instead of a wolf in my novel. So I rose to the occasion and, by researching, I learned of the Beast of Gévaudan attacks.

SW: You must have had a lot of research to do.

DL: Oh man, I did a ton! In addition to reading as many versions of Little Red Riding Hood that I could find, I read a bunch more books including: A History of Everyday Things by Daniel Roche, The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton, Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked by Catherine Orenstein, Wolf-Hunting in France in the Reign of Louis XV by Richard H. Thompson, and watched the History Channel's documentary on the Beast entitled The Real Wolfman.

SW: You're writing for a teen audience, but do you think this story would appeal to adult readers as well?

DL: As I tell people about it, I notice there's a lot of adult interest as well.

SW: Is this the genre of novel you like reading yourself?

DL: I will read anything as long as it's a good story. It doesn't matter the genre. Although, I do tend to lean more towards the supernatural.

SW: Of course! So, I guess the obligatory question is... werewolves or vampires?

DL: As far as paranormal, really, anything goes!

SW: Couldn't agree more. Thanks for talking to me. And best of luck with the book.


D.L. King is currently querying agents for representation. For more information about King, and about Scarlette Hood, please visit her website.

RIP Larry Cat

A little bit of a self-indulgent post from me tonight, but it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to.

As some of you know, my cat died in the early hours of Tuesday morning. He was a wonderful companion, and I thought I'd mark his passing here. Yes - some might consider me a little strange for writing an obituary for a cat, but what can I say? I am, indeed, a little strange.

I adopted Larry from Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary in Ramsbottom in 2004. I'd decided that I wanted to adopt a young-ish cat (rather than a kitten), and I thought I probably wanted a ginger male. The nice staff at Bleakholt showed me round the sanctuary and introduced me to all the cats who were awaiting adoption: females, tortoiseshells, 8-year-olds. They were all adorable, but I didn't quite click with any of them. I said I'd think about it, and maybe come back another time. Just as I was turning to leave, the kennels assistant said, 'Oh... well... you might not be interested, but there's one other cat...' She took me through to the isolation pens, where they house the cats who have only just come in to the sanctuary. She opened up a pen, and a beautiful ginger cat climbed up and on to her shoulder. He looked straight at me - and that's when we decided to adopt each other.

A couple of weeks later, Larry moved in with me and my then-fiance. This is when things turned a little nasty. Larry was a placid and friendly cat; unfortunately, my fiance was not placid and friendly. He was, in fact, an abusive and bad-tempered man. Shortly before I adopted Larry, he'd hit me for the first time. Like many women in that situation, I'd forgiven him because he insisted that he loved me.

The first few weeks that Larry lived with us were great, but he soon started to show some signs of distress. He started to refuse to come in the house. He cringed whenever my fiance went near him. He wouldn't eat, and when I carried him in to his dish, he'd just hurry some food down then hide under the kitchen sink. Whenever my fiance entered the room, Larry would start to howl. It was the most distressing noise I have ever heard a cat make.

Things finally came to a head after a few months. My fiance insisted that there was something wrong with the cat, and that we should take him back to the sanctuary. He took his anger out on me, and said that there was also something wrong with me if I wanted to keep such a weird animal. He even said the immortal phrase: 'Either that cat goes or I do.' I think it was around that time that I realized he'd been hitting the cat.

So... one day, when he was out, I locked and bolted the doors and refused to let my fiance back in. I think I could just about put up with him abusing me, but the thought of him hitting my beautiful, defenceless cat was too much to bear.

Eventually, my ex-fiance agreed to come and collect his belongings - I owned the house, and he had never really contributed financially. The day he took his stuff was horrible. He arrived with his entire family, and they cleared the entire house. I couldn't do anything to stop them. They even took the towels, and when I stopped them taking the DVD player my brother gave me for Christmas, his mother slipped the remote control into her pocket.

After they'd gone, I sat in my empty house on the sofa (one of the few things they left me). I was so upset, I didn't even notice the front door was open. Suddenly, I noticed Larry - walking into the house for the first time in months. No howling, no cringing - the happiest cat in the world. He came and curled up on my knee and started purring. That's when I knew we'd be ok.

Me and Larry had 6 more happy years together. He was the most sociable cat I've ever had. He'd charm the pants off any friends or visitors who came to the house, and my neighbours all adored him. He had a particular soft spot for my younger brother, and would make a beeline for his lap as soon as he sat down. When just the two of us were in the house, he'd sometimes place his paw in my hand as he went to sleep - a little gesture that I will miss with all my heart.

