Gothic limits / Gothic Ltd

10th Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association

University of Heidelberg, Germany

2nd - 5th August 2011

Recent Gothic studies have increasingly looked into problems associated with the idea of delimitation, both in terms of material and media. This leads to the two sets of questions implied in this conference's title: Where are the limits of the 'classic' Gothic tradition? Where have these limits been reached or even transgressed? Can one speak about a 'post-Gothic mode'? What, if anything, is capable of replacing the Gothic? The second set of questions is prompted by the commercialisation and commodification of an increasingly romanticised Gothic and its diffusion among different media and modes: Is the Gothic dependent on 'literature'? Are there media-specific 'Gothics'? Which intermedial and intermodal forms are there? In other words, we are interested in all phenomena where the Gothic shades off into something else: cross-over genres, mash-ups, parodies, post-modern Gothic, Candy Gothic, the currently ubiquitous vampires, Gothic mangas, blogs, computer and role-playing games as well as more traditional literary formats that contest the range and concerns of the Gothic.

Papers which explore any aspect of Gothic limits in fiction, film, and other media are welcome.

Topics which could be explored, although not limited to, include:

• Gothic origins.
• Enlightenment Gothic.
• Romanticism and the Gothic.
• Defining the Victorian Gothic.
• Genre/mode .
• Romance and Realism.
• Gothic Science/Science and the Gothic.
• Liminality.
• Domestic Gothic.
• The national limits of Gothic.
• Gothic media.
• Gothic spaces.
• Theme parks.
• Neo-Gothic.
• Games.
• Modernism and postmodernism.
• Cartoons.
• The Goth.
• Selling the Gothic/Sell out Gothic.

Abstracts (350 words max.) for 20 minute papers may be submitted to www.gothic.unitt.de from November 1st, 2010. The submission deadline is January 10th, 2011.

Queries and earlier submissions may be sent to: ellen.redling@as.uni-heidelberg.de.

We also welcome submissions for panels (consisting of three papers) which address specific topics.