Sam M George | University of Hertfordshire (original) (raw)
Books by Sam M George
Gramayre, 2022
Gramarye 22.2 OGOM Special Journal Issue on Fairies, developed from OGOM Gothic Fairies Conference
Early German Gothic cinema and the visual composition of monsters' 11:30-11:45 Break 11:45-12:25 ... more Early German Gothic cinema and the visual composition of monsters' 11:30-11:45 Break 11:45-12:25 Dr Sam George, Associate Professor of Research at the University of Hertfordshire and the Convener of the Open Graves, Open Minds Project 'Demonised outsiders: Pied Piper and Dracula myths in Nosferatu-the rat as vampiric totem animal' 12:25-13:05 Marcus Sedgwick, award-winning writer for young adults who explores Gothic themes of illness and mortality 'Cursed dirt: Contagion in Nosferatu and its ancestors' 13:05-13:35 Break 13:35-14:05 Nosferatu Reborn Prof. Ken Gelder, Professor of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, will respond to the speakers and give an overview of the significance of Nosferatu.
In the Company of Wolves , 2020
The Conversation March 29, 2019
The Vampyre, 1819
‘Some curious disquiet’: Polidori, the Byronic vampire, and its progeny A symposium for the bicen... more ‘Some curious disquiet’: Polidori, the Byronic vampire, and its progeny
A symposium for the bicentenary of The Vampyre 6-7 April 2019, Keats House, Hampstead
This symposium will trace Polidori’s bloodsucking progeny and his heritage of ‘curious disquiet’ in literature and other media. It is a return to the beginnings of the Open Graves, Open Minds Project, which began with a very successful conference on vampires in 2010 followed by an edited collection, Open Graves, Open Minds: Representations of Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to the Present Day, ed. by Sam George and Bill Hughes (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013) and the first special issue of Gothic Studies devoted to vampires (May 2013).
Guest speakers have been invited to share their research into the many variations on monstrosity and deadly allure spawned by Polidori’s seminal textual reincarnation of Byronic glamour. The delegates have been selected for their expertise in the Byronic, the Gothic, and the vampiric. The speakers are: Sir Christopher Frayling, Prof. Catherine Spooner, Prof. William Hughes, Dr Stacey Abbott, Dr Sue Chaplin, Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Prof. Nick Groom, Prof. Gina Wisker, Dr Sam George, Dr Bill Hughes, Dr Ivan Phillips, writer Marcus Sedgwick, and OGOM ECRs and doctoral students Dr Kaja Franck, Daisy Butcher, and Dr Jillian Wingfield.
A special issue of JECS 33.4 (2010) with a preface by Peter Singer featuring my article on women ... more A special issue of JECS 33.4 (2010) with a preface by Peter Singer featuring my article on women and entomology, pp. 487-505
Journal of Literature and Science 4.1 (2011)
Sam George's work on botany discussed by Martin Willis in Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism: ... more Sam George's work on botany discussed by Martin Willis in Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism: Literature and Science (Palgrave, 2015), pp. 154-155
List of papers and authors to be considered for inclusion in the book (scroll down below and use ... more List of papers and authors to be considered for inclusion in the book (scroll down below and use arrows to turn pages). The 'Open Graves, Open Minds' book will be edited by myself and published by Manchester University Press in 2012 on the eve of the centenary of Bram Stoker's death.
![Research paper thumbnail of Vampires and the Undead in Modern Culture, Gothic Studies Special Issue, ed. by Sam George and Bill Hughes [Final Contents List, Jan 2013]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/31554245/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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Papers by Sam M George
The Conversation , 2021
At first sight the current innocent idea of fairyland seems as far away from the shadowy realms o... more At first sight the current innocent idea of fairyland seems as far away from the shadowy realms of the dead, and yet there are many resemblances between them. Despite their wands and glitter, fairies have a dark history and surprisingly gothic credentials. So why did we lose our fear of fairies and how did they come to be associated with childhood?
The Conversation , 2020
What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 180... more What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 1800s which also contains America’s first vampire who is Black. It is also perhaps the first short story to advocate the emancipation of slaves, released 14 years before Lydia Child published An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, which is widely considered the first anti-slavery book.
The Conversation October 30th, 2020
What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 180... more What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 1800s which also contains America’s first vampire who is Black. It is also perhaps the first short story to advocate the emancipation of slaves, released 14 years before Lydia Child published An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, which is widely considered the first anti-slavery book.