Sadly, Larry was diagnosed with FIV just before Christmas. He had been scratched by a stray a couple of years earlier, and I think this is when the virus was transmitted. He became anaemic, and lost a lot of weight. Despite this, his demeanour didn't change. He remained the soft, friendly creature he'd always been.

This Monday, Larry's condition deteriorated rapidly. His heart began to struggle, and he was unable to stand for long. By Monday night, he was fading. I stayed up with him, and lay on the sofa with him. Eventually, he took himself off to a cushion in the corner, and closed his eyes. I stroked his head, said goodbye, and his little heart gave way at 4.30am. Sweet-tempered to the end, Larry was still trying to purr right up to the end.

I'll miss my cat - my companion and fellow-survivor. He was a good pet, and I'll never forget him.

Call for Submissions: Read in Tooth and Claw: Shapeshifters in Popular Culture

This proposed collection seeks essays on any aspect of shapeshifters in film, fiction, online, even on architecture. We are interested in essays dealing with any time period or genre. Please send 500-word abstracts and 1-page CVs to the editor. Deadline fo abstract submission: June 1, 2011.

Childlore and the Folklore of Childhood

The Folklore Society's AGM Conference 2011
Friday 15 to Sunday 17 April 2011

The University of Worcester, St John's Campus, Henwick Grove, Worcester, UK

The conference will take place at The University of Worcester's St John's Campus, which is about 15 minutes' walk or a short bus ride from the centre of Worcester. At 2 p.m. on Friday 15th September, the conference will begin with The Folklore Society's Annual General Meeting (approx 45 minutes), which all FLS members are encouraged to attend. Also on Friday afternoon, at 2.45 p.m., there will be the Presidential Lecture which everyone is welcome to attend. At the end of the Friday afternoon session, a wine reception will be hosted by the University of Worcester, Dept of Film and Media Studies. The Conference Dinner will take place at 7.30 on Friday evening at The Quay restaurant, South Quay, Worcester, which is about 15 minutes' walk from St John's Campus. There are also regular buses between the city centre and St John's Campus.

Accommodation is not provided but a list of hotels is available here.

Saturday's proceedings will be from 10.00 to 5.30 and lunch is included in the conference fee. On Saturday evening, delegates will be free to explore Worcester and/or meet up informally with other delegates for dinner and drinks.

Sunday 17th's programme will begin at 10. Lunch is included in the conference fee, and the conference will close very shortly after 2 p.m.

The Conference Fees are detailed on the Booking Form. The conference fee includes lunch on Saturday and Sunday, coffees/teas between sessions and the reception on Friday. The Conference Dinner at The Quay at 7.30 on Friday is optional, price £21 excluding drinks.

A provisional programme is available here.

For more information, and for updates of the programme, please email The Folklore Society or telephone 0207 862 8564.

CFP: Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2012

Gender and Medieval Studies Conference 2012
The University of Manchester

Gender and Punishment

With keynote speakers Professor Karen Pratt (King’s College London) and Professor Dawn Hadley (University of Sheffield)
11th—13th January 2012

Proposals are now being accepted for 20-minute papers

Punishment is intrinsically related to the way in which authorities (such as the church, monarchy and state) seek to control, enforce and legislate the behaviour of individuals, communities and nations, and accordingly it plays an integral role in regulating bodies, spaces, spirituality and rela-tionships. Representations of punishment - whether threatened, enacted, depicted or performed - are regularly encountered by medievalists working across the disciplines of literature, history, art and archaeology. This conference seeks to explore functions and manifestations of punishment in the Middle Ages and to consider to what extent these are determined by, or aim to determine, gender identity. How is punishment gendered? How does gender intersect with punishment? Topics to consider may include but are not limited to:

• Punishment in the beginning; the medieval understanding of the Fall.


• Punishment, pedagogy and gender: the use of punishment in teaching.


• Christianity, gender and punishment; treatment of the sinful body.


• Punishment of Jewish, Saracen and heretical men and women.


• Personal identity and self-inflicted acts of punishment.


• The (gendered) use of space as punishment.


• Regal punishments; punishments enacted upon or by medieval rulers.


• Punishment and the regulation of perceived sexual deviance.


• Punishment and spectacle; performance of punishment on and off the stage.


• Gender relations in specific acts of punishment.


• Confession and penance (as punishment): gendered role of confessor; issues relating to differences between female and male confession and penance.


• Hell, the diabolic, and representations of gender.

We welcome scholars from a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art history and archaeology. A travel fund is available for postgraduate students who would otherwise be unable to attend.

