Writing, Film and New Media
9 – 10 June 2016.
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Keynote speakers:
Professor Robert Miles (University of Victoria)
Professor Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck – University of London)
Professor Tanya Krzywinska (Falmouth University)
Lesley Megahey (director of the BBC film Schalken, the Painter)
The Leiden Research Institute for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites
proposals for papers that address continental connections in
English-Language Gothic Writing, Film and New Media. The aim of the
conference is to explore the representation and function of
continental European cultures, peoples and nations in English-Language
Gothic culture from the 1790s to the present. While the first wave of
British and Irish Gothic fictions developed and solidified the idea of
continental Europe as a fitting setting for Gothic Romance, little
sustained research has been done so far on the ways in which the
function and representation of the continent in English-language
Gothic culture has developed and changed since the seminal first-wave
fictions, and to what extent these developments and changes have had
an impact on the formation of British and Irish but also Australian
and American national, cultural and individual identities, for
instance. The ongoing debate in British politics and society
concerning the possibility of an EU referendum in 2017 seems to
warrant a scholarly investigation concerning the reputation and
representation of continental European culture in Gothic fiction. Such
political realities underscore the topicality and relevance of the
conference theme, and suggest that now is the right time to explore
how, why and to what extent Gothic representations of continental
Europe have played a part in the long, complex an often difficult
(love/hate) relationship between Britain, Ireland and the European
mainland, as well as the still often noted “special relationship”
between Britain and the USA. Paper topics can include, but are not
limited to:
Continental Europe as a socio-political ‘other’
Continental magic v. Anglo-American Enlightenment
Continental rationalism v. British and/or American Sensibility
The revolutionary continent in English-Language Gothic texts
The bohemian continent and the British artist
Haunting the continent: Gothic Tourism
Continental landscapes and the Gothic labyrinth
Language barriers in Gothic story-telling
Visualisations of and interactions with the Continent in British and
American “New-Media” texts
Please send a 200-word abstract, including a working title and brief
CV to m.newton@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 1 November 2015.
Notification of participation: 21 December 2015.