- University of Bristol, English, Graduate StudentUniversity of Bristol, English, School of Humanities, Faculty Memberadd
- I am currently Teaching Fellow in C19th Literature at the University of Warwick where I convene and teach on a range ... moreI am currently Teaching Fellow in C19th Literature at the University of Warwick where I convene and teach on a range of UG modules from the C19th English Novel, Crime Fiction 1850-1947, Romantic and Victorian Poetry, Modes of Reading, and convene the MA module C19th Gothic.
I defended my doctoral research in May 2017 at the University of Bristol examining monstrous depictions of child death c.1830-1930 in literature and how this figure is influenced by and influential on its cultural counterparts in medicine, psychology, education and social policy. I read these figures as subject to an attempt by Anglo-American culture to repress a long history in which the dead child - both in terms of its body and soul - is an abused and sidelined figure. During this period the child is predominantly beatified and glorified to "make amends" but the high death rates, and the often gruesome nature of their deaths produces anxieties which are then made manifest in various literary forms.
Other interests include the amalgamation of ‘high’ and ‘popular’ cultures, monstrosity in children’s literature, dark fantasy literature, the gothic and folklore, and I am looking to pursue research in gothic metamorphoses books.
I am co-Chief Editor, and co-founder of HARTS & Minds, a peer-review journal for Postgraduate students and early career researchers in the Arts and Humanities that started in 2012 www.harts-minds.co.uk
My undergraduate thesis discussed Homosexuality in British Fiction since 1890 and I completed a Masters entitled 'The Child: In Literature, Language and History' with a thesis on the disappearance of the child figure in adult fiction of the twentieth century.
I organised the conference "Devils and Dolls: Dichotomous Depictions of 'the Child'" which took place on 27th-28th March 2013 at the University of Bristol and was a two-day international conference for academics at any stage in the arts and humanities who were interested in the child as subject.
I have teach undergraduate classes on Critical Theory, Contemporary Writing (1945 to the present) and Lit 4 (1830-1945) at the University of Bristol, and taught on the modules 'The Short Story', 'American Literature' and 'Between Men and Women' for Bristol's ELCE (Eng Lit and Community Engagement) degree.edit
In October 1831, two months after the execution of fourteen year old John Any Bird Bell for the murder of thirteen year old Richard Taylor, the Examiner reported that a most ‘disgraceful exhibition’ had taken place at the Stroud Fair. For... more
In October 1831, two months after the execution of fourteen year old John Any Bird Bell for the murder of thirteen year old Richard Taylor, the Examiner reported that a most ‘disgraceful exhibition’ had taken place at the Stroud Fair. For a small transaction, the crowd could watch as John’s younger brother James mimicked the actions and dialogue of his brother in a performance of the murder. Despite the paper’s outcry, however, the showman proclaimed that it was his right to earn an “honest penny” and that there had been many willing viewers of the show. Yet for the reporter, this shocking display was just another form of the social disease of “mental dram-drinking” in which the ill-educated consumer metaphorically intoxicated themselves by seeking out gruesome phenomena. Even those who would, he suggests, balk at the idea of over-indulging in drink and food participate in a sort of gothic tourism; visiting crime scenes, collecting the relics and paintings of murderers, paying to watch re-enactments.
The conjunction of childhood and violence generated a specific economy in the wider market for the grotesque spectacle. Using a notorious case of child-murder from the 1860s this paper will examine the queer relationship between the public and the dead-child body as realised through the consumption of narratives, pictures, objects, ballads and events. These practices were also at odds with the prevailing idolisation of ‘the child’ and what was widely considered the “legitimate” and “tasteful” economy produced by the dead child in the form of the post-mortem photograph, child caskets, keepsakes, literature, sculptures, etc. As well as the production of this economy this paper will consider which facets of society participated in the consumption, what made the child body particularly alluring, and the enduring effects of this interaction with the dead-child body.
The conjunction of childhood and violence generated a specific economy in the wider market for the grotesque spectacle. Using a notorious case of child-murder from the 1860s this paper will examine the queer relationship between the public and the dead-child body as realised through the consumption of narratives, pictures, objects, ballads and events. These practices were also at odds with the prevailing idolisation of ‘the child’ and what was widely considered the “legitimate” and “tasteful” economy produced by the dead child in the form of the post-mortem photograph, child caskets, keepsakes, literature, sculptures, etc. As well as the production of this economy this paper will consider which facets of society participated in the consumption, what made the child body particularly alluring, and the enduring effects of this interaction with the dead-child body.
Research Interests:
Trauma, writes Eric Kligerman, causes not only temporal rupture but spatial disruption. Perhaps nowhere is this more creatively and familiarly borne out than in the ghost narrative – which generally features a revenant spirit of someone... more
Trauma, writes Eric Kligerman, causes not only temporal rupture but spatial disruption. Perhaps nowhere is this more creatively and familiarly borne out than in the ghost narrative – which generally features a revenant spirit of someone who died by violent means and which offers us some of the greatest discombobulations of time and space – for the ghosts in these stories are predicated on imprints of the past, overlapping and intersecting to disrupt the present, in order to reshape the future. The specific and abstract conceptions of time have long been a central component to the composition of the haunting and were particularly rich in the Victorian and Edwardian tale; take for example how the tolling of the hours one, two and three a.m. marks for Scrooge the coming of the Spirits of Past, Present and Future. Space too consistently figures in the forms of haunted houses, or a ghost lingering at their place of death or perhaps where their body was hastily buried.
The ghostly re-enactment of brutal scenes at a precise time and in a specific setting is a familiar feature of the ghost narrative – particularly during the height of the literary ghost story roughly 1830-1930 – and further fragments any sense of linear temporality by suggesting a specific traumatic moment caught on loop and doomed to endlessly replay. When the subject of the violence is, however, a child, the aforementioned tropes are exacerbated, for the rhetoric explicates that the child has been lost “out of time”. In this paper I will briefly consider a few examples from the period, such as Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ (1852), Margaret Oliphant’s, ‘The Open Door’ (1882) and M.R. James’ ‘The Haunted Doll’s House’ (1923), in order to draw out the temporal and spatial nuances offered by the use of the child-ghost specifically and, finally, to briefly demonstrate the historical and cultural influences of these tales as reappropriated in contemporary media such as Nick Murphy’s The Awakening (2011).
The ghostly re-enactment of brutal scenes at a precise time and in a specific setting is a familiar feature of the ghost narrative – particularly during the height of the literary ghost story roughly 1830-1930 – and further fragments any sense of linear temporality by suggesting a specific traumatic moment caught on loop and doomed to endlessly replay. When the subject of the violence is, however, a child, the aforementioned tropes are exacerbated, for the rhetoric explicates that the child has been lost “out of time”. In this paper I will briefly consider a few examples from the period, such as Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ (1852), Margaret Oliphant’s, ‘The Open Door’ (1882) and M.R. James’ ‘The Haunted Doll’s House’ (1923), in order to draw out the temporal and spatial nuances offered by the use of the child-ghost specifically and, finally, to briefly demonstrate the historical and cultural influences of these tales as reappropriated in contemporary media such as Nick Murphy’s The Awakening (2011).