Please e-mail proposals of no more than 300 words to organiser Daisy Black by 1 September 2011. All queries should also be directed to this address. Please also include biographical information, detailing your name, research area, institution and level of study if applicable.

Further details are available on the conference website.

Press Release from Anarchy Books

Just got this press release for something cool...

Are you feeling lucky, punk?

ANARCHY BOOKS A fusion of writing, music, game and film ANARCHY BOOKS is a radical new publishing company. Our focus is on multi-strand publishing projects, concepts which combine different media to present a wider experience for the entertainment junkie.

Our first project, SERIAL KILLERS INCORPORATED, is a thriller novel by Andy Remic, author of Spiral, Quake, Warhead, War Machine, Biohell, Hardcore, Cloneworld, Kell's Legend, Soul Stealers and Vampire Warlords, with the music album provided by th3 m1ss1ng (featuring Jon Bodan from Atlanta's Halcyon Way) and short film shot and chopped by Grunge Films. The novel and album release 1st April 2011, with the SERIAL KILLERS INCORPORATED short film June 2011.

Following SKINC comes SF novel SIM by Andy Remic, SF/horror novel MONSTROCITY by Jeffrey Thomas, the anthology VIVISEPULTURE featuring such notable authors as Neal Asher, Lauren Beukes, Eric Brown, Ian Graham, Vincent Holland-Keen, James Lovegrove, George Mann, Gary McMahon, Stan Nicholls, Andy Remic, Jordan Reyne, Ian Sales, Stephen Saville, Wayne Simmons, Jeffrey Thomas, Danie Ware, Ian Watson, Ian Whates, Conrad Williams, and with artwork by Vincent Chong, then horror novel RAIN DOGS by Gary McMahon. Each "project" is a work in progress, and will ship with varying degrees of album, game and film components.

ANARCHY BOOKS is looking to collaborate with musicians, video game creators (any platform) and filmmakers. Please read our SUBMISSION guidelines.

Welcome to our little corner of ANARCHY...

Finally, there's ANARCHY in the UK!

CFP: 1st Global Conference: Space and Place

Wednesday 14th September – Friday 16th September 2011
Mansfield College,
Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers

Questions of space and place affect the very way in which weexperience and recreate the world. Wars are fought over both real and imagined spaces; boundaries are erected against the “Other”constructed a lived landscape of division and disenfranchisement; and ideology constructs a national identity based upon the dialectics of inclusion and exclusion. The construction of space and place is also a fundamental aspect of the creative arts either through the art of reconstruction of a known space or in establishing a relationship between the audience and the performance. Politics, power and knowledge are also fundamental components of space as is the relationship between visibility and invisibility.

This new inter- and multi-disciplinary conference project seeks to explore these and other topics and open up a dialogue about the politics and practices of space and place. We seek submissions from a range of disciplines including archaeology, architecture, urban geography, the visual and creative arts, philosophy and politics and also actively encourage practitioners and non-academics with an interest in the topic to participate. We welcome traditional papers, preformed panels of papers, workshop proposals and other forms of performance – recognising that different disciplines express themselves in different mediums.

Submissions are sought on any aspect of space and place, including the following:

1. Theorising Space and Place
* Philosophies and space and place
*Surveillance, sight and the panoptic structures and spaces of contemporary life
* Rhizomatics and/or postmodernist constructions of space as a “meshwork of paths” (Ingold: 2008)
* The relationship between spatiality and temporality/space as a temporal-spatial event (Massey: 2005)
* The language and semiotics of space and place

2. Situated Identities
* Gendered spaces including the tension between domestic and public spheres
* Work spaces and hierarchies of power
* Geographies and archaeologies of space including Orientalism and Occidentalism
* Ethnic spaces/ethnicity and space
* Disabled spaces/places
* Queer places and spaces

3. Contested spaces
* The politics and ideology of constructions and discourses of spaceand place including the construction of gated communities as aresponse to real/imagined terrorism.
* The relationship between power, knowledge and the construction of place and space
* Territorial wars, both real and imagined.
* The relationship between the global and the local
* Barriers, obstructions and disenfranchisement in the construction of lived spaces
* Space and place from colonisation to globalisation
* Real and imagined maps/cartographies of place
* Transnational and translocal places

4. Representations of place and space
* Embodied/disembodied spaces
* Lived spaces and the architecture of identity
* Haunted spaces/places and non-spaces
* Set design and the construction of space in film, television and theatre
* Authenticity and the reproduction/representation of place in the creative arts
* Technology and developments in the representation of space including new media technologies and 3D technologies of viewing
* Future cities/futurology and space
* Representations of the urban and the city in the media and creative arts * Space in computer games

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 22nd April 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper shouldbe submitted by Friday 22nd July 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract

E-mails should be entitled: SP Abstract Submission

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 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 belost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:

Shona Hill & Shilinka Smith
Conference Leaders
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
New Zealand

Colette Balmain
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
London,
United Kingdom

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom.

