This weekend we’re joined by two great speakers. If you’d like to sign up for the classes (for free), you can do so here
On Saturday, we’re joined by Susanne Schwertfeger for a class on ‘Illustrating the ‘Gothic Canon’ – Between Adaption and Invention’
On Sunday 16th, we’re joined by Vicky Brewster to talk about “Gothic Social Media and the ‘Found Phone’ Trope”.
Jarlath Killeen refers to the ‘found document’ trope as “the cliché of the Gothic” (19), and while it is a trope that has haunted gothic works throughout the centuries, the beginning of the 21st century has prompted an evolution. This lecture explores the development from the ‘found document’ in novels, to ‘found footage’ cinema, and in contemporary entertainment media texts increasingly, defining the new ‘found phone’ trope. It will propose reasons for these movements as increasing availability and accessibility of technology has encouraged Western society to move the sense of the self ‘online’. This can be seen in the transference of the physical person to social media, and the movement news media from the studio to the smart device. It will explore how ‘found phone’ has allowed the trope to move to multiple forms of entertainment media, rather than being limited to a single mode, analysing these different forms and the ways and reasons for their use of (gothic) social media. The lecture will then focus on an example of ‘found phone’ literature, Jason Arnopp’s Ghoster (2019), paying attention to close textual analysis, as well as the graphic choices made within the book and its cover. Ghoster uses updated classic gothic tropes, such as photography, the uncanny, and hyperreality, situating these tropes within the smart device, thereby updating classic gothic for the 21st century.
Romancing the Gothic 