Critical Quarterly 62.4 , 2020
This essay focusses on one yōkai, Amabie, a mer-monster from Japan's Edo period (1603–1868), who... more This essay focusses on one yōkai, Amabie, a mer-monster from Japan's Edo period (1603–1868), who is being revived to ward off the Covid-19 virus in 2020. I will argue that our understanding of crises is enhanced via the hybrid monsters they engender; here, I focus on the viral spread of the apotropaic image of Amabie via the internet. I also position Amabie as a Gothic artefact, though one which invites a revision of some of the approaches to monstrosity prevalent in Gothic studies.
Gothic Studies 21.1, 2019
British folklore reveals a history of werewolf sightings in places where there were once wolves. ... more British folklore reveals a history of werewolf sightings in places where there were once wolves. I draw on theories of the weird and the eerie and on the turbulence of England in the era of late capitalism in my analysis of the representation of werewolves in contemporary urban myths. Werewolves are deliberately excluded from Mark Fisher's notion of the 'weird', because they behave in a manner that is entirely expected of them. I contradict this by interrogating the werewolf as spectre wolf, bringing it within the realms of the weird. In examining the Hull Werewolf, I put forward the suggestion that he represents not only our belief in him as a wolf phantom, but our collective guilt at the extinction of an entire indigenous species of wolf. Viewed in this way, he can reawaken the memory of what humans did to wolves, and redeem the Big Bad Wolf of our childhood nightmares.
Gramayre, 2022
Gramarye 22.2 OGOM Special Journal Issue on Fairies, developed from OGOM Gothic Fairies Conference
Early German Gothic cinema and the visual composition of monsters' 11:30-11:45 Break 11:45-12:25 ... more Early German Gothic cinema and the visual composition of monsters' 11:30-11:45 Break 11:45-12:25 Dr Sam George, Associate Professor of Research at the University of Hertfordshire and the Convener of the Open Graves, Open Minds Project 'Demonised outsiders: Pied Piper and Dracula myths in Nosferatu-the rat as vampiric totem animal' 12:25-13:05 Marcus Sedgwick, award-winning writer for young adults who explores Gothic themes of illness and mortality 'Cursed dirt: Contagion in Nosferatu and its ancestors' 13:05-13:35 Break 13:35-14:05 Nosferatu Reborn Prof. Ken Gelder, Professor of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, will respond to the speakers and give an overview of the significance of Nosferatu.
In the Company of Wolves , 2020
The Conversation March 29, 2019
The Vampyre, 1819
‘Some curious disquiet’: Polidori, the Byronic vampire, and its progeny A symposium for the bicen... more ‘Some curious disquiet’: Polidori, the Byronic vampire, and its progeny
A symposium for the bicentenary of The Vampyre 6-7 April 2019, Keats House, Hampstead
This symposium will trace Polidori’s bloodsucking progeny and his heritage of ‘curious disquiet’ in literature and other media. It is a return to the beginnings of the Open Graves, Open Minds Project, which began with a very successful conference on vampires in 2010 followed by an edited collection, Open Graves, Open Minds: Representations of Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to the Present Day, ed. by Sam George and Bill Hughes (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013) and the first special issue of Gothic Studies devoted to vampires (May 2013).
Guest speakers have been invited to share their research into the many variations on monstrosity and deadly allure spawned by Polidori’s seminal textual reincarnation of Byronic glamour. The delegates have been selected for their expertise in the Byronic, the Gothic, and the vampiric. The speakers are: Sir Christopher Frayling, Prof. Catherine Spooner, Prof. William Hughes, Dr Stacey Abbott, Dr Sue Chaplin, Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes, Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Prof. Nick Groom, Prof. Gina Wisker, Dr Sam George, Dr Bill Hughes, Dr Ivan Phillips, writer Marcus Sedgwick, and OGOM ECRs and doctoral students Dr Kaja Franck, Daisy Butcher, and Dr Jillian Wingfield.
A special issue of JECS 33.4 (2010) with a preface by Peter Singer featuring my article on women ... more A special issue of JECS 33.4 (2010) with a preface by Peter Singer featuring my article on women and entomology, pp. 487-505
Journal of Literature and Science 4.1 (2011)
Sam George's work on botany discussed by Martin Willis in Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism: ... more Sam George's work on botany discussed by Martin Willis in Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism: Literature and Science (Palgrave, 2015), pp. 154-155
List of papers and authors to be considered for inclusion in the book (scroll down below and use ... more List of papers and authors to be considered for inclusion in the book (scroll down below and use arrows to turn pages). The 'Open Graves, Open Minds' book will be edited by myself and published by Manchester University Press in 2012 on the eve of the centenary of Bram Stoker's death.