The conference is part of the ‘Ethos’ series of researchprojects, which in turn belong to the Critical Issues programmes of ID.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be published in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details about the conference, please click here.

For further details about the project please click here.

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):

• 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.

Book Launch: David Matthews (ed), In Strange Countries

An invitation to the launch of a new collection of essays in memory of J.J. Anderson, a respected medievalist and a wonderful teacher.

In Strange Countries: Middle English Literature and its Afterlife

A Volume of Essays in Memory of J.J. Anderson

John Anderson taught medieval literature at the University of Manchester for nearly 40 years. This book, with contributions from medievalists around the world, pays tribute to his career and its diverse interests, from medieval drama, to Arthurian literature, to the work of the Gawain-poet, whose remarkable poems preoccupied John throughout his career.

Please join us to celebrate John’s career and the publication of In Strange Countries.

Tuesday 8 March 2011, 6pm
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation
Chorlton Mill
3 Cambridge Street
Manchester
M1 5BY

For more information about In Strange Countries, please click here.

Journal Announcement and Call for Submissions

A message from the lovely people at ID.net. The first issue is out, and I've got a review in it!

Monsters and the Monstrous

Volume 1, Number 1

March 2011

We are pleased to announce the launch of the first journal in our Global Interdisciplinary Research Series - Monsters and the Monstrous

Click here to visit the website.

The first edition will be available from 1st March 2011; subscriptions are now open.

The Editors welcome contributions to the journal in the form of articles, reviews, reports, art and/or visual pieces and other forms of submission.

Contributions to the journal should be original and not under consideration for other publications at the same time as they are under consideration for this publication. Submissions are to made electronically wherever possible using either Microsoft Word or .rtf format.

Length requirements:

Articles - 5000 - 7000 words

Reflections, reports, responses - 1000 - 3000 words

Book reviews - 500 - 4000 words

Other forms of contributions are welcome.

Submission information:

Send submissions via email, using the following Subject Line:

'Journal: Contribution Type (article/review/...): Author Surname'

Submissions Email Address

Submissions will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt.

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.

Review: Stephen M. Irwin, The Dead Path (Doubleday, 2009)

Published in 2010 by Doubleday, The Dead Path is Stephen M. Irwin's first novel. It tells the story of Nicholas Close, a man troubled by visions of ghosts, who returns to his Australian home following the death of his wife. His return sparks a resurgence of childhood memories and coincidences with the murder of a child. Nicholas finds himself re-evaluating his formative years in Tallong, putting together pieces of a chilling secret, and being drawn further and further into the woods near Carmichael Road.

I was first introduced to The Dead Path as a 'horror' novel. Indeed, the backcover of the US hardback edition makes much of this generic classification, including a quote from The Guardian likening Irwin to Stephen King. I'm not completely convinced that this is the most apt categorization of The Dead Path; instead, I'm inclined to agree with Jeff Lindsay's description: "a truly creepy thrill-ride". This is a novel of suspense and creeps, rather than out-and-out horror - more shivers down your spine than lurches in your stomach.

That is not to say that the novel does not contain some pretty horrible set pieces (particularly if you have any aversion to arachnids), but Irwin's writing tends more towards the 'haunting' than the 'horrific'. For me, this was a real strong point. Gore and shocks do little for me, unless they are truly integral to plot. On the other hand, Irwin's style of low-key creepiness, which escalates into terror and fear, has more of a cumulative effect.

I refer to 'set pieces' and 'episodes' deliberately, as The Dead Path contains several of these. The pacing is careful, and the plotting considered. The story is told through a series of crescendos, before reaching its final climax. Each time, the reader feels they have learned more about what is happening in Tallong - but the last few pieces of the jigsaw are held back until the gripping conclusion. While other critics have praised Irwin's "electric use of language", I feel that the real strength lies in Irwin's intelligent and skillful storytelling. Clues, hints, implications are fed to the reader slowly, and the author demonstrates a real ability to control suspense. The ending is satisfying - and does justice to Irwin's overall technique.

