De Montfort Vampire Conference - Schedule and Registration now available

Last month I posted details of the Vegetarians, VILFs and Fangbangers Conference at De Montfort University, to be held on 24th November 2010.

The conference schedule is now available, and you can register online for the event. Click here for more details.

The programme looks amazing, and there are a lot of papers to choose from. The day begins with a plenary address from Nickianne Moody (Liverpool John Moores University), on 'Interview with the Postfeminist: Researching the Paranormal Romance'. My own paper is entitled 'What's the Difference Between a Vampire and a Fairy': Supernatural Lovers in Young Adult Urban Fantasy'.

Hope to see some of you there!

2nd Global Conference: Experiencing Prison

Thursday 19th May - Saturday 21st May 2011

Warsaw, Poland

Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference marks the continuation of a project dedicated to the study of the experience of imprisonment.

Imprisonment has become the dominant form of punishment in most societies across the world. It may occur prior to trial, or as a result of sentencing by a properly constituted court. Imprisonment without trial or due process occurs in various forms in most societies across the world, mostly sanctioned by the state itself, sometimes used as a political strategy by military, ideological, political or religious groups within a state, or by groups desirous of becoming a state.

We welcome contributions about the experience of incarceration across the entire range of perspectives, including legal, criminological, historical, fictional, phenomenological, biographical and autobiographical. Contributions are welcomed from former prisoners, detainees, incarcerated asylum seekers, former prisoners of war, political prisoners or those detained because of nationalist, religious or other convictions. All genres and media will be considered, in order to examine the widest possible range of representations, past and contemporary, which communicate the experience and nature of imprisonment. Contributions will be welcomes from those who are involved with the delivery of incarceration, as well as those who seek to ameliorate incarceration by providing therapeutic drama, literacy, education, counselling, religious support and other services.

Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 26th November 2010. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 1st April 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formates 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: Prison 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:

Diana Medlicott
Independent Scholar
London, United Kingdom

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

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details about the project, please click here.

For further details about the conference, please click here.

2nd Global Conference: The Gothic - Exploring Critical Issues

Monday 16th May - Wednesday 18th May 2011

Warsaw, Poland

Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project seeks to engage and explore the cultural significance and enduring narratives within the realm of the Gothic in culture at large. From its literary and historical roots to its (post)modern incarnations as a cultural subgenre present in popular fiction and film, this project seeks to explore the territories of the Gothic in all of its manifestations.

Suggested topics and themes include (but are not limited to):

• Classic Gothic Literature and its resurgence
• The Gothick
• Gothic Culture(s) as a living experience/ethos
• Gothic Media (Cinema, Television, Games, Graphic Novels, Role Playing)
• Gothic Music
• Misrepresenting the Gothic
• Apocalyptic Narratives
• Fashioning Bodies, Styles and Convention
• Modern and Postmodern Paradigms (19th, 20th & 21st Century 'Gothics')
• Gothic and Horror Narratives
• Gothic as Horror or Horror as Gothic?
• Popular Culture
• Queer Gothic
• Identity
• Scapegoating/Derision/Condemnation of the Gothic in Culture
• The Philosophy of 'Dark' Culture
• Geographical Gothic
• Gothic Space, Gothic Architecture
• Gender and Sexualities
• Contrasting the 'Emo' and the 'Goth'

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 26th November 2010. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 1st April 2011.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs, abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formates 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: Gothic2 Abstact 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:

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader, Project Co-Leader, School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Stephen Morris
Hub Leader, Independent Scholar, New York, USA

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

This conference is part of the Critical Issues programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details about the project please click here.

For further details about the conference please click here.

