University of Warwick 21—22 March 2019

Tales of Terror: Gothic, Horror, and Weird Short Fiction took place 21-22

March 2019 at the University of

Warwick. There were 48 presenting delegates, an additional ten attendees, and two keynote speakers; Dr Melissa

Edmundson from Clemson University, talking about her work recovering the lost works of female short-story

writers and Prof. Roger Luckhurst of Birkbeck on the history and theory of the Gothic fragment.

The speakers were arts and humanities scholars at various stages of their careers, both independent and affiliated,

and travelled to us from across the UK, and internationally from the United States, Greece, Taiwan, Belgium,

Mexico, the Ukraine, Italy, Poland. As well as traditional panels, the conference also offered a Roundtable

featuring representatives from the British Library’s publishing division, and two independent publishers Hic

Dragones and Ars Nocturna – a Greek company. This was particularly well-received, as it involved not only a

discussion of the market, but also of how each got involved in this area as a career. Other panels included a

conversation with the producers and actors in the independent acclaimed theatre show Providence: Shadow over

Lovecraft about the staging process, a pre-recorded analysis of the interactive gamebook Evermore: The Choose

Your Own Edgar Allan Poe Adventure by its creator, and three original short stories from alumni/current

students of Warwick’s Writing Programme. A short-story competition was also held with prizes donated by the

keynotes.

The twitter presence was extremely strong as indicated by the storyboard below, and the glowing conference

reports from our four IGA bursary recipients (see end of document) attest to the excellent and invigorating

networks established over the two days. As a consequence of the success, I will lead a Guest Edition on this topic

in the leading journal Gothic Studies open to the wider academic field, and due to be published late 2021.

My thanks to the International Gothic Association, Warwick’s Humanities Research Centre, and the department

of English and Comparative Literary Studies, for the generous and much-needed sponsorship.

Dr Jen Baker

#TalesofTerror

DAY ONE

Periodicals, Publishing, and the Gothic Market

Queering Gender and Sexuality

Poe-tic Adaptations: Film & Interactive games

Creative & Critical Adaptations: Theatre

ROUNDTABLE: Publishing Houses, Preservation, Translation

The Gothic Girls: Creative and Critical

Disturbed and Diseased Imaginations

Re-Evaluating Shirley Jackson

Monstrous Fairytales

Keynote

The post-dinner late-night partyers…

DAY TWO

(Dis)

Embodiment

Re-Evaluating the Weird

Liminal States

GLOBAL GOTHIC

REGIONAL HORRORS

Haunted Bios & the Ficto-critical

The SOUNDS of TERROR

Gothic EPHEMERA & the DIGITAL

Short-story competition

Keynote

The end…? ---

CONFERENCE REVIEWS courtesy of our IGA Bursary Recipients

Tracy Hayes,

Hardy and Poe Scholar.

This was only the second Gothic-themed conference that I have attended, and it was a genuinely fantastic

experience. Dr Jen Baker put together an excellent programme which literally had something to offer for

everyone, regardless of which stage each delegate was at in their studies or academic career. Both keynotes – Dr

Melissa Edmundson on women writers and the Colonial Gothic, and Professor Roger Luckhurst on the

versatility of punctuation for effect/affect in Gothic texts – were fascinating and informative in their very different

themes and how they were treated. Dr Edmundson brought to our attention authors many of us had never heard

of before but now very much wish to discover for ourselves, and Professor Luckhurst provided extremely

entertaining examples of author verbosity versus author effect. Another very enjoyable feature of the conference

was the roundtable discussion on publishing houses, preservation and translation. The challenges faced by small

independent publishers to resurrect forgotten works and authors of the nineteenth century, the decision-making

process involved in how an obscure or little-known story is chosen for collection in an anthology, and the multiple

problems involved in the translation of tales not just written in a second language, but in a very time-specific

language, while retaining the original nuances and colour were all discussed to great effect and proved a very

insightful experience for all delegates. The sheer diversity of the panel presentations was a delight, with platforms

provided for queer Gothic, colonial Gothic, regional Gothic and Eastern European Gothic. Aurality, the Weird,

and re-evaluations of prominent author's works provided new and interesting considerations of how the Gothic

may be read, including what actually makes a Gothic story Gothic! A particular highlight for me was a session

devoted to televisual, short film and game adaptations of the works of Poe. I had never previously seen a Jan

Svankmajer production in its entirety, and it was one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had! And the

sheer complexity and brilliance of Adam Whybray's gameplay creation Evermore was mindblowing!