Another aspect of The Dead Path that I found particularly strong was Irwin's construction of character. Nicholas Close is a believable and, on the whole, sympathetic character. His ability to see ghosts is utterly plausible within the consistently created world of the novel. Nicholas is a Samhain child - the implications of which he (and we) do not truly understand until later in the novel. Moreover, Irwin's ghosts, while not unique per se, are certainly well-drawn examples of their type.

However, it is Irwin's cast of supporting characters that really makes this novel for me. Unusually, these supporting roles are almost exclusively female. Nicholas's sister Suzette and mother Katharine, his late wife Cate and new-found acquaintance Laine Boye are fully-rounded and explored. Each of these women, and their relationship to Nicholas, is nuanced and different. Irwin does not rely on the hackneyed good girl/bad girl divide so favoured by some horror writers. I will say very little about my favourite character, as to do so would be to give away far too much of the plot. Suffice to say, Irwin's third-act heroine is a delightful creation (and I'm not just saying that because she shares my name!).

As the references here to ghosts, woodlands and Samhain may have suggested, the plotline of the novel is steeped in Celtic paganism. This surprised me a little, as it was not what I was expecting from an Australian novel. There are also elements of the plot that can be divined by a reader well-versed in this mythology. Nevertheless, Irwin adds enough of his own take on these legends to keep the suspense going. Certain revelations ground the novel very firmly in Australian history, and the suburbs of Tallong is convincing. Irwin's weaving together of Celtic myth and Australian 'reality' gives the story a fresh and vibrant feel, despite the fact that many other stories have trodden similar ground.

The Dead Path is a compelling read. Though it is not the most shocking or horrific 'horror' novel around, it has enough tension and creepiness to give you a shiver on a dark night. Well-plotted, and with well-drawn characters: I definitely recommend this book.

CFP: Medievalism Transformed: Texts and Territories in the Middle Ages

17th June 2011,
Bangor University

We would like to invite all postgraduate and early career students interested in the Middle Ages to ‘Medievalism Transformed’, an interdisciplinary medievalists’ conference. The conference will be held on 17th June 2011 in Bangor University. This conference welcomes delegates from all arts disciplines, including languages, history, literature, art, archaeology, palaeography and philosophy. Papers should focus on the Middle Ages or on the impact of medieval thinking in the modern period.

The theme for 2011 is Texts and Territories. Any topic within this scope will be considered, including (but not limited to):

From country to state: political ideas of land and the creation of nations
Writing journeys: pilgrimages, crusades, travel writing, romances
Visualizing the narratives: maps and illuminations
National origins: creating identity through myth, chronicles, genealogies
Representations of the landscape or nationality in art and music
Beyond the Middle Ages: the influence of medieval concepts of territory on modern thought

Abstracts of 250 words for a twenty minute paper must be submitted before April 15, 2011 to the organizers or by post to:
Medievalism Transformed, School of English, Bangor University, Main Arts Building, College Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, United Kingdom

If you require more information, visit the website.

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.

CFP: The Monster Inside Us, The Monsters Around Us: Monstrosity and Humanity

A three-day conference

De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

In association with the Centre for Adaptation

18-20 November 2011

Keynote speakers: David Punter, University of Bristol, Andy Mousley, De Montfort University

From the 12th-century Old French mostre, meaning prodigy or marvel, the general use of the word 'monster' has been derogatory: something large, gross, malformed or abnormal. The monstrous creates fear and loathing, and includes difference through race, culture, society, ideology, psychology and many other Others. This fear is not produced by something alien but by the recognition of ourselves in the Other. In his introduction to Cogito and the Unconscious, Slavoj Zizek argues that the Cartesian subject has at its heart the monster which emerges when deprived of the 'wealth of self-experience'. The ease by which the border between 'human' and 'monster' is transgressed has long been debated in literature, both nineteenth-century Flora Bannerworth in Varney the Vampire and twenty-first-century Sookie Stackhouse recognise the human origins of the vampire. At the heart of the monster is the human; at the heart of the human is the monster.

This conference seeks to understand the relationship between the human and the monstrous across the centuries and across disciplines. In what ways and to what ends have the human and the monster been defined and polarised? How has the monster been subdued, and with what success? How do definitions and separations of the human and the monstrous change and through what pressures and motivations? How does the emerging field of posthumanism enable us to conceptualise the monstrous in relation to the human and humanism?

Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers which may address, but are not limited to:

• Monstrosity in the humanities
• The monster and criminality
• Psychology and the monster
• Monstrosity and the internet
• The human and the monster in the post-national world
• Monstrosity and miscegenation
• Liminality and transgression
• Theories of monstrosity and/or the human
• Historical monsters
• Humanism, the post-human and monstrosity

Please send abstracts of 300 words to Dr Deborah Mutch, Department of English, Clephan Buildng, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, or email Deborah Mutch.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 June 2011

CFP: 4th Global Conference: Madness: Probing the Boundaries

Tuesday 27th September - Thursday 29th September 2011

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary research conference seeks to explore issues of madness across historical periods and within cultural, political and social contexts. We are also interested in exploring the place of madness in persons and interpersonal relationships and across a range of critical perspectives. Seeking to encourage innovative inter, multi and post disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations which struggle to understand the place of madness in the constitutions of persons, relationships and the complex interlacing of self and other.

In particular papers, workshops, presentations and pre-formed panel proposals are invited on any of the following themes:

1. The Value of Madness or Why is it that We Need Madness?

• Critical explorations: beyond madness/sanity/insanity
• Continuity and difference: always with us yet never quite the same
• Repetition and novelty: the incessant emergence and re-emergence of madness
• Profound attraction and desire; fear of the abyss and the radical unknown
• Naming, defining and understanding the elusive

2. The Passion of Madness or Madness and the Emotions

• Love as madness; uncontrollable passion; unrestrainable love
• Passion and love as a remaking of life and self
• Gender and madness; the feminine and the masculine
• Anger, resentment, revenge, hate, evil
• I would rather vomit, thank you; revulsion, badness and refusing to comply

3. The Boundaries of Madness or Resisting Normality

• Madness, sanity and the insane
• Being out of your mind, crazy, deranged... yet, perfectly sane
• Deviating from the normal; defining the self against the normal
• Control, self-control and the pull of the abyss
• When the insane becomes normal; when evil reigns in social life

4. Lunatics and the Asylum or Power and the Politics of Madness

• The social allure and fear of madness; the institutions of confining mad people
• Servicing normality by castigating the insane and marginalizing lunatics
• Medicine, psychiatry, psychology, law and the constructions of madness; madness as illness
• Contributions of the social sciences to the making and the critique of the making of madness
• Representations, explanations and the critique of madness from the humanities and the arts

5. Creativity, Critique and Cutting Edge

• Madness as genius, outstanding, out of the ordinary, spectacularly brilliant
• The art of madness; the science of madness
• Music, painting, dance, theatre: it is crazy to think of art without madness
• The language and communication of madness: who can translate?
• Creation as an unfolding of madness

6. Unrestrained and Boundless or The Liberating Promise of Madness

• Metaphors of feeling free, unrestrained, capable, lifted from reality
• Madness as clear-sightedness, as opening up possibilities, as re-visioning of the world
• The future, the prophetic, the unknown; the epic, the heroic and the tragic
• The unreachable and untouchable knowledge of madness
• The insanity of not loving madness

7. Lessons for Self and Other or Lessons for Life about and from Madness

• Cultural and social constructions of madness; images of the mad, crazy, insane, lunatic, abnormal
• What is real? Who defines reality? Learning from madness how to cope with reality
• Recognising madness in oneself; relativising madness in others
• Love, intimacy, care and the small spaces of madness
• Critical and ethical implosions of normality and normalness; sane in insane places and insane in sane places

Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.

The 2011 meeting of Madness will run alongside the third of our projects on Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners and we anticipate holding sessions in common between the two projects. We welcome any papers or panels considering the problems or addressing issues that cross both projects.

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 25th March 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 22nd July 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:

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

E-mails should be entitled: Madness Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using 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

Gonzalo Araoz
Project Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net and University of Cumbria, Cumbria, United Kingdom

Maria Vaccarella
Hub Leader, Making Sense of:, Inter-Disciplinary.Net and Marie Curie Research Fellow, King's College, London

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

The conference is part of the 'Making Sense Of:' series of research projects. The aim of the conference is 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 are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details about the project, please click here.

For further details about the conference, please click here.