3rd Global Conference: Evil, Women and the Feminine

Friday 13th May - Sunday 15th May 2011

Warsaw, Poland

Call for Papers

This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to examine issues surrounding the conjunction between evil and the feminine. In many cultures women have been long suspected as the source of sundry human miseries, however basic to society they may be. At the same time as ideals of purity and dedication to family have been exhalted and feminine beauty lauded, women have been viewed as embodying sinister forces of evil. Mistrusted as seductive and beguiling, women are also often thought of as vengeful, manipulative and even malevolent. In grappling with our understanding of what it is to be 'evil', the project aims to shine a spotlight on this dark area of the human condition and explore the possible sources of the fear and resentment of women.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to the to the following themes:

• Evil Women and Feminine Evil
• Representing and Misrepresenting the Female
• Motherhood; Monstrous Motherhood
• Monstrous Births and Infanticide
• Matriarchy/Matricide
• Devious Sexuality and Feminine Perversions
• Women and the Abject
• Menstruation, Castration
• Fears and Myths: Feminine Blood
• Anthropological Perspectives
• Historical Perspectives
• The Evil Women in Literature
• Psychoanalytic perspectives: "Vagina Dentata" etc
• Sexualizing the Female or Evil Objectification
• Jezebel, Delilah, Lilith, Harpies and the Femme Fatale
• The Bitch
• Women and Power
• Beauty as threatening or evil
• Portrayals of Evil Women
• Fantasy
• Mythology
• Vampires, Witches and Sirens
• Case Studies

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 26th November 2010. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 1st April 2011.

300 word 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: EWF3 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:

Sorcha Ni Fhlainn
Hub Leader, Project Co-Leader, School of English, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Stephen Morris
Hub Leader, Independent Scholar, New York, USA

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

The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discusssions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details about the project, please click here.

For further details about the conference, please click here.

Poetry Collection and Launch: After All Tomorrow's After Parties

A good friend of mine, Michael Wilson, has asked me to mention his upcoming collection of poetry - After All Tomorrow's After Parties - which is being launched this Monday (4th October) in Manchester.

My book launch will be on Monday October 4th. I'll be reading from my first book "After All Tomorrows After Parties" brought out by Knives Forks and Spoons Press as well as a selection of other poems. I'll also be performing a number of poems using sign language to promote disability awareness, create a second narrative and meddle with the 4th wall. It promises to be a top evening of poetry with sets from the cream of Manchester poetry: the nationally renowned names of Gerry Potter, Tony Walsh and John G Hall and sweet acoustic jazz from Rob Plow and Steve Brady that sounds like music to fall in love to. It all takes place at the lovely Fuel Bar Cafe in Withington M20 4AN. It starts 8pm until 11pm and it's a free event.

The book will be available from October 4th from the Knives Forks and Spoons Press website, and Amazon or ordered from any bookshop in the UK or available from myself at various gigs in the North West and beyond.

I've found my home in Manchester and have been performing poetry for over five years now and guest slots at various events for about four years. Material comes from the tried and trusty subjects of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' dole but also extends to politics and mental health. I'm interested in raising awareness of disability so learned sign language and have been successful in slams, getting to the BBC Radio Four National Slam Final last year, as well as the Cheltenham National Slam Final the last two years running. I also combine poetry with art using lost property umbrellas to write my poetry onto in interesting designs, usually leaving them in city centres for people to find but also having them exhibited in Contact Theatre this year. Finally I am also part of the Islington Mill Art Academy, a self run, self organised art education group, which explores alternatives in art education, which this book is being brought out in association with.

The book as well as being brought out in association with the Art Academy is also being brought out in memory of a close friend of mine who died ten years ago, just as I was finishing my university degree. I thought it was important to keep his memory alive and this is my small part in this. This book has been given the blessing of the family.

And here's a sample of the poetry to be found in After All Tomorrow's After Parties:

An Ode to Autumn

So,
Deep down in yourself
Deep down in your coat
The autumn falls before your eyes
Smoke perspires from car exhausts
And the street sounds silent in your head
Watching the traffic find its way,
from safe inside the hem of a hood
The unlit cigarette burns a hole in your hand
As you take the world in,
A stage set street at a time

Now,
Your thoughts are wrapped up in pretty paper
Round numbers and letters and how they fit their clothing
In the wooliness of your mind
You had to train yourself to doublething
A single line when added to
Creates a picture you can just make out
In the dark horse sky
A sky that maps this world
All true invention pushed underfoot
The leaves
And all the deadness of past summer
Crushed underfoot

Then,
You hear a beating memory in your head
That from your past autumn never means you harm
The curled blur of street lights
Match the fuzziness in your logic
Walks with you
An elegant procession of thoughts that play to beat the band
A foresight that this winter won't bite too hard
Cause it knows its own mortality
A backlit sight that summer leaves a mark or two on your skin,
but won't do what it's told, it won't change your life,
this time around.