My own research focusses on Gothic masculinity in the short stories of Poe, Hardy, and M.R. James, and it

was an absolute pleasure to hear numerous papers on both Poe and James, all providing me with food for

thought. I was given many new insights into the creative processes of these two authors and the various ways

their stories may be interpreted, and privileged to be able to participate in discussions and conversations

afterwards with like-minded students and academics. Constructive criticism abounded, all opinions were voiced

and heard, and nobody was judged, I've never met so many wonderfully open-minded and friendly people at a

conference before. My paper was very positively received, and I was fully encouraged to further develop ideas

which at this stage are in their infancy. This conference was an astonishing achievement, single-handedly

providing a monumental experience for a very diverse community of scholars!

Daria Denisova,

Student of the Weird, Institute of Literature, National Academy of Science of Ukraine

On March 21-22, Warwick University welcomed a bunch of brilliant people bound together by an interest in

Gothic, Horror, and Weird Short Fiction. @TerrorTalesof burst out in hundreds of tweets to set the

wonders of the conference in incorporeal computer code – a ghost of the many Tales of Terror.

True to the nature of its subject, akin to a Chinese puzzle (James Machin), “Tales of Terror” assembled and

examined the many pieces that shape gothic, horror, and weird short fiction.

The papers touched upon various salient issues of the genre: the enlightening potential of craving for

knowledge and sensation (Sarah Sharp, Manon Labrande, Camilla Schroeder), modern anxieties (Daria

Denisova), liminal stages (Daniel Pieterson), ecocritical concerns (Antonio Alcalá González, Gry Ulstein),

worldview projections (Oliver Rendle), and regional variations of the tales (Martha McGill, Joan Passey,

Helena Bacon and Adam Whybray, Agnieszka Łowczanin).

Loud and clear came out the questions of sexuality and gender as a Gothic concern in the papers of Evan

Hayles Gledhill, Kevin Corstorphine, Sandra Mills, Robert Lloyd, Maria Giakaniki. Dr Edmundson’s

research and presentation mediated the voices of the women writers of the colonial gothic short stories

(Margery H. Lawrence, Alice Perrin, Mary Fortune) who were eclipsed by the celebrated male authors of

the time.

Although the primary focus was literary texts, the conference also explored the multimodal dimensions of

gothic, horror, and weird short fiction in its relation to theatre (Simon Maeder, Dominic Allen), film and

gaming (Adam Whybray, Caitlin Jauncey), art (Neil Weaving), dancing and music (Tracy Hayes), and

sounds as affects (Maria Parrino, Jimmy Packham).

“Tales of Terror” concluded with Prof Luckhurst’s dash--ing keynote on incompleteness as the hallmark of

the Gothic genre and its use of fragments, ellipsis, and dashes.

Despite the disturbing subject matter, the overall atmosphere of the conference could not have been more

cheerful, enthusiastic, and welcoming. The Zeeman building vibrated with the buzz of genuine

conversations, the flutter of the almost tangible ideas, laughter, and the tantalizing rustle of pages at the book

stalls (@BL_Publishing, @HicDragones).

On top of the stimulating presentations and discussions, everyone’s creative juices were set flowing by the

mini-gothic-story competition, eventually won by Daniel Pietersen (@pitersender) for the 50-word mini-saga

and Dominic Allen (@ProvidenceCult) for the 6-word story.

