Category Archives: Critical thoughts

David Bowie, Neil Gaiman, Yoshitaka Amano

Posted on 13th January 2016 by William the Bloody

More on the interaction of David Bowie and fantastic literature. If Bowie’s various personae–the masks and images he was constantly recreating and presenting to an audience–can be seen as texts, then they lie in an intertextual relationship with a story … Continue reading →

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OGOM: YA Fiction and the Gothic

Posted on 12th January 2016 by Sam George

I’ve given a lot of thought to the titles I want to teach on my ‘Generation Dead: YA Fiction and the Gothic’ module but it is hard not to become overwhelmed once you start looking at lists and series. Most … Continue reading →

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Bill Hughes, ‘”But by blood no wolf am I”: Language and Agency, Instinct and Essence – Transcending Antinomies in Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver series’

Posted on 10th January 2016 by William the Bloody

More from me on YA paranormal romance. This time, I’m writing about Maggie Stiefvater’s beautifully written and very moving werewolf romance, Shiver. Shapeshifter fictions, for obvious reasons, allow writers to explore all that is animal and instinctive about human beings … Continue reading →

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Bill Hughes ‘Landscapes of Romance: Generic Boundaries and Epistemological Dialectics in the Paranormal Romance of Julie Kagawa’s The Iron King’

Posted on 10th January 2016 by William the Bloody

This is a draft of my article on Julia Kagawa’s richly allusive YA paranormal romance The Iron King. If you’re taking Sam’s Generation Dead module on YA fiction and the Gothic, or if you’re just interested in Gothic and genre … Continue reading →

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Review of Matthew Bourne’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’

Posted on 10th January 2016 by firekrank

Last night I attended Matthew Bourne’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ at Sadler’s Wells. Based upon Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ (first performed in 1890), which in turn was based upon Charles Perrault’s ‘La belle au bois dormant’ (1696) and some aspects from … Continue reading →

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Generation Dead: Young Adult Fiction and the Gothic – Starts Jan 18th

Posted on 10th January 2016 by Sam George

My Young Adult Fiction and the Gothic module ‘Generation Dead’ begins on January 18th. The students are going to be following the blog and attending the workshops described below: All over the country in the world of young adult fiction … Continue reading →

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Gothic Britain

Posted on 5th January 2016 by firekrank

Following on from my previous post about YA Gothic novels, the Costa Book Awards has announced that the winner of its Costa First Novel Award 2015 is The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley. Set in the northwest of England, it looks like a … Continue reading →

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Talking Trees and Unsettling Sensibilities

Posted on 30th December 2015 by Sam George

I came across Lars Ostenfeld’s unsettling adaptation of Han’s Andersen’s The Fir Tree (Danish: Grantræet) on the BBC iPlayer today. The tale was first published with ‘The Snow Queen’ on 21st December 1844. The story is narrated by the tree … Continue reading →

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White Rabbit: Yuletide Adventures in Wonderland @BritishLibrary

Posted on 28th December 2015 by Sam George

Over the Christmas period I celebrated my unbirthday by going to the Alice in Wonderland Exhibition at the British Library (one of the best free exhibitions to be found in London ever). It really was very special looking at Lewis … Continue reading →

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Creepy Merry Christmas Victorian Style

Posted on 22nd December 2015 by Sam George

We’ve been sending Christmas cards since 1843 but the Victorians had a slightly different take on the festive season looking at these unsettling images. You can read more about the ghosts of Christmas past through the eyes of the Victorians … Continue reading →

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