So,
You walk
Back to your home the rest of the world in front
The street smells of everything and nothing at once
While the moon makes its once sightly appearance
A smile like benevolent stupidity
A smile like a patriarch not a sister
A father for you to figure out your thoughts
And for this moment your happiness won't get away
The day comes back to you
In the soft grip of night
That Autumn holds its lover lightly
As it lets the summer leave you
Feeds you and clothes you in your own colours
The halfway secret shine of Autumn is held in the single change of a skin

Copyright 2010, Michael Wilson

Review: Tom Fletcher, The Leaping (Quercus, 2010)

Published by Quercus in 2010, Tom Fletcher's The Leaping tells the story of Jack and Francis, two university graduates who work in a call centre in Manchester. Fletcher's debut novel has already attracted a great deal of praise - and was nominated for The Guardian's Not the Booker Prize.

It's quite difficult to write a synopsis of the plot of The Leaping without giving too much away. So suffice to say, Jack meets a woman named Jennifer at work, and the two quickly form a relationship. Eager to escape the city, Jennifer buys a dilapidated house in the Lake District, and she and Jack move there. Horror (and genuinely frightening horror at that) ensues. Paralleling this is the story of Francis, who is obsessed by the danger and disease (particularly cancer) that he perceives as existing all around him. Francis is forced to address some of these issues when his dad is diagnosed with throat cancer. Francis's revulsion and fascination with the diseased and disintegrating human body is a driving force of his narrative, and contributes significantly to the awfulness of what happens.

I was first made aware of Fletcher's novel when I was contacted by writer and lecturer Nicholas Royle. Having heard about the She-Wolf conference, Royle wanted to recommend The Leaping, and I was duly sent a review copy. The tagline on the front of the paperback edition reads: "An ancient evil is waiting...", and the blurb on the back promises: "When the sky is blood-red, when the rivers freeze and snow lies upon the fells, it's time for the wolves to cross - time for the Leaping." Given this introduction, I was expecting a 'werewolf novel' - indeed, that was the reason it had been recommended to me in the first place - but I soon realized that this is far from an adequate assessment of Fletcher's novel.

Although the "ancient evil" is waiting for the protagonists in Cumbria, the first part of The Leaping is set in Manchester. Fletcher's portrayal of the city combines the familiar (for example, the characters drink in 'actual' Manchester bars) and the uncanny (such as the unsettling presentation of Jack's bosses in the call centre), creating a 'Manchester' that is just as terrifying as the Cumbrian setting of the second half of the novel. Indeed, Fletcher skillfully weaves 'urban horror' with 'horror at the urban' to make an unnerving cityscape. Consider this passage from early in the novel, which exemplifies the book's approach to modern life: "The Christmas lights were up but not yet turned on. Electricity meant we could work all kinds of shifts and stay out all night with our vision unimpaired, and it turned us into unnatural creatures, awake and ravenous all the time." Or this apt description of work in a faceless call centre: "The slimish scorn of the nation, dripping through earpieces and trickling into our open ears like warm, lumpy milk." It is from this horror that Jack and Jennifer attempt to escape by moving to the Lakes - only to run into something potentially worse. However, Fletcher's presentation of the two different settings leaves the reader to question whether the "ancient evil" of Fell House is really much worse that the "darkness of our own invention, all muggings, murders, rapes".

This 'urban horror' is compounded by Fletcher's careful characterization. Jack and Francis - the novel's two narrators - live in a student-house-like residence with other recent graduates, Graham, Taylor and Erin. The five met at university, completed their studies, and have since drifted into shift work at a call centre, regular drinking and a gradual loss of motivation and ambition. Fletcher's descriptions of student-esque life are evocative and identifiable, as well as grounded definitively in the early 21st century: "So if you drew a Venn diagram of all the things that we - the five of us - like, the area in which all our circles overlap would contain one thing: Mario Kart." Later on, as the five attempt to come up with a name (for something I shall not reveal), they run through a medley of pop culture, history and politics that reads like a who's who for today's twenty-somethings - beginning with Tim Burton, ending with Hitler, and including Gandhi, Kilroy, Homer, Brad, Spacey, Bush and Spongebob.