Research Interests:
Queer sexualities infuse and enthuse Dahl’s sardonic tales for adults. His collected stories in Switch Bitch (1974), in particular, depend ‘unmistakably on a repelled, vengeful, invasive attitude to sex’ with specific suggestions of rape,... more
Queer sexualities infuse and enthuse Dahl’s sardonic tales for adults. His collected stories in Switch Bitch (1974), in particular, depend ‘unmistakably on a repelled, vengeful, invasive attitude to sex’ with specific suggestions of rape, and metaphors of ‘murder by fucking’.1 It is notable too, that many of his stories were initially published in Playboy magazine; a repository for a seemingly normative but in fact performative, “unnatural”, sexualities.
On the surface, Dahl’s books for children seem devoid of obvious sexuality, something insisted on by Dahl, who claimed to prefer talking to and interacting with children because of their asexuality. This paper considers queer undertones in the encounters between Sophie and the BFG, Charlie and Willy Wonka, James and The Old Man/Grasshopper, Matilda and Miss Honey when read through the dominant and contemporaneous discourse of Stranger Danger campaigns. Firstly they might be considered, from an external perspective, as potentially dangerous, for the relationships between the child and these unfamilial adults ignored the dominant discourse of Stranger Danger campaigns. On the other hand they might also be seen as the means by which the children confront their own queerness.
On the surface, Dahl’s books for children seem devoid of obvious sexuality, something insisted on by Dahl, who claimed to prefer talking to and interacting with children because of their asexuality. This paper considers queer undertones in the encounters between Sophie and the BFG, Charlie and Willy Wonka, James and The Old Man/Grasshopper, Matilda and Miss Honey when read through the dominant and contemporaneous discourse of Stranger Danger campaigns. Firstly they might be considered, from an external perspective, as potentially dangerous, for the relationships between the child and these unfamilial adults ignored the dominant discourse of Stranger Danger campaigns. On the other hand they might also be seen as the means by which the children confront their own queerness.
Research Interests:
Evidence from burial practices and folklore indicate that the wandering spirit of the unbaptized infant has been a figure of terror in many cultures dating back as far as sources permit. Yet the delineation of the dead child spirit also... more
Evidence from burial practices and folklore indicate that the wandering spirit of the unbaptized infant has been a figure of terror in many cultures dating back as far as sources permit. Yet the delineation of the dead child spirit also varied between the British Isles and Europe: Scandinavian, Germanic and East European traditions were full of malicious child-spirits, which enacted revenge through physical violence, whilst their British counterparts had long been diaphanous and benign. This paper will discuss how, from the early nineteenth century, the collation of European myths and customs into compendiums by Anglo-American folklorists, coupled with the growing preoccupation with ‘the child’ in both body and mind arising from leading French and German schools, led to an increasingly tangible and malevolent ghost-child in Anglo-American literature. Using examples from Emily Brontë and Poe to M.R. James and Ellen Glasgow I will demonstrate how the merging of the folklores, philosophies and science from across Europe re-shaped the composition of the ghost-child in literatures from the nineteenth-century until the present. What I suggest we can gauge from this figure, is a growing fear in Britain and America that the abuse of the child – a central concern of political and social policies at the time – would no longer be tolerated by the child who was increasingly afforded power and agency.
Attendance at this conference was funded by the University of Bristol Alumni foundation.
Attendance at this conference was funded by the University of Bristol Alumni foundation.
Research Interests:
Sporadic but significant evidence from burial practices and folklore indicate that the wandering spirit of the unbaptized infant has been a minor yet persistent figure of terror in many cultures dating back as far as sources permit. The... more
Sporadic but significant evidence from burial practices and folklore indicate that the wandering spirit of the unbaptized infant has been a minor yet persistent figure of terror in many cultures dating back as far as sources permit. The delineation of the dead child spirit varied between Scandinavian, Germanic and East European traditions where it was often malicious and enacted revenge through physical violence, whilst their British counterparts had long been diaphanous and benign. Using examples from ghost stories and folkloric compendiums from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, I will demonstrate how legends pertaining to the dead child from across Europe merged with the physical and psychological sciences, gothic literature and the evolving culture of death to shape the composition of the revenant child in fiction from the nineteenth century until the present.
Research Interests:
Sporadic but suggestive evidence from burial practices and folklore indicate that the wandering spirit of the unbaptized infant or murdered child has been a figure of terror in many cultures dating back as far as sources permit. Yet the... more
Sporadic but suggestive evidence from burial practices and folklore indicate that the wandering spirit of the unbaptized infant or murdered child has been a figure of terror in many cultures dating back as far as sources permit. Yet the delineation of the dead child spirit also varied between the British Isles and Europe: Scandinavian, Germanic and East European tales were full of malicious child-spirits, which enacted revenge through physical violence, whilst their British counterparts had long been diaphanous and benign – though their burial customs suggest a slightly different approach dominated by fear of the rising dead.
This paper will discuss how M.R. James’ 1895 story ‘Lost Hearts’ fused and integrated centuries of tradition to produce the most malevolent and violent ghost-children found in Anglo-American literary stories until that point. Although James’ intentions do not necessarily correspond with the convention of reformatory literature which focused on the ghost-child in the ghost-story as victim, his depiction nevertheless contributed to the conversation around the social and physical abuse of the child that preoccupied Britain and America. James trope of the revenant dead child body not only taps into the aesthetics of horror – the abject touch, the transgressive boundaries of the corporeal – but in this tale of revenge he, perhaps unintentionally, illuminated the growing cultural fear that the abuse of the child would no longer be tolerated by the child itself who was increasingly afforded power and agency in both fiction and society.
This paper will discuss how M.R. James’ 1895 story ‘Lost Hearts’ fused and integrated centuries of tradition to produce the most malevolent and violent ghost-children found in Anglo-American literary stories until that point. Although James’ intentions do not necessarily correspond with the convention of reformatory literature which focused on the ghost-child in the ghost-story as victim, his depiction nevertheless contributed to the conversation around the social and physical abuse of the child that preoccupied Britain and America. James trope of the revenant dead child body not only taps into the aesthetics of horror – the abject touch, the transgressive boundaries of the corporeal – but in this tale of revenge he, perhaps unintentionally, illuminated the growing cultural fear that the abuse of the child would no longer be tolerated by the child itself who was increasingly afforded power and agency in both fiction and society.
Research Interests:
Call for Papers: 'Haptics and the Senses' This call for papers invites innovative submissions from postgraduates or early career academics on topics relating to the subject of ‘Haptics & The Senses’ for the 7th edition of HARTS & Minds,... more
Call for Papers: 'Haptics and the Senses'
This call for papers invites innovative submissions from postgraduates or early career academics on topics relating to the subject of ‘Haptics & The Senses’ for the 7th edition of HARTS & Minds, an online journal for postgraduates and early career researchers (including independent researchers) of the Humanities and Arts. The edition is due to be published in early 2016.
Referring to the skin as a vehicle of communication and perception, ‘haptics’, derived from the Greek word ἅπτω, means ‘I fasten onto, I touch’.
For Issue 7 of HARTS & Minds, we invite articles/reviews/creative writing pieces that consider how haptics and the senses are represented, explored or inter-related within a wide variety of cultural and historical discourses. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Articles may take as a point of departure any of the following themes:
• Embodied reflections on the senses
• Technologies of touch
• Transgression and tactility
• Touch and disability/accessibility
• Interactive art installations
• Environment and touch
• Language, communication and touch
• Touch and empathy
• Performativity and tactility of everyday technology
• Philosophy of touch, intersensoriality
• Synaesthesia and performance
• The senses in the performing arts
• The supernatural and touch
• Touch as cultural practice
• Touch, seduction and otherness in literature
• Virtual vs. physical handling of historical artefacts
Our previous editions can be found at www.harts-minds.co.uk and updates and review suggestions at facebook.com/hartsandminds. We accept submissions of:
> ARTICLES: An abstract (300 words) and draft article (around 6,000 words).
