Conference Call for Papers: 'Locating the Gothic'
“Just as Gothic castles from Udolpho to Gormenghast exist in a world where there are no maps, where halls, corridors and stairways go on for ever, where rooms that were there in the night have vanished in the morning, so Gothic itself challenges that very process of map-making by means of which we might hope to reduce the world to manageable proportions; while, of course, it remains constantly fascinated by the very impossibility which it so convincingly propounds.”
(Punter, D. (1999) Introduction: of apparitions)[1]
The Gothic is a mode that is intimately connected to location. Sites and spaces both define and demarcate the limits of Gothic aesthetics and have shaped the way varieties of the Gothic have developed over time. From hazy moors and dense forests, to urban labyrinths, contemporary cyberscapes and postmodern dystopias, the Gothic has traversed many varied landscapes, both internal and external, historic and contemporary, from which fearful and disturbing atmospheres emerge. Psycho-geographical underpinnings in the Gothic are often the basis for key Gothic experiences such as the sublime and the uncanny. The correlations between space and identity, site and narrative, are central to this and evoke new and interesting approaches to Gothic art, literature, and culture. Thus, we seek to engage with the notion of location as it underpins the literary, artistic, and physical formations of Gothic, and as it may allow us to ‘locate’ the Gothic, or versions of the same in artistic, critical and cultural terms. We are particularly interested in papers which approach alternative forms of Gothic spatiality, particularly those which discuss the Gothic in contemporary art and media.
Proposals should be e-mailed to Maria Beville ([email protected] and Tracy Fahey ([email protected]) by Friday 13th June 2014.
Panels/Papers
Themes suggested (but not limited to) the following;
Urban Gothic
Rural Gothic
Regional Gothic/ National Gothic
Gothic Utopias/ Dystopias/ Heterotopias
Spatially based contexts of Gothic (ie; mythology, folklore, oral traditions)
Colonial/Postcolonial/ Transcultural Gothic
Dramatic spaces
Gothic places and spaces
Gothic and Architecture
Cartography and the Gothic
Spatial structures of Gothic
CyberGothic/ Gothic and multimedia/digital media
Limits and boundaries in the Gothic
The Gothic and Domestic space
Locating the Gothic in genre
Locating the Gothic in culture
[1] Punter, D. (1999) “Introduction: of apparitions” from Byron, G and Punter, D (eds) Spectral Readings; Towards a Gothic Geography (1999) Macmillan Press Ltd, London
(Punter, D. (1999) Introduction: of apparitions)[1]
The Gothic is a mode that is intimately connected to location. Sites and spaces both define and demarcate the limits of Gothic aesthetics and have shaped the way varieties of the Gothic have developed over time. From hazy moors and dense forests, to urban labyrinths, contemporary cyberscapes and postmodern dystopias, the Gothic has traversed many varied landscapes, both internal and external, historic and contemporary, from which fearful and disturbing atmospheres emerge. Psycho-geographical underpinnings in the Gothic are often the basis for key Gothic experiences such as the sublime and the uncanny. The correlations between space and identity, site and narrative, are central to this and evoke new and interesting approaches to Gothic art, literature, and culture. Thus, we seek to engage with the notion of location as it underpins the literary, artistic, and physical formations of Gothic, and as it may allow us to ‘locate’ the Gothic, or versions of the same in artistic, critical and cultural terms. We are particularly interested in papers which approach alternative forms of Gothic spatiality, particularly those which discuss the Gothic in contemporary art and media.
Proposals should be e-mailed to Maria Beville ([email protected] and Tracy Fahey ([email protected]) by Friday 13th June 2014.
Panels/Papers
Themes suggested (but not limited to) the following;
Urban Gothic
Rural Gothic
Regional Gothic/ National Gothic
Gothic Utopias/ Dystopias/ Heterotopias
Spatially based contexts of Gothic (ie; mythology, folklore, oral traditions)
Colonial/Postcolonial/ Transcultural Gothic
Dramatic spaces
Gothic places and spaces
Gothic and Architecture
Cartography and the Gothic
Spatial structures of Gothic
CyberGothic/ Gothic and multimedia/digital media
Limits and boundaries in the Gothic
The Gothic and Domestic space
Locating the Gothic in genre
Locating the Gothic in culture
[1] Punter, D. (1999) “Introduction: of apparitions” from Byron, G and Punter, D (eds) Spectral Readings; Towards a Gothic Geography (1999) Macmillan Press Ltd, London