The Conversation , 2021
At first sight the current innocent idea of fairyland seems as far away from the shadowy realms o... more At first sight the current innocent idea of fairyland seems as far away from the shadowy realms of the dead, and yet there are many resemblances between them. Despite their wands and glitter, fairies have a dark history and surprisingly gothic credentials. So why did we lose our fear of fairies and how did they come to be associated with childhood?
The Conversation , 2020
What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 180... more What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 1800s which also contains America’s first vampire who is Black. It is also perhaps the first short story to advocate the emancipation of slaves, released 14 years before Lydia Child published An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, which is widely considered the first anti-slavery book.
The Conversation October 30th, 2020
What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 180... more What is so remarkable about this story is that it is an anti-slavery narrative from the early 1800s which also contains America’s first vampire who is Black. It is also perhaps the first short story to advocate the emancipation of slaves, released 14 years before Lydia Child published An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, which is widely considered the first anti-slavery book.
Critical Quarterly 62.4 , 2020
This essay focusses on one yōkai, Amabie, a mer-monster from Japan's Edo period (1603–1868), who... more This essay focusses on one yōkai, Amabie, a mer-monster from Japan's Edo period (1603–1868), who is being revived to ward off the Covid-19 virus in 2020. I will argue that our understanding of crises is enhanced via the hybrid monsters they engender; here, I focus on the viral spread of the apotropaic image of Amabie via the internet. I also position Amabie as a Gothic artefact, though one which invites a revision of some of the approaches to monstrosity prevalent in Gothic studies.
Gothic Studies 21.1, 2019
British folklore reveals a history of werewolf sightings in places where there were once wolves. ... more British folklore reveals a history of werewolf sightings in places where there were once wolves. I draw on theories of the weird and the eerie and on the turbulence of England in the era of late capitalism in my analysis of the representation of werewolves in contemporary urban myths. Werewolves are deliberately excluded from Mark Fisher's notion of the 'weird', because they behave in a manner that is entirely expected of them. I contradict this by interrogating the werewolf as spectre wolf, bringing it within the realms of the weird. In examining the Hull Werewolf, I put forward the suggestion that he represents not only our belief in him as a wolf phantom, but our collective guilt at the extinction of an entire indigenous species of wolf. Viewed in this way, he can reawaken the memory of what humans did to wolves, and redeem the Big Bad Wolf of our childhood nightmares.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of OGOM, we turn our attention to fairies and other creatures ... more To celebrate the tenth anniversary of OGOM, we turn our attention to fairies and other creatures from the realm of Faerie, inviting abstracts on all aspects of Gothic Faerie (including global variants). University of Hertfordshire, 8‒10 April 2021
The Conversation October 30th, 2016
The Conversation October 25, 2018
Gothic Studies 22.1, 2020
This article interrogates manifestations of the shadow soul, combining anthropological, magical a... more This article interrogates manifestations of the shadow soul, combining anthropological, magical and religious approaches to the shadow in an analysis of a small group of interrelated Gothic texts. It enters the shadowy worlds of Peter Schlemihl, protagonist of Hans Andersen's 'The Shadow', Dracula, and Peter Pan, who, on being detached from their shadows, have themselves become shades. This journey into the kingdom of shadows will uncover the folkloric demon, the vampire, the physiognomist, the satyr, the pagan Pan, and the Devil himself. To read these narratives through Frazer's The Golden Bough challenges conventional psychoanalytic readings and offers an alternative, folkloric perspective, one which lays bare the ritualistic and magical beliefs that inform late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Gothic.
Twenty-First Century Gothic , EUP, 2019
This essay is developed from a paper at the ‘Education, Beliefs and Cultures’ Conference at the U... more This essay is developed from a paper at the ‘Education, Beliefs and Cultures’ Conference at the University of Timisoara in Romania in 2015. It is important in addressing British perceptions of Romania in literary texts, together with an interrogation of the representation of the outsider in the Dracula and Pied Piper myths. It makes a valuable contribution by bringing these debates into the twenty first century. I demonstrate, for example, how the story of the Pied Piper is being redeployed in an analysis of European paranoia surrounding migrant workers and asylum seekers in the present. I also situate these texts within current debates about racial stereotyping in Victorian Gothic literature
This essay started life as a paper for the Manchester Gothic Festival and was adapted for the Sup... more This essay started life as a paper for the Manchester Gothic Festival and was adapted for the Supernatural Cities Conference in Limerick 2017. It is now destined for a special OGOM edition of Gothic Studies, 'Wolves, Werewolves and Wilderness' to be published in the spring of 2018.
