Interdisciplinary has become something of an academic buzz word recently but like many good ideas it’s often easier to talk about than practice...

www.qub.ac.uk/romanticlacunae We invite paper and panel proposals on topics related to silences, disjunctions, and absences in Romantic-era texts, for a one-day conference hosted by the School of English and the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at Queen’s University Belfast on 2 August, 2013. The keynote speaker will be Dr Fiona Price, Reader in English Literature at the University of Chichester. The conference is interested in exploring the power of silences and absences in the literature of the period c.1780-1830. During this time there is significant cultural emphasis on what is

CFP Collection: The Films of Dario Argento Cited as an important influence to filmmakers from Quentin Tarantino to Gaspar Noé, Italian director Dario Argento occupies a curious position in film history. With a career spanning more than 40 years, in which he’s made more than 20 films, Argento has attracted relatively little critical attention in the academy. With the only sustained (English-language) book-length consideration of the director’s work being first released more than 20 years ago, this collection seeks to explore Argento’s films through a range of analytical and method

Swan River Press has announced recently that it is set to publish a new bi-annual journal: The Green Book: Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural and Fantastic Literature. The first edition is available to preorder now and, among other topics, it contains essays on Sheridan Le Fanu, Irish Gothic, and Conor McPherson. According to the Swan River Press website, the journal will be aimed at a general readership and will feature "commentaries, articles, and reviews on Irish Gothic, Supernatural and Fantastic literature." In terms of a further guide to its scholarly content, the publishers sug

Book Review: Rethinking George MacDonald: Contexts and Contemporaries. This collection of sixteen essays edited by Christopher MacLachlan, John Patrick Pazdziora and Ginger Stelle sets out to 'look directly at MacDonald the Victorian.' To achieve this the essays are collected into four thematic sections: ‘Belief and Scepticism’, ‘Social Reform and Gender’, ‘Ideals and Nightmares’, and ‘Scotland’. The broad scope of thematic concerns covered in the book allows the reader to gain a strong idea of MacDonald's role and his place beside his Victorian contemporaries.

Fans of Gothic fiction should note that Gothic Press -- which for some years has published widely on the Gothic -- has a new web address. You can access the new site at http://www.gothlitdata.com/gothicpress.html. Also, take a look at their very interesting Gothic Chapbook series: http://www.gothlitdata.com/gothchap.html

Review: Lynn Shepherd's A Treacherous Likeness (Corsair, 2013) *Some Spoilers* Few can dispute the fascinating and mysterious nature of the lives of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley. Lynn Shepherd's new novel, A Treacherous Likeness is a wonderfully Gothic and thrilling attempt to understand the silences and gaps surrounding the Shelleys that history fails to provide for. Her third novel, following her style of historical detective fiction, delves even deeper into the realms of both biographical truth and literary license, as Shepherd re-imagines and exposes some of the secrets that h

Visions of Egypt: Literature and Culture from the Nineteenth Century to the Present An International and Interdisciplinary Conference 6-7 September 2013 Venues: History Centre, Hull (6 September), University of Hull (7 September) Keynote Speakers: Dr Sahar El Mougy, Cairo University Dr Joann Fletcher and Dr Stephen Buckley, University of York (to be confirmed) Professor William Hughes, Bath Spa University Professor Roger Luckhurst, Birkbeck, University of London Professor Susan Pearce, University  of Leicester In Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903) an

The 18th-Century Gothick Symposium: 7 August 2013, University of Oxford The Gothick Revival in eighteenth-century Britain is a multi-faceted phenomenon, simultaneously liminal and mainstream, historical and modern, whimsical and serious. This one-day symposium seeks to explore the revival’s many dimensions. Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers that address any aspect of the revival, and may include: art architecture interiors furniture antiquarianism history literature medievalism patronage politics restoration sexuality Please email 250-word propos

Some exciting news for those in the Manchester area! David McWilliam and Hannah Priest are now offering tickets for their Twisted Tales of Cannibalism event. All the details of what looks to be a lively and interesting line-up of readings can be found on the flyer below.  Free tickets can be reserved directly from their website: http://cannibals-eorg.eventbrite.co.uk/#