> BOOK REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on an academic text that deals with the theme in some respect. This would preferably be interdisciplinary, but we will accept reviews of subject specific texts (published within 3 years).
> EXHIBITION REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on any event along the lines of an art exhibition, museum collection, academic event, conference, etc. that deals with the theme in some respect (taken place within 2 years).
> CREATIVE WRITING PIECES: Original poetry (up to 3 short or 1 long), short stories or other creative pieces of up to 4,000 words related to the theme.
All submissions should be sent to editors@harts-minds.co.uk
Draft articles are due by 31st July 2015 and Reviews/Creative Writing Pieces by 2nd November 2015.
All should end with a short biography, use the appropriate article template and adhere to the guidelines available on our website.
This call for papers invites innovative submissions from postgraduates or early career academics on topics relating to the subject of ‘Haptics & The Senses’ for the 7th edition of HARTS & Minds, an online journal for postgraduates and early career researchers (including independent researchers) of the Humanities and Arts. The edition is due to be published in early 2016.
Referring to the skin as a vehicle of communication and perception, ‘haptics’, derived from the Greek word ἅπτω, means ‘I fasten onto, I touch’.
For Issue 7 of HARTS & Minds, we invite articles/reviews/creative writing pieces that consider how haptics and the senses are represented, explored or inter-related within a wide variety of cultural and historical discourses. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Articles may take as a point of departure any of the following themes:
• Embodied reflections on the senses
• Technologies of touch
• Transgression and tactility
• Touch and disability/accessibility
• Interactive art installations
• Environment and touch
• Language, communication and touch
• Touch and empathy
• Performativity and tactility of everyday technology
• Philosophy of touch, intersensoriality
• Synaesthesia and performance
• The senses in the performing arts
• The supernatural and touch
• Touch as cultural practice
• Touch, seduction and otherness in literature
• Virtual vs. physical handling of historical artefacts
Our previous editions can be found at www.harts-minds.co.uk and updates and review suggestions at facebook.com/hartsandminds. We accept submissions of:
> ARTICLES: An abstract (300 words) and draft article (around 6,000 words).
> BOOK REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on an academic text that deals with the theme in some respect. This would preferably be interdisciplinary, but we will accept reviews of subject specific texts (published within 3 years).
> EXHIBITION REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on any event along the lines of an art exhibition, museum collection, academic event, conference, etc. that deals with the theme in some respect (taken place within 2 years).
> CREATIVE WRITING PIECES: Original poetry (up to 3 short or 1 long), short stories or other creative pieces of up to 4,000 words related to the theme.
All submissions should be sent to editors@harts-minds.co.uk
Draft articles are due by 31st July 2015 and Reviews/Creative Writing Pieces by 2nd November 2015.
All should end with a short biography, use the appropriate article template and adhere to the guidelines available on our website.
Research Interests: Religion, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Comparative Religion, and 27 morePhilosophy Of Religion, Jewish Studies, Buddhist Philosophy, Theology, Historical Theology, Philosophical Theology, Buddhist Studies, Religion and Film, Jewish Mysticism, Early Christianity, Orthodox Theology, Second Temple Judaism, Ancient Religion, Christology, Islamic Studies, Islamic History, Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Jewish Thought, Jewish Philosophy, Sikh Studies, Kabbalah, Judaism, Jewish Cultural Studies, Eastern Orthodox Liturgical Theology, Orthodox Christianity, and Religious Studies
Gathered around the hearth for Christmas Eve, friends entertain each other by swapping ghost stories in the traditional fashion. A tale is told, is sufficiently gruesome, but leaves little impact, except that someone remarks that 'it was... more
Gathered around the hearth for Christmas Eve, friends entertain each other by swapping ghost stories in the traditional fashion. A tale is told, is sufficiently gruesome, but leaves little impact, except that someone remarks that 'it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child.’ To which Douglas – the teller of the tale that would become known as The Turn of the Screw – responds that it is not the first occurrence he has heard of ‘to have been concerned with a child’ and tantalises his audience with the following premise; '"If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children - ?"’ And indeed it would not have been the first: the child visited by the ghost had long been the subject of folklore due to their perceived susceptibility to the supernatural. Yet, the child-ghost was only a minor figure in the burgeoning wealth of ghost stories that characterised nineteenth and early-twentieth century Gothic literature. Even fewer uses entertained the notion of the explicitly malevolent child ghost; violent and abhorrent in its vengeance for the wrongs committed on its body and soul.
This paper will use M.R. James' fin de siècle tale 'Lost Hearts' (1895), alongside other literary cultural and scientific narratives of the late Victorian and Edwardian period concerning the child, childhood and the supernatural, to consider how the ghost-child’s ambivalent physicality, growing more tangible at the fin de siècle and beyond, is indicative of cultural preoccupations and anxieties over the child-body and childhood more widely.
This paper will use M.R. James' fin de siècle tale 'Lost Hearts' (1895), alongside other literary cultural and scientific narratives of the late Victorian and Edwardian period concerning the child, childhood and the supernatural, to consider how the ghost-child’s ambivalent physicality, growing more tangible at the fin de siècle and beyond, is indicative of cultural preoccupations and anxieties over the child-body and childhood more widely.
Research Interests:
This paper, given as part of the University of Bristol, English Department Research Seminar series, explored the construction of the ghost-child in early Victorian literature. Elizabeth Gaskell's 'The Old Nurse's Story' (1852) is analysed... more
This paper, given as part of the University of Bristol, English Department Research Seminar series, explored the construction of the ghost-child in early Victorian literature. Elizabeth Gaskell's 'The Old Nurse's Story' (1852) is analysed as an exemplary text which ties together cultural conversations concerning the child-body, it's soul, the notion of childhood and folklore, ghosts and their composition.
Research Interests:
This paper examined what I term the "paedophilic space", how it is conceived and how it was produced. Briefly its relation to the gothic and then used Nabokov's 'Lolita' as a case study for different uses of space and their role in the... more
This paper examined what I term the "paedophilic space", how it is conceived and how it was produced. Briefly its relation to the gothic and then used Nabokov's 'Lolita' as a case study for different uses of space and their role in the construction and subversion of the paedophile .
Research Interests:
When Richard von Krafft-Ebing coined the term paedophilia erotica in 1886, an identity akin to “the homosexual” was constructed. For Foucault the nineteenth-century categorisation and classification of homosexuality, inversion, pederasty,... more
When Richard von Krafft-Ebing coined the term paedophilia erotica in 1886, an identity akin to “the homosexual” was constructed. For Foucault the nineteenth-century categorisation and classification of homosexuality, inversion, pederasty, and "psychic hermaphroditism" constructed the discourses that made social control possible. Yet, he also suggested that in its classification homosexuality found a way ‘to demand that its legitimacy or "naturality" be acknowledged’. With the monstrous figure of the paedophile we are confronted by a taboo that struggles to overcome such identification. It is bound to the same problems faced by societies who struggle to verbalise child sexuality without medicalization or psychological spin, rather than as a positive embrace of human instinct. The very notion of discussing the paedophile comes with the prerequisite of distaste and active opposition; one may not consider the subject neutrally, though other nineteenth-century “perversions” have since been afforded this at least.