CFP: 1st Global Conference: Beauty: Exploring Critical Issues

Monday 19th September - Wednesday 21st September 2011

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers

"The first real problem I faced in my life was that of beauty," wrote the poet-playwright-novelist Yukio Mishima, in Temple of the Golden Pavilion as he pondered beauty's relevance, meanings, and the spell it cast over him. Beauty is complicated by the word beauty itself. Limited or overloaded, beauty has been celebrated as essential or denounced as irrelevant. The existence of beauty has been challenged, called a search for Eldorado. Some find no beauty in life, a recurring motif in subcultures, music lyrics, and the notes left by suicides. Others dismiss that perspective, arguing that common sense, experience, and multidisciplinary research reveal the reality and centrality of beauty in our lives. But what exactly is beauty? Speculations about the nature of beauty are various and contradictory. Some philosophers have argued that it will remain a mystery. Other theorists have held less modest beliefs, arguing that beauty expresses a basic spiritual reality, has universal physical properties, or is an experience and construction of mind and culture. The beauty 'project' will explore, assess, and map a number of key core themes. Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues to any of the following themes:

• Defining beauty
• Studying beauty
• Power of beauty
• History of beauty
• Politics of beauty
• Experience of beauty
• Pursuit of beauty
• Expression of beauty
• The quality of beauty
• Beauty and emotion
• Look of beauty
• Making beauty
• Beauty in nature
• Beauty and desire
• Beauty and culture
• Beauty subcultures
• Anti-beauty movements
• Beauty and social stratification: gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, age, etc.
• Beauty, consumer culture, and cultural capital
• Beauty collectors
• Beauty business
• Representations of beauty
• Beauty in a globalized world
• Beauty in the 21st century

Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 25th March 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 8th July 2011. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both 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

Emails should be entitled: Beauty Abstract Submission

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

Jacque Lynn Foltyn
Professor of Sociology, Dept. of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Sciences, National University, CA, USA

Dr. Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR

The conference is part of the Critical Issues series of research projects. The aim of the conference is 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 are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details about the project, please click here.

For further details about the conference, please click here.

CFP: 9th Global Conference: Monsters and the Monstrous

Saturday 10th - Tuesday 13th September 2011

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project seeks to investigate and explore the enduring influence and imagery of monsters and the monstrous on human culture throughout history. In particular, the project will have a dual focus with the intention of examining specific 'monsters' as well as assessing the role, function and consequences of persons, actions or events identified as 'monstrous'. The history and contemporary cultural influences of monsters and monstrous metaphors will also be examined.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

• The 'monster' through history
• Civilization, monsters and the monstrous
• Children, childhood, stories and monsters
• Comedy: funny monsters and/or making fun of monsters (e.g. Monsters vs. Aliens, the Addams Family)
• Monstrous Avatars or objects
• Monsters and subjectivity
• Monsters and Sexuality
• Making monsters; monstrous births; childhood
• Mutants and mutations and freaks
• Technologies of the monstrous (including Role Playing Games)
• Horror, fear and scare
• Do monsters kill because they are monstrous or are they monstrous because they kill?
• How critical to the definition of 'monster' is death or the threat of death?
• Human 'monsters' and 'monstrous' acts? e.g. perverts, paedophiles and serial killers
• Revolution and monsters
• Enemies (political/social/military) and monsters
• Iconography of the monstrous
• The popularity of the modern monsters; the Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, Vampires, Cannibals
• The monster in literature
• The monster in media (television, cinema, radio, internet)
• Religious depictions of the monstrous
• Metaphors and the monstrous
• The problematic attraction and admiration of monsters
• Monstrous (In)Humanity/(In)Human Monstrosity
• Monstrous Politics
• Critical Theories on the Monstrous

Papers can be accepted which deal solely with specific monsters. This project will run concurrently with our project on Space and Place - we welcome any papers considering the problems or addressing issues on Monsters and Space and Place for a cross-over panel. We also welcome pre-formed panels on any aspect of the monstrous or in relation to crossover panel(s).

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 25th March 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 8th July 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:

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

E-mails should be entitled: Monsters Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using 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 an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader, Evil Hub, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Rob Fisher
Network Founder & Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire
United Kingdom

Stephen Morris
Hub Leader
Independent Scholar
New York, USA

The aim of the conference is 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 are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBoook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume. Some papers may also be invited for inclusion in the Journal of Monsters and the Monstrous.

For further details of the project, please click here.

For further details of the conference, please click here.

CFP: 1st Global Conference: Gender and Love

Monday 19th September - Wednesday 21st September 2011

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers

The study of gender is an interdisciplinary field intertwined with feminism, queer studies, sexuality studies, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies (to name just some relevant fields).

This project calls for the consideration of gender in relation to various kinds of love (with regard, for example, to self, spirit, religion, family, friendship, ethics, nation, globalisation, environment, and so on). How do the interactions of gender and love promote particular performances of gender; conceptions of individual and collective identity; formations of community; notions of the human; understandings of good and evil? These are just some of the questions that occupy this project.

