'The Gothic North' Symposium chaired by Dr Linnie Blake also including 'Horror: A Literary History' book launch and wine reception

In the year in which Manchester recognises the Gothic dimensions of the city in a programme of thrilling Halloween events (for which we are happy to take some credit), the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies continues to go from strength to strength. We are delighted to welcome the distinguished academic Professor Dale Townshend and the hugely talented novelist Andrew Michael Hurley as new members of staff at Manchester Met and new members of the Centre. Both will make a great contribution to our work and to future Gothic Manchester Festivals.

So, in keeping with our reputation for Gothic excellence in the fast-beating heart of the North, we are proud to present the fourth annual conference of the Gothic Manchester Festival – an event that explores the contribution made to the Gothic mode by places, people and things northern. Presentations range from the Lancashire witches to West Yorkshire’s dark satanic mills, from Doom Metal, northern Goth music and Gothic subcultures to horror poetics, from Nordic vampires to the Hull werewolf and from the frozen landscapes of the north to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Presenting their work are creative writers and PhD students, early career researchers and internationally recognised specialists in their fields. All are committed to giving exciting and accessible papers of interest to anyone who wants to know more about the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of the northern world and manifests itself in stories and novels, films, television programmes, poetry, music and more. As ever, no specialist knowledge is needed but an interest in the grimness of the Gothic north is essential.

The symposium will finish at 6pm and be followed by the book launch of 'Horror: A Literary History', a wine reception and another fantastic cake creation from Conjurors Kitchen

Full schedule:

8.30 - 9.00: Registration

9.00: Opening Remarks

9.10 – 10.45: Panel One: Welcome to the Gothic North

Dr Barry Murnane:“The Freezing North. Creating Gothic Posthumans in Sheffield”

Anna Chilvers:“The Dark Satanic Mills of West Yorkshire”

Dr Chloé Buckley: “The Haunted Moors: Spectral Psychogeography in Jeremy Dyson’s The Haunted Book and Chris Lambert’s Tales from the Black Meadow” 

Andrew McInnes: “The North in Northanger Abbey”

10.45 – 11.10: Coffee

11.10 – 12.45: Panel Two: Music & Poetry

Dr Jennifer Richards: "Vision Thing – The Influence of Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy & Joy Division in the Northern Goth music scene"

M Selim Yafuz: “’A Cruel Taste of Winter:’ Gothic/Doom Metal as an Act of Northernness”

Tim Synystyr: “Dark Satanic Music: Gothic Sound, Subculture and the North of England”

Jon Greenaway & Martin Kratz:“Slicing the Skin: Exposing the Flesh: Horror Poetics in Robin Robertson”                              

12.45 – 1.45: Lunch (own arrangements)

1.45 – 3.00: Panel Three: Pendle and Environs

Dr Anna Powell: “Wild and Strange: Locating Sorcery in The Lancashire Witches” 

Dr Catherine Spooner: “Get Your Kicks on the A666: Tourism, Psychogeography and the Lancashire Witches”

Dr Carys Crossen: “’The North is the Dark Place’: Gender, Witchcraft and Lancashire Gothic in Mist over Pendle and The Daylight Gate”

3.00 – 3.15: Break

3.15 – 4.30: Panel Four: Gender & Sexuality

Evan Hayles Gledhill: “Power Stations & Patriarchy: Regional Gothic in the Red Riding Trilogy and True Detective”

Rachel Hughes: “Anathemas of Masculinity: Man-Made Bodies in Frankenstein and Barry Hines’ Miners’ Strike Screen Plays”

Dr Amy C. Chambers & Hannah J. Elizabeth: “It’s Grimm up North: Domestic Obscenity, Assimilation Anxiety, and Medical Salvation in BBC 3’s In the Flesh”

4.30 – 4.45: Break

4.45 – 6.00: Panel Five: Gothic Figures & Fantasies

Dr Sam George: “Wolves in the Wolds: The Wyrd Case of ‘Old Stinker’ the Hull Werewolf”

Dr Bill Hughes: “Boreal Magic: Snow Queens, Frozen Landscapes and Restoring Equilibrium in Paranormal Romance”

Marine Galiné: “Nordic Wilderness, Contamination & Urban Monsters: the Gothic Stance of Let the Right One In.”

6.00: Closing Remarks & Wine Reception, Book launch for 'Horror, A Literary History'

This will be followed by a free film screening of Sightseers with presented by Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn with special guests tbc. Please book your ticket and find out more details HERE

This event is part of the Gothic Manchester Festival at Manchester Metropolitan University. For more details and for the full event schedule please go to the Festival Website