Tag Archives: selkies

CFP OGOM Conference 2025: Sea changes

Sea changes: The fairytale Gothic of mermaids, selkies, and enchanted hybrids of ocean and river Venue: The British Library, London, UK (and online) Date: 5–6 September 2025 Fabulous, enchanted beings, hybridly human and other, populate the expanses of water of … Continue reading

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Congratulations Daisy

Congratulations to OGOM’s Daisy Butcher who has submitted her PhD thesis today: ‘Monsters of (In)fertility: The Plant-Woman and the Female Mummy in Victorian Gothic Literature’. Daisy has been a joy to supervise & a huge asset to OGOM. She has … Continue reading

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CONFERENCE: Bodies of Water: Mermaids, Selkies, and other Marine and Freshwater Hybrids

Exciting announcement claxon! We’re beyond excited to reveal that the next OGOM conference will be a collaboration with the Haunted Shores network called ‘Bodies of Water: Mermaids, Selkies, and other Marine and Freshwater Hybrids’. We are keen to explore the … Continue reading

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YA Gothic, fairytale retellings, demon lovers, mermaids and Scottish myths

Here’s a selection of interesting articles on OGOM-related topics. First, an article on YA Gothic with some recommended novels in the genre. Much of our research has focused on these texts–they are often more adventurous than their adult counterpart, especially … Continue reading

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The Selkie: Storytelling, Poetry & Panel

I am teaching Selkies this week on OGOM’s YA gothic course and I have just discovered this Selkie: Storytelling, Poetry & Panel Discussion on the 19th March in Brighton. The event is part of Imogen Di Sapia’s exhibition The Selkie: Weaving … Continue reading

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Merpeople and Monstrous Lovers

I’ve not seen Guillermo del Toro’s film The Shape of Water yet, but it appears to be an intriguing take on the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ archetype that lies behind the genre of Paranormal Romance. With its love affair between … Continue reading

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Tides: Selkie Fiction and Film

Following Kendra Reynolds’s interesting paper on ‘Watery Bodies and Boundaries in Betsy Cornwell’s Tides’ at the Identities in YA Fiction symposium I have chosen to teach Tides (2014) on Generation Dead: YA Fiction and the Gothic in 2018 (starting in a week). … Continue reading

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Selkies and mermaids in novels and other media

Among the many fabulous creatures who cross boundaries, selkies and mermaids are particularly fascinating; the former metamorphose between seal and human, the latter are hybrid fish and human. Both exist on the margin of sea and land. Quite a few … Continue reading

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Fairy Tale Films

Some interesting recommendations here of ten fairy tale films that are not so mainstream. I’ve seen five of these, and am intrigued by the rest. Adaptations of Grimm, Perrault, and Andersen appear, of course, but also tales from the Arabian … Continue reading

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Another set of Top Ten Shapeshifters (Part 1)

It’s taken me a while to respond to Kaja and Sam’s excellent lists of their top ten shapeshifters (here and here). Here are the first five of my own favourites (not in order of importance). 1. Circe, in Homer, Odyssey … Continue reading

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