This conference welcomes research papers which seek to understand the interaction and interconnection between the concepts of love and gender; and whether, when, how and in what ways the two concepts conceive and construct each other.

Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1. Love as a Disciplinary Force: Productions of Gender

• Love, Gender, Essentialism and Ontology
• Love, Gender and Narrative
• Love, Gender and the Law
• Love, Gender and Religion

2. Norms, Normativity, Intimacy

• Rituals and Rites
• Conventions, Commitments and Obligations
• Choices and Respect; Loyalty and Trust
• Transgressions and Taboos

3. Gendered Yearnings

• Personhood and Identity
• Body Politics and Belonging
• Love and Gender Performativity
• Transgender Desires
• Queer Kinship Formations
• Queer Conceptualisations of the State

4. Global Perspectives on Gender and Love

• Transformations of Intimacy in a Global World
• Sex and Choice
• Reproductive Rights
• Sexual Citizenship
• Gender, Love and Trans/Nationalism

5. Representations of Gender and Love

• Aesthetics and Intelligibility
• Gendered Narrations of Love
• Media, Gender and Love

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 25th March 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 8th July 2011. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both 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

Emails should be entitled: GL Abstract Submission

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:

Dikmen Yakali Camoglu
Department of Communication Sciences
Dogus University, Istanbul
Turkey

Dr. Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR

The conference is part of the 'At the Interface' series of research projects run by ID.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details about the project, please click here.

For further details about the conference, please click here.

CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Heroes and Villains: Justice and Punishment

Saturday 10th September - Monday 12th September 2011

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Papers

A villain (also known in film and literature as the "bad guy", "black hat", or "heavy") is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A femae villain is sometimes called a villainess (often to differentiate her from a male villain). Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or a crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot".

Indicative themes for research and development will include (but are not limited to):

• How do we define a villainous act?
• What is a villainous act? How do we define it?
• When we look at actions which are deemed and judged to be right/wrong, good/bad, how are such actions classified?
• What is a crime?
• How are crimes classified?
• What disciplines are needed to uncover, discover and identify a crime?
• How do we define crime scenes, ex. Scenes of atrocity, "crimes against humanity"?
• What do we learn about our view of "crime" via the depiction of forensic investigations of crime scenes?
• How does the idea of a criminal "underworld" which exists beneath, underneath, below the everyday world influence us?
• Why are villains more intriguing/interesting/attractive than heroes?
• How is the perception of crime and villainy shaped by space, place AND time?
• Does villainy belong to the realm of the night?
• Does villainy belong under cover of darkness?
• Does criminality and villainy depend on being hidden or concealed?
• Who are the people charged with doing the investigation, detection, sleuthing?
• What do villains do and why do they do it?
• What tools/skills do they have/use?
• Does the villain create the person who catches him/her - i.e. a nemesis?
• Does the existence of a villain create the need for a hero?
• What kind of personality/character traits/deviance creates a villain?
• What is the nature of the criminal mind?
• Is it differentiated from the minds of those who do good?
• What is the character of the heroic mind?
• Why do good? Why be a hero?
• Why side with/dispense justice?
• Why do we have 'criminal' psychology?
• Why don't we have 'goody two-shoes' psychology?
• How do notions of responsibility and diminished responsibility factor into the debate?
• How is crime defined by punishment?
• What are the causes of crime/villainy?
• What are the consequences of crime/villainy?
• How does fear define crime/villainy?
• Can villains actually be heroes?
• Can villains be portrayed as sympathetic or gain our sympathy?
• Is the villain sometimes on the side of right? Can criminality be an attempt at social justice against unjust regimes?
• Are heroes made villainous by blind allegiances to moral codes?
• Must 'justice' involve 'punishment' of the villain?
• Is punishment of the criminal required by 'justice'?
• How does the punishment of the hero increase his heroism or the lack of punishment increase the villainy of the villain?
• How does the depiction of heroes/villains evolve?
• How does such a depiction shape or reflect society?

Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.

The 2011 meeting of Heroes and Villains: Justice and Punishment will run alongside our project on The Patient and we anticipate holding sessions in common between the two projects. We welcome any papers considering the problems or addressing the issues that straddle these two themes.

Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 25th March 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 22nd July 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:

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

Emails should be entitled: Villains Abstract Submission

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using 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

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Evil Hub Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

The conference is part of the 'At the Interface' series of research projects. The aim of the conference is 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 are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.

For further details about the project please click here.

For further details about the conference please click here.