As Lisa Kroger reminds us in The Gothic Wild (2009), the landscape is more than a trope in Gothic literature. Descriptions of built and natural environments often convey an array of moods, highlight character development, capture political or social turmoil, and much more besides. Staples of the mode, castles, graveyards and churches typically host major and even concluding scenes. We associate caves, dungeons and asylums with nefarious subplots, difficult themes, or abandoned characters. Sublime mountains, perilous seas, or darkened forests delight and terrify us in equal measure. Isolated or over-populated, rural or urban, expansive or all-consuming, Gothic environments remain central to our reading experience.

Our June seminar explores a range of Gothic environments from the eighteenth century to the present day. We will begin with the seascapes of Radcliffe, Smith and Shelley, before traversing deathscapes in French writing, and then exploring Lydia Millett’s climate-change literature.

Speakers

Joan Passey (University of Bristol), "Instant death on ev'ry wave appears": The Gothic Seascapes of Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Smith, and Mary Shelley

Christie Margrave (University of East Anglia), Deathscapes in Early Nineteenth-Century French Women's Writing

Ruth Bienstock Anolik (Villanova University), Out of the Castle, into the Storm: Lydia Millett's Climate-change Gothic

About us:

Gothic Women is an ongoing, collaborative project supported by the British Association for Romantic Studies (BARS), building to an in-person conference in 2023. Find out more on our website, including information on our previous events, here: https://gothicwomenproject.wordpress.com/

Our logo, designed by Melanie Bonsey (University of Sheffield), is inspired by Valperga, Mary Shelley’s second full-length novel, published in 1823. Bonsey uses the image of the sprig of myrtle, an important symbol in this book, a work of historical fiction set in early fourteenth-century Italy.