Catherine Spooner’s Keynote Address

Dr Catherine Spooner shall be delivering the keynote address entitled:

Women in White: (Un)dressing the Gothic Heroine

Keynote abstract:

Edith’s elaborate white nightgowns in Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015) deliberately position her in a long line of Gothic heroines. The white dress has become an iconic garment in Gothic cinema: from Miss Havisham’s wedding dress, to Rebecca’s ball gown, to the Bride of Frankenstein’s shroud, to the white nightgowns of Hammer’s female vampires. Embedding the white dress of Gothic cinema in the literary Gothic tradition and the history and theory of fashion, this paper will explore the multiple ways it signifies: as revolutionary undress, as symbol of conspicuous consumption, as spectral garment and as Gothic anachronism. It will argue that the white dress is simultaneously an over-determined garment and a blank page on which the story of the heroine’s body is told. As such, it is not only a reiteration of the past but offers the possibility of stories being written anew.

 

Conference programme is announced

The conference programme is now available to view: https://gothicfeminism.wordpress.com/conference-programme/

Registration is now open and will close on Wednesday 18th May 2016.

To register, please go to: http://store.kent.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&deptid=26&catid=158&prodvarid=207&searchresults=1

Gothic Feminism: The Representation of the Gothic Heroine in Cinema

26-27^th May 2016

Keynes College, University of Kent

 PROGRAMME

 Thursday 26^th May

09:00 – 09:30              Registration  (Keynes Atrium, Keynes College)

09:30 – 11:00              Keynote Speech – Catherine Spooner (University of Lancaster): ‘Women in White: (Un)dressing the Gothic Heroine’ (Keynes Lecture Theatre 2, Keynes College)

11:00 – 11:30              Tea & coffee break (Keynes Atrium)

11:30 – 13:00              Papers 1: Return to Manderley (KLT2)

‘Against Fate and Paranoia: The Risk Assessor Heroine in The Second Woman (1950)’ – Guy Barefoot (University of Leicester)

‘Rebecca and The Haunting: Comparisons of a Gothic Protagonist’ – Johanna Wagner (Høgskolen i Østfold)

‘Impossible Spaces: Gothic Special Effects and Female Subjectivity’ – Christina Petersen (Eckerd College)

13:00 – 14:00              Lunch (Keynes Atrium)

14:00 – 15:30              Papers 2: Unexpected Locations (KLT2)

‘New Films in Gothic Mode: Pale Imitations or Crimson Peaks of Achievement?’ – Tamar Jeffers McDonald (University of Kent)

‘Bluebeard in the Cities: Investigative Gothic Heroines in Two Early 21^st Century Films’ – Lawrence Jackson (University of Kent)

‘The Gothic Heroine Out West: A Town Called Bastard (1971)’ – Lee Broughton (University of Leeds)

15:30 – 16:00              Tea & coffee break (Keynes Atrium)

16:00 – 17:30              Videographic Work  (TBC) (KLT2)

17:30 – 18:30              Cake reception

 

Friday 27^th May

09:30 – 11:00              Papers 3: Small Screens (KLT2)

‘There’s a secret behind the door? And that secret is me? The Gothic Reimagining of Agatha Christie’s And There Were None’ – Katerina Flint-Nicol (University of Kent)

‘Laughing at Periods: Gothic Parody in Julia Davis’ Hunderby – Sarah McClellan (Independent Researcher)

‘Bluebeard’s Women Fight Back’ – Gisèle M. Baxter (University of British Columbia)

11:00 – 11:30              Tea & coffee break (Keynes Atrium)

11:30 – 13:00              Papers 4: Mothers (KLT2)

‘The Science-Fiction of Feminism: Ripley as a Gothic Heroine in the Alien Franchise’ – Frances A. Kamm (University of Kent)

‘The Babadook, Maternal Gothic and the ‘woman’s horror film’’ – Paula Quigley (Trinity College Dublin)

‘Good Evening, Good Night: Goodnight Mommy and the Gothic Woman’ – Lies Lanckman (University of Kent)

13:00 – 14:00              Lunch (Keynes Atrium)

14:00 – 15:30              Papers 5: Beyond Hollywood (KLT2)

‘‘Dammit’ Janet!!!! Celebrating Female Sexuality in The Rocky Horror Picture Show Live Experience’ – Sarah Cleary (Trinity College Dublin)

‘East German Gothic’ – Dana Weber (Florida State University/ Freie Universität Berlin)

‘Imperilled Chavs and Hoodie Heroines: (Under)Class, Gender and the Gothic’ – Hannah Priest (Manchester Metropolitan University/Swansea University)

15:30 – 16:00              Tea & coffee break (Keynes Atrium)

16:00 – 16:30              Final remarks (KLT2)

 

 

Registration is now open!

Registration is now open and will close on Wednesday 18th May 2016.

To register, please go to: http://store.kent.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&deptid=26&catid=158&prodvarid=207&searchresults=1

The conference fee is £20 (waged) and £10 (student/unwaged).

The conference fee includes lunch and tea and coffee breaks on both days.

Further information on travelling to Kent, and some useful links, can be found here: https://gothicfeminism.wordpress.com/travelling-to-kent/

For any queries please contact: gothicfeminism2016@gmail.com

We look forward to welcoming you to Kent!