Over the last few months there has been something of a folk panic in Yorkshire, northern England,... more Over the last few months there has been something of a folk panic in Yorkshire, northern England, following reported sightings of an eight-foot werewolf with a very human face.The werewolf “Old Stinker”, also known as “The Beast of Barmston Drain” is not a recent phenomenon – it was first reported in the 18th century. But these sightings – concentrated around the town of Hull – are especially intriguing considering that English folklore is rather barren of werewolf stories. Most wolves were extirpated from England under the Anglo-Saxon kings and so ceased to be an object of dread to the people (though wolves did in fact survive in the UK up until the 1500s). This short piece written for The Conversation considers what could be behind these new werewolf sightings?
As entomology matured in the eighteenth century, it was able to count among its followers a remar... more As entomology matured in the eighteenth century, it was able to count among its followers a remarkably high proportion of women. 1 Women were clearly participating in the classifying, drawing, breeding, and collecting of insects in a significant way. 2 This was part of a broader involvement of women in natural history; there were, of course, women plant collectors too. Lady Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, the Duchess of Portland (1715-1785), kept a menagerie and botanical garden in the grounds of her house at Bulstrode. She employed naturalists such as James Bolton and the Reverend John Lightfoot, founding member of the Linnaean Society in London, to arrange and document her natural history collection, the largest in Britain (the insects were entrusted to Thomas Yeats) 3 The Duchess compiled notebooks on natural history but it is her letters that allow us to uncover social networks and document the circulation of ideas involving botany and entomology. Investigating women's involvement with scientific networks in the eighteenth century invariably leads to the culture of letters and the Duchess's ten year correspondence on Linnaean botany with Jean-Jacques Rousseau is significant in illuminating the role of women in natural science. At this time, biological specimens were classified according to the taxonomic system of the Swedish naturalist, Carl Linnaeus. 4 Linnaeus himself exchanged letters on classification with a number of British women, notably the plant collector, Anna Blackburne, and women were soon conversing in a new Linnaean language. 5 Epistolary correspondence and conversation were regarded as 'kindred subjects' in conduct books and women are often advised to recount the knowledge they have been party to or transcribe actual conversations on interesting subjects in letters (Michelle Cohen has elaborated on this in her study of familiar conversation and the role of the familiar format in eighteenth century England). 6 Entomology and botany feature prominently in the Duchess's letters which are developed from actual scientific conversation. She frequented London and Bath society and regularly held soirées in which literary and scientific conversations took place. Guests at such gatherings included the botanist, Daniel Solander, who had also assisted with the collections at Bulstrode, and the Linnaean, Benjamin Stillingfleet, a favourite with these women. His habit of wearing blue stockings at these meetings, where literary and scientific dialogue took the place of card playing, led to the term 'Bluestocking' being coined, referring to this circle of learned women. A species of dialogue or conversation, in its printed form, originated in such meetings, thus exemplifying the role of women in the culture of natural science in the eighteenth century. Many such dialogues were adapted for pedagogical purposes for girls and entomological and botanical dialogues are paradigmatic. The familiar letter was a kindred genre and I will be paying attention to both these forms of educational literature.
Science and Education Journal
Texts drawing on the work of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in particular were specifically add... more Texts drawing on the work of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in particular were specifically addressed to the female sex.
