Gothic Bodies

  • Russell, D. E. (Chair)
  • Lucy Cogan (Invited speaker)
  • Laura Kremmel (Invited speaker)
  • Franz Potter (Invited speaker)

Activity: Participating in or organising an eventSeminar/workshop/course

Description

The Gothic uncovers, explores, and fosters terrors. The body often functions as the locus of such fear, being imagined as the site of both monstrosity and suffering. Pain, passion, sickness, contagion, incarceration, melancholy, madness – these fundamentally embodied experiences lie at the heart of the mode. In focusing on the corporeal, Gothic texts can also examine the operations of power on the individual, interrogating dynamics of gender, sexuality, race, dis/ability, nationality, and class. And, of course, Gothic writing also works on the reader’s body, aiming, as Mary Shelley put it, to “awaken thrilling horror […] curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

The Gothic Women Project's first event of 2022 explored the role of embodiment in women’s Gothic writing, examining the fascination and fear of Gothic bodies across different forms.
Period17 Jan 2022
Event typeSeminar
Degree of RecognitionInternational