This interdisciplinary conference will explore the transformations undergone by the Gothic genre since its inception. It will discuss and analyse the development and mutation of the genre on aesthetic, thematic and linguistic levels. The trajectory of Gothic literature encompasses the dynamics of continuity and discontinuity as two defining features of the genre. In fact, the transition from Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, the first Gothic fiction that set the conventions of the genre, to Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Dracula, and then to modern and postmodern Gothic genres (poetry, fiction, films) entails the revival and the introduction of new Gothic tropes.

he exploration of the darker side of Man in Classic Gothic is manifested through the fear of the villain, the deprecation of monstrosity and a painstaking struggle for survival. In modern and postmodern Gothic, it is transformed into a psychological crisis, a willingness to face one’s otherness or monstrosity and a struggle against transgression and socio-political power structures.

Though it dates back to ancient times, the Gothic is still relevant in (post)modern thought. Portraying women as passive, helpless and distressed, and delving into the inner lives of women, addressing issues such as domestic confinement, hysteria, and the monstrous feminine this genre fits in with feminist theories and the discussion of female agency. Similarly, the Gothic fascination with the exotic and the monstrous can be echoed in colonial anxieties about the 'Other'. Also, the decaying mansion or the haunted castle becomes a site of resistance against imperial authority in which power dynamics are interrogated and subverted. Focussing on the liminal, the hybrid, and the monstrous and challenging rigid boundaries between human and non-human, self and other, the Gothic resonates with postmodernist and posthumanist critiques of anthropocentrism and fixed identities.

In addition to plenary papers by guest speakers, this international conference invites researchers to deliver 20-minute talks in which they revisit and reassess the genrethrough modern literary theories, culture studies and scientific findings.

opics can include, but are not restricted to:

• Gothic Adaptations
• Performance of the Gothic
• The Gothic and Psychoanalysis
• Medical Gothic
• The Ghostly and the Paranormal
• The Gothic and Tourism
• The Gothic and Cartoons
• The Gothic and Science Fiction
• The Gothic and Feminism
• The Gothic and Race
• The Gothic and Historiography
• The Gothics and Hermeneutics
• The Gothic and Anthropology
• The Gothic and Politics
• Transgression in Gothic films
• Survival in Gothic Horror Video Games
• Identity in Gothic Fiction or Films
• Survival in Gothic Horror Video Games
• Identity in Gothic Fiction or Films
• Teaching the Gothic
• Translation of the Gothic
• Characteristics of the Gothic Language
• Gothic Discourse(s)
• GothicSub-culture
• The Gothic and Media Studies
• The Gothic in Paintings
• The Gothic and Fashion
• The Gothic and War
• The New Forms/Manifestations/Questions of the Gothic
• The Gothic and Artificial Intelligence
• The Gothic and Identity

Email: gothicconference2024@gmail.com