My paper will examine variants of the “paedophile narrative”; from public service announcements, to film, to literature and drama, to media constructions. Each representation offers a different take on the narrative and its subsequent agency. Charley the Cat says Strangers and Sid Davies Production’s “Boys Beware” aimed to introduce the figure of the paedophile into the peripheral space of children’s lives by subverting the lexicon on child abuse. Lolita, as one of the most infamous examples, suggested a dialogue that was expectedly hindered by the “unreliability” of its first-person narrator and thus “confirmed” his sociopathic tendencies. Although King uses a more explicit characterisation in the form of William Wharton of The Green Mile, King’s novel It offers an example of the indirect narrative that plays to the possible queer reading of the predator. Lindqvist directly employs the figure not as a figure of sympathy, but as one complicated by the vampire “child” he loves which is less explicit in the film, whilst Fechter’s play and subsequent film allows the predator a voice, and attempts to sympathise and demonstrate a redemptive quality. In light of the growing reports of historical child abuse in the West, from the Church to the Celebrity, how might we consider these narratives as affirming our perception of the paedophile? I suggest it is unlikely as each narrative fails to offer a rounded, more “human” view of anyone who engages in sexual relations with the child, because it is always considered an abuse of power, a monstrous and unforgivable act.
My paper will examine variants of the “paedophile narrative”; from public service announcements, to film, to literature and drama, to media constructions. Each representation offers a different take on the narrative and its subsequent agency. Charley the Cat says Strangers and Sid Davies Production’s “Boys Beware” aimed to introduce the figure of the paedophile into the peripheral space of children’s lives by subverting the lexicon on child abuse. Lolita, as one of the most infamous examples, suggested a dialogue that was expectedly hindered by the “unreliability” of its first-person narrator and thus “confirmed” his sociopathic tendencies. Although King uses a more explicit characterisation in the form of William Wharton of The Green Mile, King’s novel It offers an example of the indirect narrative that plays to the possible queer reading of the predator. Lindqvist directly employs the figure not as a figure of sympathy, but as one complicated by the vampire “child” he loves which is less explicit in the film, whilst Fechter’s play and subsequent film allows the predator a voice, and attempts to sympathise and demonstrate a redemptive quality. In light of the growing reports of historical child abuse in the West, from the Church to the Celebrity, how might we consider these narratives as affirming our perception of the paedophile? I suggest it is unlikely as each narrative fails to offer a rounded, more “human” view of anyone who engages in sexual relations with the child, because it is always considered an abuse of power, a monstrous and unforgivable act.
Research Interests:
This paper explores specifically the use of Space and Place in Jan Svankmajer's 1988 Něco z Alenky as part of the University of Bristol Literary and Visual Landscapes series. In particular, considering Space as " the boundless... more
This paper explores specifically the use of Space and Place in Jan Svankmajer's 1988 Něco z Alenky as part of the University of Bristol Literary and Visual Landscapes series. In particular, considering Space as " the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction", the intentional and careful choice and repetition of objects in the film and in Svankmajer's wider work are considered in lieu of his political and creative allegiances. The extension and reimagining of a familiar conceptual and textual space; the literal dysmorphia of spaces manipulated by Alice's changing size; and her seemingly endless wanderings through the labyrinth of her home, are posited in relation to wider theories by Bachelard and Jung.
Research Interests:
"Vengeance in Roald Dahl’s literature for children is never enacted, or so the story tells us, without just cause; Miss Trunchbull bullies those she considers weak and so Matilda is permitted to show her headmistress what it is like to be... more
"Vengeance in Roald Dahl’s literature for children is never enacted, or so the story tells us, without just cause; Miss Trunchbull bullies those she considers weak and so Matilda is permitted to show her headmistress what it is like to be frightened and helpless; the Gregg’s mercilessly hunt birds and laugh at the girl with the Magic Finger, and so are transformed into birds and hunted by the very animals they tried to kill; the twits, Aunt’s Sponge and Spiker, the witches, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, the golden ticket winners and Victor Hazell all meet their downfall at the hands of the tormented. Proverbs pertaining to revenge warn us that pursuing revenge will only lead to suffering for all involved, ‘Before you set out for revenge, be sure to dig two graves’ as the Chinese proverb goes. Yet, within the realms of children’s literature, and most predominantly in the works of Roald Dahl, there is room for the child to work through the injustices it faces in its subordinate position in the form of vengeance.
Many opponents of Dahl’s children’s stories claim that his texts show a disregard for authority that is damaging to the child, even now despite his works consistently appearing in the top ten best-loved children’s books of all time and nearly fifty years since the publication of one of his most controversial texts’, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This paper intends to dissect the formulation and outcome of childhood revenge within Dahl’s stories for children as a means to obtaining happiness. They will be considered alongside a history of revenge in literature that predominantly ends in misery for the vengeful, and arguing that accepting Dahl’s works as subverted fairy tales they respond to theories suggested in Bettelheim’s Uses of Enchantment.
Many opponents of Dahl’s children’s stories claim that his texts show a disregard for authority that is damaging to the child, even now despite his works consistently appearing in the top ten best-loved children’s books of all time and nearly fifty years since the publication of one of his most controversial texts’, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This paper intends to dissect the formulation and outcome of childhood revenge within Dahl’s stories for children as a means to obtaining happiness. They will be considered alongside a history of revenge in literature that predominantly ends in misery for the vengeful, and arguing that accepting Dahl’s works as subverted fairy tales they respond to theories suggested in Bettelheim’s Uses of Enchantment.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Following its publication in 1954, William March’s The Bad Seed, achieved high critical acclaim, bolstered by its quick adaptation into both a Broadway play and Hollywood film. Its depiction of a young, pretty, white, middle-class girl... more
Following its publication in 1954, William March’s The Bad Seed, achieved high critical acclaim, bolstered by its quick adaptation into both a Broadway play and Hollywood film. Its depiction of a young, pretty, white, middle-class girl who successfully hides her nature as a sadistic murderer from almost everyone around her engaged with a social obsession for psychoanalysis, murder and genetics. Yet, over the decade fewer people have read or even heard of March’s novel. The term “bad seed” however, has become synonymous with fears of violent and antisocial youth crime particularly in North American and British cultures. The fears for the future of youth, both real and imagined, though not unfounded are intrinsically bound with other social values and are not as simple as individual children possessing “bad genes”. This paper intends to perform an examination of March’s attempt to deconstruct the socio-historic notions of whiteness, childhood, beauty, class distinctions and femininity as intrinsically good, alongside my theories on the trope of “the evil” child in literary fictions and media representations of the late nineteenth century until the present. The “evil” child; a fairly modern re-incarnation of its predecessors the “wild savage child”, the “uncanny child” and even its closest relative, the “wicked and sinful child” common in nineteenth century social realism, dictates the progression and failure of each of March’s themes to provide a stark view of his ultimate theme; the human propensity for violence. I will suggest that despite March’s attempt, through the use of a child killer, to breakdown the categorisation of certain values as “good” and “evil” through his text, the struggle shall remain futile. For whilst both media and fictional representation continues to exploit “the child” as emblematic of social fears for the future, either as an “angel” or “demon”, so the cycle of fear of and consequently hatred of, the child will continue.
