Sarah Phillips, the Deputy Head of English at Godalming College, a state sixth form college in Surrey, England, has had an excellent conference idea. Her students are studying the Gothic; they are considering as well the possibility of continuing their studies, in English, next year in higher rather than further education. So Sarah has decided to convene a conference at her College, on ‘Studying the Gothic’, at which there will be invited representatives from universities in the region as the speakers. The beauty of this idea is that it ticks a lot of boxes. The students studying th

Gilda Williams Explores Gothic Content in the Art-Making and Self-narration of Andy Warhol. I, Monster: Gothic Metaphor in the Making and Unmaking of Andy Warhol Gilda Williams ‘There was […] enough Andy in Dracula — the pale, lifeless Carpathian vampire, embarrassed by his roots, lost in the modern world […]’ — Victor Brockris, The Life and Death of Andy Warhol Andy Warhol, Self-portrait with Skull, c.1976. Polaroid, 108 x 86 mm. ‘If someone asked me, “What’s your problem?”,’ Warhol wrote in 1975, ‘I’d have to say “skin”.’   In fact Wa

ICFA 2012: The Monstrous Fantastic 33rd annual International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts March 21-25, 2012 Orlando Airport Marriott Orlando, Florida, USA In his seminal article on Beowulf, J.R.R. Tolkien describes the three monsters of the poem as "essential, fundamentally allied to the underlying ideas of the poem." The Fantastic has many similarly integral monsters and monstrosities. But what do these monsters mean? How does the monstrous signify? The Monstrous Fantastic will explore the many creative and cultural constructions of monstrosity in the arts from monsters

The University of Edinburgh Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment June 15-16, 2012 Confirmed Plenary Speakers: Prof. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA Dr. Peter Hutchings Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK “Although he was already repellent enough, there arose from the fungous skin-growth with which he was almost covered a very sickening stench which was hard to tolerate... with the use of the [daily] bath the unpleasant odour... ceased to be noticeable” ~ Sir Frederick Treves The prominent surgeo