Though Fletcher's graduate cast are instantly recognizable - particularly for those who have lived through that transition from 'student' to 'real world' - they are not stereotypes or cliches. Each character is carefully and individually drawn. By doing this, Fletcher manages to pull of the difficult task of using multiple first person narrators. Alternate chapters are told from Jack's and Francis's perspective. I have read a number of books recently that employ this technique, and, in my opinion, Fletcher has mastered it. Unlike with some multiple-narrator novels, I did not find myself having to flick back to the beginning of the chapters to remind myself who was speaking. Jack and Francis have distinct voices, and I came to feel that I 'knew' each narrator well enough to tell the difference between their stories. And of course, the identification and empathy the reader feels for the central characters adds further layers to the horrific events that occur later in the novel.

One exception to this - and one of the few criticisms I have of the book - is the characterization of Jennifer, Jack's girlfriend. Jack is instantly besotted with the woman he describes throughout as "Morgana le Fay"; Francis also becomes fixated on her. As Jack and Francis utterly idealize and near-venerate Jennifer - and it should be remembered that Morgana has long been associated with goddesses and 'the Goddess' - it is hard to move beyond the young men's awe and see the woman behind it. The novel's other female character, Erin, is somewhat more fleshed out, and this is partly achieved by the novel's beginning with a prologue spoken in her voice. I would, nevertheless, like to have seen and known more of Jennifer.

I am aware that I have almost come to the end of this review without mentioning werewolves at all. And this is no accident. In many respects, it is a shame that Fletcher's book has been consistently categorized, marketed and reviewed as a 'werewolf book'. There is so much more to the novel than lycanthropy; as I have suggested, the book is as much an unsettling tale of modern life for today's burgeoning graduate class as it is a werewolf gorefest. The scope of the horror in The Leaping is carried through the precision and skill with which Fletcher uses language. The hallucinatory quality to his writing makes even the most mundane incident seem dangerous and sinister, while also making the more fantastic elements utterly believable.

Fletcher's werewolves are original, frightening and thought-provoking - and, indeed, I shall be exploring them more in future articles - and, for that reason, I recommend the novel to anyone interested in the werewolf mythos or lycanthropy. However, I would also recommend this book to people who are not particularly interested in werewolves, or who may be turned off by the idea of a novel about lycanthropy. It is an accomplished and stylish contemporary horror novel, and well worth a read.

Werewolf Literature and Native Wolves

A question was asked in one of the sessions at the She-Wolf conference that has got me thinking. In our panel on contemporary fantasy fiction, one delegate asked why so much of the current crop of werewolf fantasy is coming out of the US and Australia. Another delegate suggested that it was related to the fact that wolves (and other wild dogs) are native to these countries. This sparked some debate, as traditionally werewolf literature has been more common in countries where wolves are not native.

My own work is on European literature of the 12th-14th centuries, but also on 21st-century fiction, so I thought I'd give the question some thought. Feel free to comment!

Medieval werewolf literature (and by this I mean entertainment literature, rather than church texts) was generally produced in areas in which there were (are) no wolves. I remember once giving a paper on Marie de France's Bisclavret at a conference and being asked whether this text was influenced by the fact that folkloric belief and a 'fear of wolves'. It's hard to imagine the 12th-century aristocratic Marie, who was possibly residing at the Plantagenet court in England when she composed her poem, actually being frightened of wolves! Chances are she'd never so much as seen one.

However, medieval romance is a genre characterized by nostalgia. If we look, for example, at the 14th-century William of Palerne, the relationship between this generic nostalgia and the werewolf becomes apparent. Having been helped by the friendly werewolf to escape a forced marriage, William and Melior flee to the forest. Once there, they intend to live a rural and simple existence - Melior suggests that they survive by eating berries that they find. The werewolf and the forest form part of a rural idyll for which the lovers long.

