Gothic Environments

  • Russell, D. E. (Organiser)
  • Joan Passey (Invited speaker)
  • Christie Margrave (Invited speaker)
  • Ruth Bienstock Anolik (Invited speaker)

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

Description

As Lisa Kroger reminds us in The Gothic Wild (2009), the landscape is more than a trope in Gothic literature. Descriptions of built and natural environments often convey an array of moods, highlight character development, capture political or social turmoil, and much more besides. Staples of the mode, castles, graveyards and churches typically host major and even concluding scenes. We associate caves, dungeons and asylums with nefarious subplots, difficult themes, or abandoned characters. Sublime mountains, perilous seas, or darkened forests delight and terrify us in equal measure. Isolated or over-populated, rural or urban, expansive or all-consuming, Gothic environments remain central to our reading experience. This seminar explored a range of Gothic environments from the eighteenth century to the present day. It began with the seascapes of Radcliffe, Smith and Shelley, before traversing deathscapes in French writing, and then exploring Lydia Millett’s climate-change literature
Period27 Jun 2022
Event typeSeminar
Degree of RecognitionInternational