My article 'Animated Beings: Enlightenment Entomology for Girls' has been chosen by Wiley to fea... more My article 'Animated Beings: Enlightenment Entomology for Girls' has been chosen by Wiley to feature in a special themed virtual issue that they are putting together to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on 8th March in 2011. The issue can be found following the link
Open Graves, Open Minds 'Ill Met By Moonlight' , 2021
‘Ill met by moonlight’: Gothic encounters with enchantment and the Faerie realm in literature and... more ‘Ill met by moonlight’: Gothic encounters with enchantment and the Faerie realm in literature and culture
University of Hertfordshire, 8‒11 April 2021
Open Graves Open Minds: Nosferatu at 100 , 2022
Event to mark the centenary of Nosferatu in 2022
Full programme of 'The Urban Weird' 2018 includes details of keynotes, spectral cities tour, bogg... more Full programme of 'The Urban Weird' 2018 includes details of keynotes, spectral cities tour, boggart workshop and urban weird film screening
Final programme and schedule
Programme before going to print
Final Programme for Open Graves, Open Minds: Bram Stoker Centenary Symposium
My level six undergraduate module on YA Fiction and the Gothic 2015-16 session course schedule. A... more My level six undergraduate module on YA Fiction and the Gothic 2015-16 session course schedule. All over the country in the world of young adult fiction teenagers who die aren't staying dead. This module will interrogate the new high school Gothic, exploring the representation of the undead or living dead (werewolves, vampires and zombies) in dark or paranormal romance. Texts range from Daniel Waters's zombie trilogy to Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies and Holly Black's Coldtown. We'll also look at examples of werewolf fiction (Shiver) and at the folklore inspired novels of Marcus Sedgwick. YA fiction has attracted some of the most gifted writers who address these themes as a means of confronting death or discrimination or to engage with faith and embrace the enduring power of love. We will be theorising folklore and grappling with undead issues such as the notion of free will, damnation and redemption, the sexualisation of early teens, the effects of prejudice and the politics of difference. This module is dedicated to Sophie Lancaster who was beaten to death in a park for being a 'goth'. Please read Simon Armitage's Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster on StudyNet before beginning the module (we will draw on this representation of gothic subculture and otherness in our sessions). Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred, Intolerance Everywhere Generation Dead is taught via two hour workshops on Mondays 9.00-11.00 (room R118), 1.00-3.00 (room N105). The schedule below includes the suggested critical reading and contexts for each week (critical texts are available on StudyNet). Full details of all works cited are given on the critical reading list (under 'Module Information' on StudyNet). Please sign up to follow the Open Graves, Open Minds blog which will be featuring relevant material over the next few weeks and is searchable via topic opengravesopenminds.com
This is the weekly course schedule for my level 6 module on 'The Romantic Child'. I have develope... more This is the weekly course schedule for my level 6 module on 'The Romantic Child'. I have developed this module over a number of years and expanded the areas that are of most interest including portraiture and visual representations of childhood, persecuted and empowered children in Grimms' Tales, representations of wild or feral children (real and imagined) in the literature of the period, and the Gothic 'other' to the beautiful Romantic child in Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'
level 4 work on Romanticism through a close reading of Keats
My updated course schedule for 2014 with new reading material from the Open Graves, Open Minds book
Polidori Symposium, 2019
Event in April 2019 to celebrate the bi-centenary of Polidori's Vampyre (see link for description)
The OGOM Project is known for its imaginative events and symposia, which have often been accompan... more The OGOM Project is known for its imaginative events and symposia, which have often been accompanied by a media frenzy. We were the first to invite vampires into the academy back in 2010. Our most recent endeavour, Company of Wolves: Werewolves, Shapeshifters and Feral Humans enjoyed extensive coverage globally and saw us congratulated in the THES for our ambitious 3 day programme which included actual wolves, 'a first for a UK academy'. Our fourth conference will be an exciting collaboration with the Supernatural Cities: Narrated Geographies and Spectral Histories project at the University of Portsmouth. Supernatural Cities will enjoy its third regeneration, having previously convened in Portsmouth and Limerick.
The OGOM Project is known for its imaginative events and symposia, which have often been accompan... more The OGOM Project is known for its imaginative events and symposia, which have often been accompanied by a media frenzy. We were the first to invite vampires into the academy back in 2010. Our most recent endeavour, Company of Wolves: Werewolves, Shapeshifters and Feral Humans enjoyed extensive coverage globally and saw us congratulated in the THES for our ambitious 3 day programme which included actual wolves, 'a first for a UK academy'. Our fourth conference will be an exciting collaboration with the Supernatural Cities: Narrated Geographies and Spectral Histories project at the University of Portsmouth. Supernatural Cities will enjoy its third regeneration, having previously convened in Portsmouth and Limerick.
call for funding bid and collaborative project
Open call for papers for the third OGOM conference
Transcript of my three hour discussion with Sir Christopher Frayling
Laurence Cawley interviews me at the University of Hertfordshire for a BBC story 'Seven of the Mo... more Laurence Cawley interviews me at the University of Hertfordshire for a BBC story 'Seven of the More Unusual Areas of University Research'
Newspaper interview re: vampire MA module
Description of forthcoming exhibition touring in 2017
Online exhibition I have contributed to at New York Botanical Gardens, convened by Ryan Feigenbau... more Online exhibition I have contributed to at New York Botanical Gardens, convened by Ryan Feigenbaum. The other contributors include Patricia Fara, Richard Mabey and others. Contributors page here: http://www.nybg.org/poetic-botany/contributors/