Yet, as critics such as Corinne Saunders and Gillian Rudd have shown, the forest of 14th-century England (the country in which William of Palerne was produced) did not spread as far as has been previously believed. The forest had already been cut back, removed and urbanized in many areas. As is clear from romance texts, a fond folk-memory of the days when the entire country was covered by forest remained in the later Middle Ages - might we not also assume that this folk-memory also involved wolves? Though there were still some wolves left in Britain at the time when William of Palerne was produced, they were being hunted by the 'civilized' court. Thus a memory of wolves may also have been a 'memory' of a time when human beings lived in 'harmony' with nature, the forest and the wolves. Whether or not this 'harmony' ever actually existed is another question.

In medieval romance what we find is a nostalgic view of the 'olden days' - once upon a time, all this was forest and wolves/werewolves roamed free. And those of you familiar with Marie de France's Bisclavret will recognize that this is a fairly close approximation of the opening lines of the poem.

Jump forward to the 21st century...

Contemporary fantasy fiction also concerns itself with a certain type of nostalgia. However, the generic concerns are, in many respects, distinctly different to those of medieval romance. While a discomfort with urbanization and the destruction of 'nature' is apparent in both genres, this manifests itself in quite different ways.

Ecological concerns and the issue of how human beings impact on the natural world are common themes in contemporary urban fantasy. In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, the problem of hunting is raised, as the werewolf Sam is shot by Tom Culpeper - who believes he is simply hunting wolves. Werewolves are thus moved from the the 'once upon a time' world of the romantic forest, and into an arena in which the natural world comes into (often violent) confrontation with the urban.

One of the defining characteristics of contemporary urban fantasy is that it is set in the 'here and now'. It distinguishes itself from other types of fantasy fiction through its thoroughly 'realistic' setting in the modern world. Thus, it is harder to imagine a world in which werewolves might wander freely without running into problems of verisimilitude and believeability. It makes sense, therefore, that such fantasy takes place in a world in which there are already wolves - making it only a small imaginative leap to the existence of werewolves.

Both medieval romance and contemporary urban fantasy imagines a space in which werewolves could conceivably exist. Romance utilizes its generic tropes of nostalgia to conjure up a vast forest in which supernatural beings walk; urban fantasy depicts the 'realistic' world of the US/Australia, where people really do live alongside wolves or other wild dogs, before adding that some wolves may not be what they seem. By comparing the generic concerns and characteristics, it is clear that the former would be more common in areas where there are no wolves, whereas the latter (by necessity) is likely to be produced in areas where human beings live alongside native wild dogs.

That's my take on the problem. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts.

A big thank you to everyone who helped us with the conference last week...

Ah... the She-Wolf Conference has been and gone. And what a fantastic few days it was. A lot of fascinating papers, stimulating discussions and engaging conversations. It was an absolute pleasure to host an event with such an interesting and diverse range of papers.

A quick word on some future developments... I will be continuing to run this blog as a resource for all things female werewolf - and related - issues/ideas/events. So if you come across anything of interest, please do get in touch. I'm already in the process of putting together an edited collection of essays on the female werewolf in art, literature and culture. I'll post more details of this as it happens.

For now, I'd like to offer our thanks to everyone who helped to make the conference a big success. As many of you know, we didn't receive any funding for the conference, but we were able to make it happen through the support of the following people:

Carys Crossen - conference co-organizer
Kathy Frances and Helen Taylor - conference assistants
Linda Sever - conference fringe assistant

Rosie Lugosi, Chantal Bourgault du Coudray and Tom Fletcher - our panel of writers for the Wednesday night fringe discussion

The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, the Manchester Museum and Kro Bar - excellent and helpful venues that helped us to host a professional conference (despite being on a very limited budget)

werewolf-movies.com, werewolf-news.com, The Werewolf Cafe, The F Word and darkfictionreview.net - excellent websites that offered inspiration and support, and also helped to promote the conference

Juniper Manton Limited, The International Bram Stoker Film Festival, the Royal Exchange Theatre and Grimm Up North! Film Festival - who offered support and donated stationery and raffle prizes

Thanks to all of you!

The following people won prizes in our raffle:

Linda Priest - two tickets for Faustus at the Royal Exchange Theatre
Linda Sever - two tickets for the Vampire Ball at the International Bram Stoker Film Festival
Jules Grozier - a bottle of Czech absinthe

She-Wolf Fringe: Final Event Announcement

Our final event for the She-Wolf Fringe will be something a little different... and aimed at a slightly different audience to our other events!