Except for the isolated case of the malevolent non-human intervention (a gang of thug geese trapping Prof

Luckhurst (@TheProfRog) on Warwick campus on the day of his key-note speech), the conference enjoyed

a smooth flow due to the efforts of Dr Jen Baker, the assisting @EnglishWarwick MAEL students, and all

the participants.

“Tales of Terror” has become a number-one event and an infinite source of inspiration for me. I would like

to thank the International Gothic Association (IGA) for supporting my participation in the conference with a

bursary to cover part of my travelling expenses and the conference fee. Thank you to Dr Jen Baker, the

IGA, Warwick’s Humanities Research Centre, the Department of English and Comparative Studies, and

everyone who dared to study the gothic and weird, cared to participate, and shared their insights at “Tales of

Terror.”

I will be looking back on those terrific two days with great fondness and pride at being part of this fantastic

event.

Maria Giakaniki,

Co-Founder and Editor or Ars Nocturna

I had both the pleasure and the honor to participate in Tales of Terror: Gothic, Horror and Weird Short

Fiction. From the very beginning, I considered this a very special initiative, since it was one of the very few

conferences/symposiums in the world of the Gothic (to my knowledge at least) that engaged exclusively with

the short form, which, as I tend to believe, is a bit neglected in comparison with other areas of gothic

scholarship.

I am glad to say that these were two very inspirational and fruitful days, with a great variety of authors, themes

and perspectives presented in detail; E. A. Poe, M.R. James and H.P Lovecraft were, naturally, the writers

mostly discussed by the speakers in general; also the tales of Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen and

Charles Dickens had their fair share in the presentations, while stories by contemporary authors like Ramsey

Campbell and China Mieville were also included in the conference. However, I’d like to lay particular

emphasis on the papers that referred to women’s uncanny and weird short stories: First of all, Melissa

Edmundson’s keynote introduced gothic colonial tales by mainly forgotten and neglected female writers of the

19th and early 20th

century and the way that these stories dealt with such social issues as female oppression; the

discussion that followed was very lively, focusing on how many worthy female writers of the gothic and the

ghost story have not been republished and how ghost story aficionados of such tales, but especially anthologists

and scholars, have to resort to old editions in order to unearth long-lost literary terror gems by women writers.

Other speakers also presented and discussed tales by female authors such as ‘The Cold Embrace‘ by Mary E.

Braddon which was part of Shona Evoy’s delightful paper on Disembodied Female Hands and the Victorian

Ghost Story which dealt with male guilt and female spectrality in eerie tales of the Victorian period; another

paper which focused on a 19th

century woman author of uncanny tales was Louise Benson James’s Hysterical

Bodies and the Corporeal Grotesque in Rhoda Broughton’s Ghost Stories, arguing that Broughton’s tales

depart from the stereotypical ghostly tales of other women authors of the same era by featuring not

disembodied but rather material female characters. Other women authors included in the conference were the

queen of gothic fairy tales Angela Carter with Chantal Chien-hui Hsu’s paper onWolfish Affinity and Female

Sexuality and the contemporary polish author Olga Tokarczuk with her uniquely bizarre stories which were

introduced by Agnieszka Lowczanin; furthermore, there was a special panel on American author Shirley

Jackson where Robert Lloyd and myself focused on her short stories regarding female ‘invisibility’ and

marginalization and the combination of the mundane with the bizarre, both key elements in Jackson’s works.

Apart from ladies’ ghostly and weird tales, I found rather pleasing and enlightening the papers of the Regional

Horrors panel and in particular Joan Passey’s paper onThe Cornish Ghost Story in the Long C19th which

considered at length the romanticization and the preservation of Cornwall’s historical past in ghostly tales; as

well asThe Lies of the Land: The Alluvial Formalities of Gothic East Anglia by Helena Bacon (co-written with

Adam Whybray), exploring the uncanny topography and spookiness of this particular area of England which

has inspired the classic stories of M.R. James. Another panel I particularly enjoyed, where the audience also

had the opportunity to relax and laugh, was the “Sounds of Terror”; the papers of this panel, presented by

Tracy Hayes, Maria Parrino, and Jimmy Packham, focused on the elements of dance and laughter in horror

tales by Poe, Thomas Hardy and M. R. James in a rather vivid and entertaining manner.

