The Gothic

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project seeks to engage and explore the cultural significance and enduring narratives within the realm of the Gothic in culture at large. From its literary and historical roots to its (post)modern incarnations as a cultural subgenre present in popular fiction and film, this project seeks to explore the territories of the Gothic in all of its manifestations.

The project will explore and assess a number of core themes:

• Classic Gothic Literature and its resurgence
• The Gothick
• Gothic Culture(s) as a living experience/ethos
• Gothic Media (Cinema, Television, Games, Graphic Novels, Role Playing)
• Gothic Music
• Misrepresenting the Gothic
• Apocalyptic narratives
• Fashioning Bodies, styles and convention
• Modern and Postmodern paradigms (19^th, 20^th & 21^st century ‘Gothics’)
• Gothic and Horror Narratives
• Popular Culture
• Queer Gothic
• Scapegoating/ derision/ condemnation of the Gothic in culture
• The philosophy of ‘dark’ culture
• Geographical Gothic
• Gothic space; Gothic architecture
• Gender and Sexualities
• Contrasting the ‘emo’ and the ‘goth’

Related themes will also be identified for development and exploration. Out of our deliberations it is anticipated that a series of related cross context research projects will develop.