The first issue of ‘Gothic Nature: New Directions in Ecohorror and the Ecogothic’ will be published in 2018. Please see our CFP below.
“Horror is becoming the environmental norm.” — Sara L. Crosby
Gothic and horror fictions have long functioned as vivid reflections of contemporary cultural fears. Wood argues that horror is ‘the struggle for recognition of all that our society represses or oppresses’, and Newman puts forward the idea that it ‘actively eliminates and exorcises our fears by allowing them to be relegated to the imaginary realm of fiction’. Now, more than ever, the environment has become a locus of those fears for many people, and this journal seeks to investigate the wide range of Gothic- and horror-inflected texts that tackle the darker side of nature.
As we inch ever closer toward an anthropogenic ecological crisis, this type of fiction demands our attention. In 2009, Simon C. Estok highlighted the importance of ‘ecophobia’ in representations of nature, emphasising the need for ecocriticism to acknowledge the ‘irrational and groundless hatred of the natural world’ present in contemporary society. Tom J. Hillard responded to Estok’s call ‘to talk about how fear of the natural world is a definable and recognizable discourse’, suggesting that ‘we need look no further than the rich and varied vein of critical approaches used to investigate fear in literature.’ What happens, he asks, ‘when we bring the critical tools associated with Gothic fiction to bear on writing about nature?’
Gothic Nature seeks to address this question, interrogating the place
of non-human nature in horror and the Gothic today, and showcasing the
most exciting and innovative research currently being conducted in the
field. We are especially interested for our inaugural issue in articles
which address ecocritical theory and endeavour to define and discern the
distinctions between ‘ecohorror’ and ‘ecogothic’. We welcome academic
articles from a variety of different subject backgrounds, as well as
interdisciplinary
work.
Subjects may include, but are by no means limited to:
- Ecohorror and the ecogothic: theory and distinctions
- Ecocriticism and horror literature/media
- Ecocriticism and Gothic literature/media
- Gothic nature/ecophobia
- Global ecohorror/global ecogothic
- Environmental activism and horror/the Gothic
- Human nature vs. nonhuman nature
- Rural Gothic
- Landscapes of fear
- Legends of haunted nature/Gothic nature and mythology
- Monsters in nature/natural spectres
- Climate change and Gothic nature
- Environmental apocalypse
- Animal horror
- Gothic nature in art through the ages
If you are interested in submitting a piece for our inaugural issue, please send an abstract of 300 words, a 2,000-word writing sample, and a short academic bio to gothicnaturejournal@gmail.com by March 15th, 2018. Articles of 6-8,000 words, using Harvard referencing, will be due by May 31st, 2018.
Our current editorial board includes Dr Elizabeth Parker, Emily Bourke, Dr Bernice Murphy, Professor Simon C. Estok, Professor Andrew Smith, Professor Dawn Keetley, and Dr Stacy Alaimo.