From natural to synthetic, from accidental to administered, poison is entangled with our human history, and its presence has a lot to say about not only our customs and laws, but also our ways of storytelling. Poison likes to adapt itself to situation: the definition of what poison even ‘is’ changes according to time and place, and to the cultural groups and sub-groups that are being consulted. Poison is malleable, mutating, and culturally slippery.  In its ability to conquer the imagination, poison is a crafty narrative weaver. From Shakespeare’s plays to Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Eco’s The Name of the Rose, from iconic cinematic examples such The Princess Bride to global phenomena such as J.K. Rowling’s famed Harry Potter series, from fan-favorites such as the Zelda game franchise and Batman comics' Poison Ivy, and all the way to recent popular television series such as The Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones, poison maintains a particular hold on our narratives – and popular culture in particular – via a variety of historical echoes and cultural perceptions.   

In answer to poison’s representational malleability, this volume investigates the well-known conceptualisation of poison in popular culture as connected to evolving ideas of 'deviousness', 'insidiousness' ‘and ‘usefulness’, and how this emerges in a variety of culturally informed global and transnational narratives – from literature to film, from television to comics, from anime to children’s cartoons, and beyond. This book understands poison not only as a physical entity, but also as an idea, connected to our identities. Poison will be explored in its metaphorical uses, and as a matter of cultural psychology as well. While bearing in mind historical connections and influences, the focus of this collection is on Twentieth- and Twenty-first century popular culture.  

The volume is contracted to Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Representations of poison in film, literature, television, anime, games, manga, comics, and beyond
• Poison as weapon
• Poison and witchcraft
• Poison and eco-environmental criticism
• Poison and notions of beauty
• Poison, treachery, betrayal, and acts of revenge
• Poison and ideas of villainy 
• Poison and medicine
• Poison and spy/war narratives
• Poison and genre (from detective fiction to horror and beyond)
• Poison and fairy tale narratives
• Poison and children’s literature and media
• Poison, race, and ethnicity (including Indigenous discourses)
• The ‘look’ of poison (skull iconographies, colors, and beyond)
• Representations of ‘the poisoned and poisoners’
• Poison and gender
• Poison and food

Abstracts should be around 300 words. Full chapters will be 6-7000 words in length.

The extended deadline for submission of abstracts is 12 November 2023.

Please email your abstracts (together with a short bio, 100 words max) for consideration to the editor:

Professor Lorna Piatti-Farnell, lorna.pfarnell@gmail.com