So... here's one for the kids...

Saturday 11th September: Design a Monster at the Manchester Museum.

A drop-in activity session for young children, running from 11am-4pm, in the Manchester Museum Discovery Centre.

Free and no booking required.

Entry to the museum is also free. Opening times: 10am-5pm. For more information about the Manchester Museum, click here.

Vegetarians, VILFs and Fang-Bangers: Modern Vampire Romance in print and on screen

A one day conference, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Keynote Speaker: Dr Nickianne Moody, Liverpool John Moores University

Vampites have had a long and complex relationship with human beings and have been threatening and attracting us through folklore, literature, film and television for centuries. But now they walk among us, seeking to integrate themselves into our culture, to be our business partners, friends and lovers.

Why do we now prefer our vampires with a sensitive nature or with their ruthlessness focused on business deals? How does this change affect the relationship between both species and genders?

This one-day conference seeks to understand and criticise the phenomenal popularity of what is sometimes termed Dark Romance.

Papers are sought on authors such as Stephanie Meyer, Charlene Harris, and Lauren K. Hamilton, the adaptation of Dark Romance books for both film and TV and a general consideration of the change in our relationship with the vampire.

Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers, which might address (though not exclusively) the following areas:

• 21st-century vampires in the Gothic literary tradition
• Vampires and gender/relations
• Adaptation and the shift of audience
• Debates on the Other
• Difference between film and television adaptation
• Colonialism/postcolonialism/postnationalism
• Vampires and money/business
• Vampires and class relations
• Vampires, authors and fans

Please send abstracts, or not more than 200 words, to

Dr. Deborah Mutch
Department of English
Clephan Building
De Montfort University
Leicester
LE1 9BH

Email: Deborah Mutch

Find us on Facebook.

For more information, click here.

Conference fee: £30/£15 postgraduate/unwaged, including lunch and refreshments.

Deadline for abstracts: 8th September 2010.

Two Horror Film Festivals for October

We'll be absolutely spoilt for horror films this October.

First up... The Bram Stoker Horror Film Festival runs in Whitby from the 14th-17th October. Featuring 'independent narrative features, documentaries and shorts from around the world', this festival promises to offer films that you may not have chance to see elsewhere, including some world premieres. In addition to this, awards will be given in several categories.

As well as the films, there will be some pretty impressive special guests, a Hammer exhibition, talks and a Vampires' Ball on Saturday 16th October. And, of course, the whole thing takes place just yards away from where the Demeter ran aground (and spiritual home of all goths) - Whitby.

There are a few different passes and ticket options available on their website, and (if you don't fancy the films) tickets can be bought separately for the Vampires' Ball.

And if that's not enough...

Grimm Up North! Manchester's Premier Horror and Sci Fi Festival is returning for its second year. Running 28th-31st October at The Dancehouse in central Manchester, this festival features films, talks and special guests (including Ramsey Campbell and Christopher Priest).

Among the films already announced are Reel Zombies and Alien vs. Ninja. Visit their website and sign up for the newsletter to find out more.

Again, there are a variety of ticket options, including a few early-bird passes that allow you to save up to £40 on tickets.

(I should add that we are quite big fans of Grimm Up North! here at She-Wolf, as they've been really supportive while we've been getting the project off the ground.)

So between the two festivals, you should be able to get enough frights to keep you awake for most of November. Enjoy.

Sebastian Baczkiewicz Afternoon Plays on Radio 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Tweenage She-Wolves...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

She-Wolf Fringe Poster

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

Update: She-Wolf Fringe Events

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

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

Paranormal Cultures: Submissions Sought

Paranormal Cultures

Edited by Olu Jenzen and Sally R. Munt

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

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

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

We look forward to hearing from you.

Email: Olu Jenzen and Sally R. Munt

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

Books We Like...

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

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

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

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

For more information, please click here.

If Barbie was a Werewolf...

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

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

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

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

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

She-Wolf Conference Criticized by Werewolf

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

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

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

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

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

Feel free to comment!

She-Wolf Fringe Events

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

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

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

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

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

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