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Category Archives: Critical thoughts
More on Fairy Tale Fashion
Following on from Kaja’s post on the Fairy Tale Fashion exhibition in New York, here’s a short piece on the fashion for fairy tale and fairy tale in fashion, suggesting the utopian components of fairy tale (as explored by the … Continue reading
Origins of the Fairy Tale
Kaja recently commented on and posted links here to articles describing the research by Dr Jamie Tehrani (Durham University) and Sara Graça da Silva (New University of Lisbon) on the origins of fairy tales. I found this fascinating but had … Continue reading
It’s A Kind of Magic: The Books of Renaissance Magician John Dee Go On Display
One of the courses I was teaching last semester was Renaissance Literature and the most enjoyable part was the exploration of magic on stage from Dr Faustus to The Tempest and the magical statue scene in A Winter’s Tale. The … Continue reading
Magical Skins: The Selkie’s Transformation
As soon as the seal was clear of the water, it reared up and its skin slipped down to the sand. What had been a seal was a white-skinned boy George Mackay Brown ‘Pictures in the Cave’ In response to … Continue reading
Top 10 Werewolf Scenes
Bill posted a YouTube video containing the ‘Top 10 Werewolf Scenes’. Most of these scenes centre, understandably, on the transformation of man into wolf/ lupine monster. Interestingly the obsessive recording of the agonising transformation is a relatively recent addition to … Continue reading
‘How to Recognise a Werewolf in the Nineteenth Century’ by Will Pooley
This well researched post, ‘How to Recognise a Werewolf in the Nineteenth Century’, on the Beastly Histories blog is a very interesting read. (Actually the whole of the blog is pretty exciting so get ready to lose a few hours … Continue reading
Posted in Books and Articles, Critical thoughts
Tagged adaptation, aesthetics, animality, Animals, Nineteenth century, translation, Werewolves
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YA Shapeshifters: The Selkie
The ‘Animal Kinship’ panel at OGOM Company of Wolves included some discussion of the ‘Selkie’ or shapeshifting seal. This elusive creature was discussed in Peter Le Couteur’s paper ‘Sealskins: Finns, Seal Wives, and Mythmaking’. We were rather excited to receive … Continue reading
Sexualising the Witch: Magic, Witches & Devils #jrlmagic
The majority of convicted witches in early modern Europe were women, and two female stereotypes became particularly powerful: the alluring young woman, and the dried-up old ‘hag’. Regardless of age, female witches were believed to be in sexual thrall to … Continue reading
Posted in Critical thoughts, exhibitions
Tagged devils, john rylands library, witches
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David Bowie, science, and Gothic absurdity
A few more Bowie-related links, here. Science Fiction is, one might say, a rationalising mode of the fantastic; SF motifs feature frequently in Bowie’s work from ‘Space Oddity’ to his penultimate single ‘Blackstar’ (the video of which combines elements of … Continue reading
‘Dark Shadows’, Serialisation and Sympathetic Vampires
Decider.com has published an article in its ‘Cult Corner’ entitled ‘”Dark Shadows” attacked Gothic Romance with Pulpy Plots’ which pays homage to the Gothic soap opera ‘Dark Shadows’ (1966-1971). Whilst the article is relatively solid fare – essentially a potted … Continue reading