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All Outputs (27)

Using reading diaries in independent learning. (2015)
Book Chapter
Wasson, S. (2015). Using reading diaries in independent learning. In L. Thomson (Ed.), Compedium of effective practice in directed independent learning (130-132). QAA HIgher Education Academy

Reading diaries (and optional ‘reading question’ diary prompts) are used to encourage year three English, and English and Film BA (Hons), students to develop their self-directed learning. Since critical theory can be daunting, the independent study –... Read More about Using reading diaries in independent learning..

Recalcitrant Tissue: Organ Transfer and the Struggle for Narrative Control. (2015)
Book Chapter
Wasson, S. (2015). Recalcitrant Tissue: Organ Transfer and the Struggle for Narrative Control. In J. Edwards (Ed.), Technologies of the Gothic in Literature and Culture: Technogothics (99-112). Routledge

The Gothic has long been interested in failed communities, the snapping or violating of ties between kin or neighbours. As the Gothic mutates into new forms today, it is increasingly characterising texts which depict whole societies as wounded in the... Read More about Recalcitrant Tissue: Organ Transfer and the Struggle for Narrative Control..

Scalpel and Metaphor: The Ceremony of Organ Harvest in Gothic Science Fiction (2015)
Journal Article
Wasson, S. (2015). Scalpel and Metaphor: The Ceremony of Organ Harvest in Gothic Science Fiction. Gothic Studies, 17(1), 104-123. https://doi.org/10.7227/GS.17.1.8

In organ transfer, tissue moves through a web of language. Metaphors reclassify the tissue to enable its redeployment, framing the process for practitioners and public. The process of marking off tissue as transferrable in legal and cultural terms pa... Read More about Scalpel and Metaphor: The Ceremony of Organ Harvest in Gothic Science Fiction.

Useful Darkness: Intersections between Medical Humanities and Gothic Studies (2015)
Journal Article
Wasson, S. (2015). Useful Darkness: Intersections between Medical Humanities and Gothic Studies. Gothic Studies, 17(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.7227/GS.17.1.1

Gothic studies has long been concerned with representations of the fragility of human flesh in the grip of illness, as well as bodies confined by medical and legal discourse. The direction of influence goes both ways: Gothic literary elements have ar... Read More about Useful Darkness: Intersections between Medical Humanities and Gothic Studies.

The "Coven of the Articulate": orality and community in Anne Rice's vampire fiction (2012)
Journal Article
Wasson, S. (2012). The "Coven of the Articulate": orality and community in Anne Rice's vampire fiction. Journal of Popular Culture, 45(1), 197-213. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00919.x

Anne Rice's twelve vampire “autobiographies” continue to be hugely influential for vampire fiction and other artifacts of popular culture. This article explores two tropes which structure and enable the vampire communities throughout the twelve text... Read More about The "Coven of the Articulate": orality and community in Anne Rice's vampire fiction.

Ruined Skin: Gothic Genetics and Human Identity in Stephen Donaldson’s Gap cycle (2011)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2011). Ruined Skin: Gothic Genetics and Human Identity in Stephen Donaldson’s Gap cycle. In S. Wasson, & E. Alder (Eds.), Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.5949/liverpool/9781846317071.003.0008

This chapter offers a literary criticism of Stephen Donaldson's novel Gap. It discusses that transfiguration of the body, through the study of molecular biology and genetic engineering, creates a cultural unrest and horror. The strange metamorphosis... Read More about Ruined Skin: Gothic Genetics and Human Identity in Stephen Donaldson’s Gap cycle.

Introduction: Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010 (2011)
Book Chapter
Alder, E., & Wasson, S. (2011). Introduction: Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010. In Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.5949/liverpool/9781846317071.003.0001

This Introduction introduces Gothic science fiction as a genre and discusses the text as a project to examine Gothic science fiction historically as well as to distinguish its textual forms. The chapters in this compilation provides sample writings p... Read More about Introduction: Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010.

‘Crying with Phantom Tongue’: the politics of lamentation in Mervyn Peake’s wartime poetry. (2011)
Conference Proceeding
Wasson, S. (2010). ‘Crying with Phantom Tongue’: the politics of lamentation in Mervyn Peake’s wartime poetry

Recent studies of nation and memory propose a new ethics of mourning in which normative mourning – working through grief, accepting loss, and ultimately finding solace – is increasingly seen as ethically suspect. The challenges normative mourning pos... Read More about ‘Crying with Phantom Tongue’: the politics of lamentation in Mervyn Peake’s wartime poetry..

Sentient ruins and the ventriloquised dead: Mervyn Peake’s wartime poetry. (2011)
Conference Proceeding
Wasson, S. (2010). Sentient ruins and the ventriloquised dead: Mervyn Peake’s wartime poetry

This paper explores a key fantasy trope in Peake’s wartime poetry, arguing that his work offers a valuable counterweight to dominant period discourses of nationhood. Adam Roberts opens the way to such analysis, noting that the Titus books are ‘accoun... Read More about Sentient ruins and the ventriloquised dead: Mervyn Peake’s wartime poetry..

"A butcher's shop where the meat still moved": Gothic doubles, organ harvesting and human cloning. (2011)
Book Chapter
Wasson, S. (2011). "A butcher's shop where the meat still moved": Gothic doubles, organ harvesting and human cloning. In S. Wasson, & E. Alder (Eds.), Gothic Science Fiction 1980-2010 (73-86). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.5949/liverpool/9781846317071.003.0005

This timely book explores what might be termed Gothic science fiction of the last three decades, 1980-2010. Identifying texts by this category may at first appear contradictory, as the Gothic's connotations of the irrational and supernatural seems to... Read More about "A butcher's shop where the meat still moved": Gothic doubles, organ harvesting and human cloning..

Medical Gothic: organ harvesting and medicalised abjection in Kazuo Ishiguro and Neal Shusterman. (2011)
Presentation / Conference
Wasson, S. (2011, August). Medical Gothic: organ harvesting and medicalised abjection in Kazuo Ishiguro and Neal Shusterman. Paper presented at Gothic limits / Gothic Ltd.’: 10th Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association. 2-5 August 2011

The International Gothic Association facilitates dissemination of research in Gothic and horror from the eighteenth century to the present, and the Conference is held once every two years. This year, the conference is entitled ‘Gothic Limits’ and con... Read More about Medical Gothic: organ harvesting and medicalised abjection in Kazuo Ishiguro and Neal Shusterman..

Olalla's legacy: twentieth century vampire fiction and genetic previvorship (2010)
Journal Article
Wasson, S. (2010). Olalla's legacy: twentieth century vampire fiction and genetic previvorship. Journal of Stevenson Studies, 7, 55-81

Although Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story ‘Olalla’ does not use the word ‘vampire’ at any point, it contains a cluster of motifs that have led critics to identify it as a vampire tale: specifically, a character addicted to drinking human blood an... Read More about Olalla's legacy: twentieth century vampire fiction and genetic previvorship.