https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/ebooks/evil-monsters-horror/monstrous-manifestations
https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/ebooks/evil-monsters-horror/monstrous-manifestations
This paper aims to explore what I identify as three distinct categories of reimagined fairy tales of the twentieth century: the inoffensive, ‘watered down’ versions written for children of primary school age, the explicitly raunchy or... more
This paper aims to explore what I identify as three distinct categories of reimagined fairy tales of the twentieth century: the inoffensive, ‘watered down’ versions written for children of primary school age, the explicitly raunchy or harrowing fairy tales aimed exclusively at a young adult/adult audience, and those whose witty play with words and subject matter give a “nod and a wink” to the parent who must endure reading the same tale to their child night after night. I will also suggest that Roald Dahl’s works, which are consistently voted as childhood favourites of the twentieth century, are some of the best examples of all-encompassing fairy tales for the modern age; traditional in their embrace of difficult and dark subject matters, approaching modern issues of childhood, instructive whilst entertaining, unintentionally but successfully encompassing the notion of crossover fiction and (perhaps most importantly) are good old yarns. To do so I will dissect a selection of Dahl’s works against the key tropes and themes of traditional Grimm fairytales.
I will also use examples of other modern literary fairytales such as Eugene Trivizas’ The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig and Jesse Stockham’s Little Red Riding Hood, celebrated re-visioning’s such as Jon Scieszka’s The Stinky Cheese-man, writers such as F.L. Block’, Donna Jo Napoli, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood to identify and qualify my “three categories” and compare with the tropes and “intentions” of Dahl’s works. I will also explore the distinct lack of literary criticisms of Dahl’s work; asking whether it is, or was, related to a desire to keep the social order – which places children in an inferior station, and the family as nuclear – something rare in Dahl’s texts, and/or whether it is linked to a more elitist notion of literary taste.
I will also use examples of other modern literary fairytales such as Eugene Trivizas’ The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig and Jesse Stockham’s Little Red Riding Hood, celebrated re-visioning’s such as Jon Scieszka’s The Stinky Cheese-man, writers such as F.L. Block’, Donna Jo Napoli, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood to identify and qualify my “three categories” and compare with the tropes and “intentions” of Dahl’s works. I will also explore the distinct lack of literary criticisms of Dahl’s work; asking whether it is, or was, related to a desire to keep the social order – which places children in an inferior station, and the family as nuclear – something rare in Dahl’s texts, and/or whether it is linked to a more elitist notion of literary taste.
As part of a wider study charting the origins and evolution of fictional and cultural depictions of the ‘Evil Child’, this paper will present initial findings on the representation of the trope within the Early Modern period. From the... more
As part of a wider study charting the origins and evolution of fictional and cultural depictions of the ‘Evil Child’, this paper will present initial findings on the representation of the trope within the Early Modern period. From the apparent deformities of Richard III, to pamphlets on conjoined twins and folk tales of serpentine babies, the evil child within this period is depicted predominantly through tales of monstrous births as in the preceding centuries; however the function of this figure has evolved. No longer merely a matter of superstition, the monstrous child became a political weapon, particularly during the reformation, and evoked not only horror, but also pity and fascination, as scientific study adopted a more fervent interest in the biological reasoning’s for such phenomena.
Chapter which is part of the collection 'Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg' to be published by Lexington Books which examines his 1991 film Hook as an attempt to bridge the gap between adulthood and childhood, to regain a sense of... more
Chapter which is part of the collection 'Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg' to be published by Lexington Books which examines his 1991 film Hook as an attempt to bridge the gap between adulthood and childhood, to regain a sense of the childhood joys lost, to assuage the sorrows associated with the past, only to affirm the distance between the adult and child.
Research Interests:
The scholarly cataloguing and study of oral folktales, the evolution of Gothic fiction, the rise of the short story genre, the foundation of the Spiritualist movement, and the uncertainties and potentialities raised by scientific and... more
The scholarly cataloguing and study of oral folktales, the evolution of Gothic fiction, the rise of the short story genre, the foundation of the Spiritualist movement, and the uncertainties and potentialities raised by scientific and technological advances, are some of the key influences in the fictional representation and uses of the ghost in nineteenth-century fiction. Although the revenant can be traced back to classical literature, through folklore, theological beliefs, and death rites, it is nineteenth-century, and more particularly Victorian, writers who were integral in the establishment of the tropes that would persist and influence later formations of the ghost. Despite the preoccupation with children in all facets of Victorian and Edwardian life, the ghost-child possessed only a minor role in its fiction however, and the malevolent version was almost absent. Nevertheless, the discernible scarcity of the trope suggests that where the ghost-child did appear its role was significant in importing a specific message to its readers. Thus, the symbolic uses of the ghost more generally, such as the return of the repressed, are still evident, but through the use of the child are either enhanced or altered.
In contemporary fiction and culture the ghost-child is far more prevalent and malevolent more frequently. Many of the examples are set in, or retain a strong affiliation with the stylistics of, the Victorian and Edwardian period, and employ familiar motifs from their ghost stories and utilise the discourse on childhood, and the influences of psychoanalysis, spiritualism and folklore. This chapter firstly dissects the original depictions of the ghost-child by Victorian/Edwardian writers in some of the most pertinent examples and then examines a small selection of fictional compositions from the twenty-first century The Little Stranger (2009), The Small Hand (2010) and The Awakening (2011) which correspond with these original stories and the period.
In contemporary fiction and culture the ghost-child is far more prevalent and malevolent more frequently. Many of the examples are set in, or retain a strong affiliation with the stylistics of, the Victorian and Edwardian period, and employ familiar motifs from their ghost stories and utilise the discourse on childhood, and the influences of psychoanalysis, spiritualism and folklore. This chapter firstly dissects the original depictions of the ghost-child by Victorian/Edwardian writers in some of the most pertinent examples and then examines a small selection of fictional compositions from the twenty-first century The Little Stranger (2009), The Small Hand (2010) and The Awakening (2011) which correspond with these original stories and the period.
Research Interests:
Following its publication in 1954, William March’s The Bad Seed, achieved high critical acclaim, bolstered by its quick adaptation into both a Broadway play and Hollywood film. Its depiction of a young, pretty, white, middle-class girl... more
Following its publication in 1954, William March’s The Bad Seed, achieved high critical acclaim, bolstered by its quick adaptation into both a Broadway play and Hollywood film. Its depiction of a young, pretty, white, middle-class girl who successfully hides her nature as a sadistic murderer from her community, engaged with a social obsession for psychoanalysis, murder and genetic-theory. Yet, over the decades fewer people have read or even heard of March’s novel. The term “bad seed” however, has become synonymous with fears of violent and antisocial youth crime particularly in North American and British cultures. The fears for the future of youth, both real and imagined, though not unfounded are intrinsically bound with other social values and are not as straightforward as individual children possessing “bad genes”. This paper intends to perform a cross-examination of March’s attempt to deconstruct the socio-historic notions of whiteness, childhood, beauty, class distinctions and femininity as intrinsically good, alongside depictions of real-life children who kill. The “evil” child; a fairly modern re-incarnation of its predecessors the “wild savage child”, the “uncanny child” and even its closest relative, the “wicked and sinful child” common in nineteenth century social realism, dictates the progression and failure of each of March’s themes to provide an incontestable view of his ultimate theme; the human propensity for violence. I will suggest that despite March’s attempt within his text to breakdown the categorisation of certain values as “good” and “evil” through the use of a child killer, the struggle shall remain futile. For whilst both media and fictional representation continues to exploit “the child” as emblematic of social fears for the future, either as an “angel” or “demon”, so the cycle of fear of and consequently hatred of, the child will continue.
