It seems rather apt that the sun is absent today, as the Southern Spell fades and a new season is welcomed in. This month is Of Monsters and Men – it is an exploration of the monstrous in gothic fictions and realities. Before I reveal The Seven Gothic Signs you can use to easily identify… Read More Identifying the Gothic: The Seven Gothic Signs
As if by magic it is barely June any longer, but one witch flies, still, through the sky. The month may have turned long ago – whilst I was soaring through the night myself, as it happens – but I have one last tale to discuss before May’s Season of the Witch fades completely. Today’s… Read More Hawai’i, History, & the Unexpected Gothic: ‘The Hala Tree Walks in Darkness’
Originally planned for longer ago than I care to admit, today’s blog post is one I have been eager to share with you. It is one that feels increasingly relevant as we strive towards global anti-racism, and one that I hope you will agree was worth the wait. If you weave in and out of… Read More New Gothic Voices: an Interview with New Gothic Review
With Jane Eyre on my mind, I picked Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) up on a whim at the library. I opened it one evening. I was hooked. I paused to sleep. Awoke. Opened it again. And was done. This is easily a one-sitting read if you have the time, or don’t favour sleep… Read More Everything was Brightness, or Dark: ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’
“𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓯𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵 𝔂𝓸𝓾’𝓵𝓵 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝔂𝓮𝓪𝓻.” Now there’s a claim that’s hard to refuse! During the summer I spent a month, entitled 🥀 Southern Spell 🥀 , exploring the southern gothic. I first posted (on Instagram) about William Gay’s Little Sister Death then. Some of you praised the novel, or declared adoration for… Read More Generally Gothic Bookworm Readalong: Midway Musings on ‘Little Sister Death’
Describing himself as “a fetishist for reflections, saturated colors, details and religious icons,” Seigar is a photographer, a high school teacher, and an English philologist. His ‘Plastic People’ series is “a study on anthropology and sociology that focuses on the humanisation of the mannequins he finds in the shop windows all over the world.” There… Read More The Uncanny as we Picture it: Freud and the Photographer
Grandfather of the American Gothic, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), is perhaps most well-known for his melancholic and musical ‘The Raven’ (1845). Many artists have and continue to illustrate the works of Poe, and this particular poem is an unsurprisingly popular choice. Having already brought the works of some of Europe’s finest authors to life, French… Read More Gustave Doré’s Illustrated Poe
The Truth about Frankenstein PART ONE OF TWO Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus is victim to a whole host of misconceptions. As we began this year with the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the novel (which took place on January 1st, 1818), and as today, February 1st, is the anniversary of Mary Shelley’s (1797 –… Read More Understanding Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, Part 1
It all began with Edgar Allan Poe, the American grandfather of Gothic literature, who was born on this day (January 19th) in 1809. What I mean is that it all began for me; my interest in the Gothic started somewhere around the age of 7 or 8 when I happened to select “The Tell Tale… Read More Dissecting ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe
Neither Porridge nor Clog-Dancing: The Virago World of Angela Carter [Castle Sarah Woodfine, 2005. Photo credit: Hannah, Generally Gothic, 2017] The white walls of Bristol’s Royal West of England Academy art gallery are lined with mystical, dark, dream-like artwork. A giant snow-globe, twin baby heads in a gravy dish, and a sculpture of a girl sleeping… Read More ‘Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter’ Exhibition
An Ongoing Attempt to Define the ‘Gothic’ In terms of the arts (particularly literature, but also film and music, as well as static visual art – you know, ‘art proper’), the gothic is commonly considered a trope, rather than a genre. A genre is a broad classification based on qualifiers such as subject matter, style,… Read More The Gothic: What?
Generally Gothic 