One of the highlights of the conference was the round table of the first day, where the audience had the

opportunity to come to direct contact with the world of publication of gothic and weird short stories. Jonny

Davidson from the British Library recommended their exciting series Tales of the Weird which is comprised

by thematic anthologies and short story collections; Hannah Kate from Hic-Dragones talked extensively about

her experience as a publisher of rare penny dreadfuls; and I had the pleasure to discuss the difficulties of

translating 19th

century uncanny fiction into the Greek language.

Overall, this was a very appealing event, an academic conference both informative and enjoyable. The

atmosphere was very friendly from the very start and the participants had lively and intriguing discussions

during the intervals between the presentations, while as familiarity increased with the end of the conference, we

decided to discuss all things gothic and horror with a pint of beer. Cheers!

Chantal Chien-hui Hsu

Graduate Student, National Chengchi University

This two-day conference was a gripping and delightful academic experience. What particularly enthralled me

was the panel on “The Sounds of Terror”—bringing together visual sensations and auditory effects: In

particular, Dr. Tracy Hayes’s paper examined the use of danse macabre in the works of Poe, Hardy and M. R.

James. She drew upon sources such as “The Masque of the Red Death”, which she deems danse macabre par

excellence, and the audio effect in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to illustrate the connectivity between the Poesque

perverseness and diabolic music. The discussions of musicality in tales of macabre is certainly an eye-opening

perspective for me, not to mention the subsequent lively discussions which interrogate the supposed

borderline between humanity and animality and debates that center upon the liminality of laughter and tears

(as one participant acutely observes, the former can sometimes be reactions to confusions).

Equally illuminating was the paper of my fellow presenter Silvia Storti on our panel “Monstrous Fairytales”,

which teased out the socio-cultural construction of “The Sleeping Beauty” motif, its perennial appeal to the

heterosexual male audience, and its potentially misogynist implications. As a longtime admirer of Edgar Allan

Poe’s works, I couldn’t resist associating such an archetype in fairy tales with the lifeless, pale women in those

narratives of bereavement, not to mention his “notorious” remark that “the death of a beautiful woman is

unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world”. More crucially, Storti underscored that the Sleeping

Beauties and Snow Whites in our history have been put on pedestal, while their realities and agency are often

ironically invisible. The paper raises significant questions still pertinent and urgent in our times: as much as we

are aware of the horror of feminine beauty standards, why are we as readers/viewers still fascinated by the

image of the flawless, passive, and submissive Angel in the House (along with all its modern variants and

reincarnations, of course)? What also comes under scrutiny is the social milieu that dictates “to be beautiful is

to be inhuman” and the reasons why female desire and sexuality almost always receives negative portrayal in

the convention of fairy tales.

Another highlight was the roundtable on the dilemmas faced by independent publishers, those who specialize

in niche genres (be it the weird, the Gothic, the dark, or the strange) in particular. Specifically, Maria Giakaniki

offered an insightful perspective that echoes the predicaments encountered by those who struggle to find

qualified translators in other countries. For instance, Victorian archaic verbiage has more than often been

misinterpreted at the hands of less experienced translators. Occasionally, a loss of ambience can also be

incurred by unfamiliarity with gothic aesthetics. This resonates with the conditions in my country, as academic

publications have encountered a deadlock in terms of matching works with appropriate translators. In this

respect, this roundtable offered invaluable suggestions regarding how we can work collaboratively to improve

the publishing career and engender substantial change.

Gothic- and horror-themed conferences or symposiums are very scarce in Taiwan, which is why I was really

honoured and thrilled to be a part of this international event. Massive thanks go to Dr. Baker for doing a

masterful job assembling like-minded people whose presentations investigate an extensive array of topics, and

for providing a forum for all the amazing participants who take “unserious literature” more than seriously. My

gratitude also goes to the people whose positive engagement and heartening feedback help sharpen the thesis

of my paper.