Research Interests:
Jan Švankmajer’s 1988 Surrealist interpretation of Carroll’s tale is, as suggested by its original title, an exploration of ‘Something from Alice’ . The title offers two concomitant tangents; that this film will be, and is, a fragmented... more
Jan Švankmajer’s 1988 Surrealist interpretation of Carroll’s tale is, as suggested by its original title, an exploration of ‘Something from Alice’ . The title offers two concomitant tangents; that this film will be, and is, a fragmented selection of the original story’s components; and that what we will encounter is something from Alice herself. It is the protagonist who not only presents the narrative, but constructs the realms through which she travels. This depiction is multi-faceted and multi-layered, an exploration through the psyche of Alice, which is simultaneously a journey through Freudian conceptualisation of the child’s mind, and through the impressions of childhood as imprinted on director’s mind and our own. The uncanny is undoubtedly central to Švankmajer’s compelling nightmare, demonstrated by the conflicting dual/duel aspects of automatism and anthropomorphism, the recurrence of rooms and actions, Alice and her doll, of ending where we have begun.
The Alice of Švankmajer’s film is the monstrous child that previous adaptations and subsequent critical analyses have wanted but failed her to be. In his review of the film, Philip Strick suggests that ‘one has the unsettling sense of watching an old and well-remembered dream in a new and disturbing state of hallucination’. It is this familiarity of the malevolence, the boredom, the importance of objects, innocence versus sexuality, of fear of one’s self and one’s body, which makes this Alice one of the most poignant, because everything about it is intentional. Contextually, she represents an underground, subterranean movement: both Political and political in her defiance of censorship, the forbidden and the impossible, that is familiar in both the child and the adult who is ‘always prepared, to travel across the entire span of their lives, with no embarrassment about considering childhood an equal partner.’
This piece will perform an analysis of both the inner and external workings of the film by using Freudian symbolism, Kleinian object-relations theory, ideas of childhood and the child as construct uncomfortable notions of the sexualised innocent (such as suggested by James Kincaid and Jacqueline Rose), alongside a socio-historical context. This will allow for a consideration of Švankmajer’s interpretation as both a product of its time and an ahistorical understanding of Alice that lends itself to Jungian theories of the collective and personal unconscious.
The Alice of Švankmajer’s film is the monstrous child that previous adaptations and subsequent critical analyses have wanted but failed her to be. In his review of the film, Philip Strick suggests that ‘one has the unsettling sense of watching an old and well-remembered dream in a new and disturbing state of hallucination’. It is this familiarity of the malevolence, the boredom, the importance of objects, innocence versus sexuality, of fear of one’s self and one’s body, which makes this Alice one of the most poignant, because everything about it is intentional. Contextually, she represents an underground, subterranean movement: both Political and political in her defiance of censorship, the forbidden and the impossible, that is familiar in both the child and the adult who is ‘always prepared, to travel across the entire span of their lives, with no embarrassment about considering childhood an equal partner.’
This piece will perform an analysis of both the inner and external workings of the film by using Freudian symbolism, Kleinian object-relations theory, ideas of childhood and the child as construct uncomfortable notions of the sexualised innocent (such as suggested by James Kincaid and Jacqueline Rose), alongside a socio-historical context. This will allow for a consideration of Švankmajer’s interpretation as both a product of its time and an ahistorical understanding of Alice that lends itself to Jungian theories of the collective and personal unconscious.
Research Interests:
Sophie and the BFG, Charlie and Willy Wonka, James and The Old Man/Grasshopper, Matilda and Miss Honey: Roald Dahl’s child heroes need not fear when their parents are dead, or useless, for there is always the kindly stranger waiting to... more
Sophie and the BFG, Charlie and Willy Wonka, James and The Old Man/Grasshopper, Matilda and Miss Honey: Roald Dahl’s child heroes need not fear when their parents are dead, or useless, for there is always the kindly stranger waiting to assume the parental role. Yet to what extent can these relationships be considered appropriate? Let us read them another way – a large, reclusive man, a little bit “different” from other men, snatches a small orphan girl in the night and keeps her locked up in his cave. The eccentric bachelor who lives a reclusive life with a tribe of exotic men takes a special interest in children, but one child in particular and promises his a lifetime of sweets. The orphaned boy, ignored or abused by his Aunts is paid a visit by a strange old man who offers him a bag of sweets, and the seemingly sexless and bookish teacher takes a particular interest in her favourite pupil and offers her a home in a cottage in the middle of the woods… These readings are representative of the often paranoid attitudes that led to the emergence of the ‘stranger danger’ campaigns of the 1960s. The infamous child-murders by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in Britain from 1963 suggested that it was not only men that were capable of horrors towards children, and this is reflected in Dahl’s The Witches. However, for the most part Dahl’s texts do not support theories that all strangers are to be avoided; rather he recognised long before the inception of the NSPCC that the majority of abuse occurred at home. Consulting the critical works of James Kincaid, Jacqueline Rose and Steve Bruhm, amongst others, this paper questions the dynamics of the adult-child relationships in Roald Dahl’s children’s books alongside the public fears and response to these fears in Britain between 1960s and 1990s.
Research Interests:
This call for papers invites submissions from postgraduates, early career researchers and independent researchers on the subject of Science, Society and Civilisation for the eighth edition (3:1) of HARTS & Minds, an online journal for... more
This call for papers invites submissions from postgraduates, early career researchers and independent researchers on the subject of Science, Society and Civilisation for the eighth edition (3:1) of HARTS & Minds, an online journal for researchers of the Humanities and Arts, which is due to be published in 2016.
www.harts-minds.co.uk
EXTENDED Deadline for Articles 30th April 2016
Deadline for Reviews and Creative Pieces 31st July 2016
www.harts-minds.co.uk
EXTENDED Deadline for Articles 30th April 2016
Deadline for Reviews and Creative Pieces 31st July 2016
Research Interests: History of Science and Technology, Cognitive Science, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy of Science, Archaeological Science, and 33 moreHistory of Science, Ancient Science, Medieval Science, History of Philosophy of Science, Medical Humanities, Science and Religion, Science Fiction, Art and Science, Science Fiction Film, Early Modern Science and Philosophy, Literature And Science, History of Library and Information Science, Neurology of giftedness in art/music comb.w/science &/or math, Art and technology, Early Modern Science, History of Science and Religion, Feminist science fiction, History of Sound Recording, Automation, History of the ancient world of science and technology, Art + Technology + Science + Society, Music and Science, Science and Religion, Modern Spiritualism, New Religious Movements, Science Fiction Film Music, Science and the History of Music, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Ancient Greek Science and Philosophy, History of Biological Sciences, Science Fiction and Religion, Arts and Design Technology, Science and the Decorative Arts, History of Science and Medicine In Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and Art and Science In Museums
Referring to the skin as a vehicle of communication and perception, ‘haptics’, derived from the Greek word ἅπτω, means ‘I fasten onto, I touch’. For Issue 7 of HARTS & Minds, we invite innovative submissions of articles/reviews/creative... more
Referring to the skin as a vehicle of communication and perception, ‘haptics’, derived from the Greek word ἅπτω, means ‘I fasten onto, I touch’. For Issue 7 of HARTS & Minds, we invite innovative submissions of articles/reviews/creative writing pieces from postgraduates an ECRs of the Humanities and Arts, that consider how haptics and the senses are represented, explored or inter-related within a wide variety of cultural and historical discourses. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.
