Recollections – 2013-14 Session Four: Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate and the end of the our Autumn Semester Schedule

Last week the Gothic Reading Group ended its first semester of the 2013-14 year with a vibrant session on Jeanette Winterson's The Daylight Gate. The novel itself wasn't particularly festive, but its atmosphere was suitably winterey - and that's without resorting to terrible author-name puns. Here Mark offers a brief recap of the discussion last … Continue reading Recollections – 2013-14 Session Four: Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate and the end of the our Autumn Semester Schedule →

Sources and Resources – Background and Materials for Winterson

The Gothic Reading Group meets for its last session of 2013 this week: capping off a semester that's seen us travel from 21st century horror cinema to transatlantic 19th century fictionalisations of madness and now back (via a bit of cosmic horror) to Jeanette Winterson's 2012 novel based on the infamous Lancashire Witch trials. As … Continue reading Sources and Resources – Background and Materials for Winterson →

Recollections – 2013-14 Session Three: H.P. Lovecraft’s "The Rats in the Walls" (1924), "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928) and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936)

For our third session this year the Gothic Reading Group continued its exploration of more 'contemporary' Gothic by looking at three short pieces by the seminal early twentieth-century horror author, H.P. Lovecraft. One of the key questions our discussion revolved around was Lovecraft's relation to the Gothic. This was partly because the question was an … Continue reading Recollections – 2013-14 Session Three: H.P. Lovecraft’s "The Rats in the Walls" (1924), "The Call of Cthulhu" (1928) and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" (1936) →

Recollections – 2013-14 Session Two: Edgar Allen Poe’s "Berenice" (1835) and Charles Dickens’s "A Madman’s Manuscript" (1836)

This week sees our third meeting this term (and ninth session overall, fact-fans) but before we get stuck into Lovecraft, here'sKate Gadsby Macesumming up our last session on Poe and Dickens and highlighting some of the points around which our conversation turned.*****Nineteenth-Century Horrors: Marriage, Madness and the Middle-ClassKate Gadsby MaceBeing buried alive is equated to … Continue reading Recollections – 2013-14 Session Two: Edgar Allen Poe’s "Berenice" (1835) and Charles Dickens’s "A Madman’s Manuscript" (1836) →

Update – Stories for Lovecraft Session

A very quick update here as Mark confirms the additional texts for the Gothic Reading Group's upcoming third session on H.P. Lovecraft. Our next session is on the 20th of November and looks at a selection of stories by H.P. Lovecraft.We've been taking suggestions on the actual texts and, with a week to go, it's … Continue reading Update – Stories for Lovecraft Session →

Sources and Resources – Surfing the web for Dickens and Poe

We've not long to go until the second Gothic Reading Group session for this term. In the wake of the previous introductory post on Dickens and Poe's tales of 'madness,' Mark has been hunting around the internet for interesting supplementary materials. Here are a few of his favourites. They might offer a bit of stimulus … Continue reading Sources and Resources – Surfing the web for Dickens and Poe →