March Round Up

This month’s Romancing the Gothic theme was ‘Introductions to…’. We have a few of these months a year. It basically allows for a very open field of the types of topic people can suggest, but also that each week instead of a deep dive into the specifics of a particular text, we guarantee more of an overview. An Introduction, if you will! That doesn’t mean that the talks won’t be interesting or useful to people already familiar with the subject area, our speakers always bring their own research to the table!

This month’s series of talks really showed off something of the range of different topics and areas that Romancing the Gothic can encompass. We started with an investigation of famed American mystery author ‘Mary Roberts Rinehart’ from the early 20th century, moved onto a redefinition and interrogation of the ‘Urban Fantasy’ genre, pivoted to an exploration of gay pulps in the mid-20th century, and ended up with a talk by our resident scientist on Evolutionary Biology in Horror (this last talk is not publicly available but you have access if you signed up). While this month’s topics stuck to the 20th century and mostly American writers, it offered a great exploration of the really wide range of ways that the Gothic has spiralled off, evolved, developed, informed other genres and influenced a range of media up to the current day.

An Introduction to Mary Roberts Rinehart

We were joined by B. Rae Grosz (who almost has enough talks with us for a specialised playlist!) to talk about an author that was as famous as Agatha Christie in the States but who is relatively little known today. A prolific writer, our speaker couldn’t cover all her works in a mere hour so instead concentrated on particular themes and ideas in her writing. The main focus was on the depiction and exploration of Spiritualism. Spiritualism has come up a lot of the years at Romancing the Gothic as a key repeating trope particularly in Gothic and ghostly works written by women. I enjoyed our B. Rae Grosz’s exploration of Rinehart’s potential attitude and also the way in which her work allows us to explore some lesser known aspects of the 20th century spiritualism debates. For example, the fact that people kept suggesting telepathy as a natural and more rational solution to some of the supposed manifestations of mediumship! In book group, we read The Red Lamp by Rinehart and experienced first hand some of the author’s complex navigations of spiritualism, mediumship and scepticism. The book’s easily available to buy and some of Rinehart’s works have been reprinted in recent years. Do go check her out!

An Introduction to Urban Fantasy

We were joined by Stefan Ekman, author of Urban Fantasy: Exploring Modernity Through Magic, for this introduction to Urban Fantasy. It was a really fascinating consideration of what is actually at the root of urban fantasy, how we might understand it, and also how the city itself might well not be a vital component… For book group this week, we read Tail of the Blue Bird by Nii Ayikwei Parkes. It isn’t a book I’d want to put in the urban fantasy category as it works together a number of genres. However, the talk really illuminated what techniques and aspects of urban fantasy appear in the plot. It involves a mysterious disappearance/murder and contesting narratives folkloric and scientific to explain what has happened. Scientific modernity gives up on trying to win the conversation fairly comprehensively!

What are your favourite urban fantasy books (or books that overlap with or borrow aspects of urban fantasy?)

An Introduction to the Gay Gothic: Pioneers in a Haunted Tradition

We were joined by Justin Tate for this really fascinating talk on the ‘Gay Gothic’ (defined by Tate as books which are explicitly focused on out gay protagonists) in the 20th century. You’ll often hear it said that Gaywyck was the first gay Gothic romance (I’ve said it myself but have since been corrected!) but Tate takes us back into the world of mid-century gay pulp and presents a variety of other options. Unfortunately, none of these books (including Gaywyck) are widely available (if it all) and certainly not at an affordable price. I was lucky enough to read Gay Nights at Maldelangue, one of the subjects of the talk (thanks to Justin for access) which was a whole experience! Imagine gay Jane Eyre crossed with The Wicker Man crossed with the Christopher Lee classic The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism with a sprinkle of Live and Let Die and you’ll be on the right track. Because we didn’t have access to any of the books for our book group, we instead read Georgette Heyer’s The Great Roxhythe, which I have been threatening to make people read for years. An early work that was removed from print by Heyer herself, it is easily the queerest of her books. It’s set in the Restoration Court and it’s full of intrigue, yearning, self-betrayal and political shenanigans. I love it and it was a firm favourite with the book group who continue the trend of loving the Heyer books most people seem to hate! Not Gothic but worth a read!

It’s been a great month which has taken us in a host of different directions. April is bringing us back within a specific theme: ‘Folklore and Fear’. Do come join us if that’s your jam!

Find out more about upcoming classes here