Research Interests:
HARTS & Minds journal for postgraduates and ECRs is still inviting reviews of exhibitions, conferences, symposia, and recent academic Book Publications for Issue 5: Crime and Concealment until 31st May. If you have recently visited any... more
HARTS & Minds journal for postgraduates and ECRs is still inviting reviews of exhibitions, conferences, symposia, and recent academic Book Publications for Issue 5: Crime and Concealment until 31st May.
If you have recently visited any related events such as the Sherlock Holmes exhibition, or the Wellcome Forensics collections, send a review of up to 1500 words to editors@harts-minds.co.uk
We still have a copy of Samantha Walton's new publication Guilty But Insane: Mind and Law in Golden Age Detective Fiction. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) for someone to review, so get in touch at editors@harts-minds.co.uk
If you have recently visited any related events such as the Sherlock Holmes exhibition, or the Wellcome Forensics collections, send a review of up to 1500 words to editors@harts-minds.co.uk
We still have a copy of Samantha Walton's new publication Guilty But Insane: Mind and Law in Golden Age Detective Fiction. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) for someone to review, so get in touch at editors@harts-minds.co.uk
Research Interests: Identity (Culture), Conspiracy Theories, History of Piracy, Crime fiction, Detective Fiction, and 11 moreCensorship (History), Forensic Archaeology, HISTORY OF CRIME AND LAW, Censorship of literary and popular culture texts, History of Crime, Sherlock Holmes, Book Censorship (history), Archaeological Forgeries, History of Crime and Punishment, Spy Fiction, and Mysteries
HARTS & Minds was established in 2012 by myself and Dan Evers whilst both undertaking a PhD at the University of Bristol. The aim of the journal was to provide an interdisciplinary platform to consider various topics. Rather than seeing... more
HARTS & Minds was established in 2012 by myself and Dan Evers whilst both undertaking a PhD at the University of Bristol. The aim of the journal was to provide an interdisciplinary platform to consider various topics. Rather than seeing themes as constraining, we see them as essential to showing how certain issues are integral across the Humanities and Arts.
It is our aim to give more postgraduate students and early career academics the opportunity to have their work published. We know how difficult it can be to get noticed in an increasingly challenging and competitive academic world and we hope that our journal will help aspiring academics to improve the visibility of their research.
As well as articles, HARTS accepts Creative Writing pieces and reviews of academic texts, exhibitions, art installations, conferences and other academic events which relate to the theme of the issue.
So far we have published three issues; 'Against the Grain: Reimagining in the Arts and Humanities', 'Space and Place' and 'Death and Decay' we are currently editing 'Sound and Silence' and the CFP is out for Issue 5 'Food and Eating: From the Literal to the Metaphorical'
It is our aim to give more postgraduate students and early career academics the opportunity to have their work published. We know how difficult it can be to get noticed in an increasingly challenging and competitive academic world and we hope that our journal will help aspiring academics to improve the visibility of their research.
As well as articles, HARTS accepts Creative Writing pieces and reviews of academic texts, exhibitions, art installations, conferences and other academic events which relate to the theme of the issue.
So far we have published three issues; 'Against the Grain: Reimagining in the Arts and Humanities', 'Space and Place' and 'Death and Decay' we are currently editing 'Sound and Silence' and the CFP is out for Issue 5 'Food and Eating: From the Literal to the Metaphorical'
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This call for papers invites innovative submissions from postgraduates or early career academics on topics relating to the subject of ‘Crime/Concealment’ for the next edition of HARTS & Minds, an online journal for postgraduates, early... more
This call for papers invites innovative submissions from postgraduates or early career academics on topics relating to the subject of ‘Crime/Concealment’ for the next edition of HARTS & Minds, an online journal for postgraduates, early career researchers (including EC independent researchers) of the Humanities and Arts, which is due to be published in early 2015.
We accept:
ARTICLES: An abstract (300 words) and draft article (around 6,000 words).
BOOK REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on an academic text that deals with the theme in some respect. This would preferably be interdisciplinary, but we will accept reviews of subject specific texts. (published within 3 years)
EXHIBITION REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on any event along the lines of an art exhibition, museum collection, academic event, conference etc that deals with the theme in some respect. (Taken place within 2 years)
CREATIVE WRITING PIECES: Original poetry (up to 3 short or 1 long), short stories or other creative pieces of up to 4,000 words related to the theme.
All submissions should be sent to editors@harts-minds.co.uk by 31st January 2015) for articles (please note this is an extended deadline) and 1st March 2015 for Reviews and Creative Writing.
All should include a short biography at the end, adhere to the guidelines and use the appropriate article template available on our website.
Suggested topics (not limited to):
• The Law/Crime in art/literature
• Fraud, Plagiarism, Piracy
• Scandal and censorship
• The Secret Service/Spies
• Crime and celebrity
• Historical Mysteries
• Villains: Real and Fictional
• History of Crime and the law
• Codes, censorship, enigmas,
• Language as concealment
• Philosophy of Crime
• Theft of Language/Rights
• Crime remembered/imagined
• Topographies of Crime
• Gendered/Sexual Crime
• Concealing identity
We accept:
ARTICLES: An abstract (300 words) and draft article (around 6,000 words).
BOOK REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on an academic text that deals with the theme in some respect. This would preferably be interdisciplinary, but we will accept reviews of subject specific texts. (published within 3 years)
EXHIBITION REVIEWS: Around 1,000 words on any event along the lines of an art exhibition, museum collection, academic event, conference etc that deals with the theme in some respect. (Taken place within 2 years)
CREATIVE WRITING PIECES: Original poetry (up to 3 short or 1 long), short stories or other creative pieces of up to 4,000 words related to the theme.
All submissions should be sent to editors@harts-minds.co.uk by 31st January 2015) for articles (please note this is an extended deadline) and 1st March 2015 for Reviews and Creative Writing.
All should include a short biography at the end, adhere to the guidelines and use the appropriate article template available on our website.
Suggested topics (not limited to):
• The Law/Crime in art/literature
• Fraud, Plagiarism, Piracy
• Scandal and censorship
• The Secret Service/Spies
• Crime and celebrity
• Historical Mysteries
• Villains: Real and Fictional
• History of Crime and the law
• Codes, censorship, enigmas,
• Language as concealment
• Philosophy of Crime
• Theft of Language/Rights
• Crime remembered/imagined
• Topographies of Crime
• Gendered/Sexual Crime
• Concealing identity
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Modern Languages, History, Archaeology, Comparative Literature, Music, and 22 morePhilosophy, Classics, English Literature, Sound and Image, Theology, Film Studies, Film Music And Sound, Silent Film, Silence, Sound, Sound archives, History of Art, Narrative silence, History of music, Sound Art, Silence in literature, Poetics of Silence, Silent Cinema, Silence Studies, Arts and Humanities, Interactive / Reactive Sculpture, Sound Sculptures, Installation Art, Video Art, Live Video Mixing, Motion tracking, HCI, Interactive / Reactive Lighting, and Film Sound Theory
Research Interests: Modern Languages, History, Archaeology, Music History, Music Theory, and 14 morePhilosophy, Classics, Art History, Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Film Theory, Death Studies, Literature, Interdisciplinarity, Death & Dying (Thanatology), Medical Humanities, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Death and Burial (Archaeology), and Memorials and the Memorial Art-Work in the Public Arena
This module introduces short fiction by a range of writers from across the world, from the well-known to the cult writer. Each week close readings of a small selection of stories will be considered alongside theoretical and critical... more
This module introduces short fiction by a range of writers from across the world, from the well-known to the cult writer. Each week close readings of a small selection of stories will be considered alongside theoretical and critical perspectives on the genre – often essays by short story writers themselves. The selection will offer the widest range of modes possible including realism, fantasy and magic realism, fairy tales, ghost/horror stories and detective fiction. The unit will draw on, and may have particular relevance to, parallel work with reading groups in practice-based units on literature and community engagement.
Research Interests:
This blog post is one of two posts (part 2 will appear later in the year) on "Stranger Danger" campaigns as a means to protect children's sexuality; particularly the public service announcement including the Charley Says cartoons in... more
This blog post is one of two posts (part 2 will appear later in the year) on "Stranger Danger" campaigns as a means to protect children's sexuality; particularly the public service announcement including the Charley Says cartoons in Britain and Sid Davies productions in America.
Notches (re)marks on the History of Sexuality was launched in January 2014 in order to get people inside and outside the academy thinking about sex and sexualities in the past and in the present. It has a number of regular contributors, who consider the history of sexuality in its broadest sense: the way it is connected to the history of gender, society, politics, economies, and cultures, and the way it informs current issues. We are connected with the Raphael Samuel History Centre, which is devoted to encouraging the widest possible participation in historical research and debate, and our goal is to create a blog that is accessible, inclusive, relevant, entertaining, and intellectually engaged.
Notches (re)marks on the History of Sexuality was launched in January 2014 in order to get people inside and outside the academy thinking about sex and sexualities in the past and in the present. It has a number of regular contributors, who consider the history of sexuality in its broadest sense: the way it is connected to the history of gender, society, politics, economies, and cultures, and the way it informs current issues. We are connected with the Raphael Samuel History Centre, which is devoted to encouraging the widest possible participation in historical research and debate, and our goal is to create a blog that is accessible, inclusive, relevant, entertaining, and intellectually engaged.
Research Interests:
This post arrives in the aftermath of Shirley Temple's death to consider that the potential sexualisation of her as a child star would not merely be a re-reading by current society, but was considered by critics such as Graham Greene who... more
This post arrives in the aftermath of Shirley Temple's death to consider that the potential sexualisation of her as a child star would not merely be a re-reading by current society, but was considered by critics such as Graham Greene who were contemporary to the child star.
Notches: (re)marks on the History of Sexuality was launched January 2014 in order to get people inside and outside the academy thinking about sex and sexualities in the past and in the present. It has a number of regular contributors, who consider the history of sexuality in its broadest sense: the way it is connected to the history of gender, society, politics, economies, and cultures, and the way it informs current issues. We are connected with the Raphael Samuel History Centre, which is devoted to encouraging the widest possible participation in historical research and debate, and our goal is to create a blog that is accessible, inclusive, relevant, entertaining, and intellectually engaged. My regular contributions relate to the history of Childhood Sexuality.
Notches: (re)marks on the History of Sexuality was launched January 2014 in order to get people inside and outside the academy thinking about sex and sexualities in the past and in the present. It has a number of regular contributors, who consider the history of sexuality in its broadest sense: the way it is connected to the history of gender, society, politics, economies, and cultures, and the way it informs current issues. We are connected with the Raphael Samuel History Centre, which is devoted to encouraging the widest possible participation in historical research and debate, and our goal is to create a blog that is accessible, inclusive, relevant, entertaining, and intellectually engaged. My regular contributions relate to the history of Childhood Sexuality.
Research Interests:
This post considers records from the Old Bailey concerning sexual offences against minors, and questions our insistence that concern for such issues is a post-Victorian phenomenon. Notches (re)marks on the History of Sexuality was... more
This post considers records from the Old Bailey concerning sexual offences against minors, and questions our insistence that concern for such issues is a post-Victorian phenomenon.
Notches (re)marks on the History of Sexuality was launched in January 2014 in order to get people inside and outside the academy thinking about sex and sexualities in the past and in the present. It has a number of regular contributors, who consider the history of sexuality in its broadest sense: the way it is connected to the history of gender, society, politics, economies, and cultures, and the way it informs current issues. We are connected with the Raphael Samuel History Centre, which is devoted to encouraging the widest possible participation in historical research and debate, and our goal is to create a blog that is accessible, inclusive, relevant, entertaining, and intellectually engaged.
Notches (re)marks on the History of Sexuality was launched in January 2014 in order to get people inside and outside the academy thinking about sex and sexualities in the past and in the present. It has a number of regular contributors, who consider the history of sexuality in its broadest sense: the way it is connected to the history of gender, society, politics, economies, and cultures, and the way it informs current issues. We are connected with the Raphael Samuel History Centre, which is devoted to encouraging the widest possible participation in historical research and debate, and our goal is to create a blog that is accessible, inclusive, relevant, entertaining, and intellectually engaged.
Research Interests:
Review written for the Edwardian Culture Network, and published in September 2014.
Research Interests:
Review written for Volume 4, Issue 1, of Monsters and the Monstrous. Published late 2014.
Research Interests:
As a researcher it is your job to bring new knowledge to the world, however it isn't always clear when or how you should go about sharing this knowledge with others. This seminar provides an opportunity to hear from a panel of experts... more
As a researcher it is your job to bring new knowledge to the world, however it isn't always clear when or how you should go about sharing this knowledge with others.
This seminar provides an opportunity to hear from a panel of experts as they discuss the reasons for promoting research and present their own perspectives and experiences on using a variety of channels from online platforms and social media to publishing papers and journal articles. Each panelist will give a short presentation followed by a Q&A session.
I discussed the benefits of publishing in postgraduate and early career journals and more generally the road to publishing academic articles.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/doctoral-college/events/2015/outputurl-169204-en.html
This seminar provides an opportunity to hear from a panel of experts as they discuss the reasons for promoting research and present their own perspectives and experiences on using a variety of channels from online platforms and social media to publishing papers and journal articles. Each panelist will give a short presentation followed by a Q&A session.
I discussed the benefits of publishing in postgraduate and early career journals and more generally the road to publishing academic articles.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/doctoral-college/events/2015/outputurl-169204-en.html
The inaugural Open Access Week event at the University of Bristol took place on Friday 24th October 2014. Titled Generation Open, the event featured a range of speakers, based at the University, who shared first hand their experiences of... more
The inaugural Open Access Week event at the University of Bristol took place on Friday 24th October 2014. Titled Generation Open, the event featured a range of speakers, based at the University, who shared first hand their experiences of how Open Access has helped them in their work.
My presentation discussed HARTS & Minds - why we started the journal, how it is open access and why.
http://data.bris.ac.uk/open-access-week-2014/
My presentation discussed HARTS & Minds - why we started the journal, how it is open access and why.
http://data.bris.ac.uk/open-access-week-2014/