Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Outputs (63)

Weird Fiction and Science at the Fin de Siecle (2020)
Book
Alder, E. (2020). Weird Fiction and Science at the Fin de Siecle. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32652-4

This book explores how nineteenth-century science stimulated the emergence of weird tales at the fin de siècle, and examines weird fiction by British writers who preceded and influenced H. P. Lovecraft, the most famous author of weird fiction. From l... Read More about Weird Fiction and Science at the Fin de Siecle.

“A Thing Of Dreams And Desires, A Siren, A Whisper, And A Seduction”: Mermaids and the seashore in H. G. Wells’s The Sea Lady: A Tissue of Moonshine (2021)
Journal Article
Alder, E. (2021). “A Thing Of Dreams And Desires, A Siren, A Whisper, And A Seduction”: Mermaids and the seashore in H. G. Wells’s The Sea Lady: A Tissue of Moonshine. Shima, 15(2), 85-100. https://doi.org/10.21463/shima.142

The Sea Lady (1901) is one of the more neglected early novels of H. G. Wells, particularly compared to his more famous scientific romances. Both a social satire and a mediation on the limits of human imagination, Wells’s only mermaid story has drawn... Read More about “A Thing Of Dreams And Desires, A Siren, A Whisper, And A Seduction”: Mermaids and the seashore in H. G. Wells’s The Sea Lady: A Tissue of Moonshine.

“Waked, and unquiet”: William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land (2023)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (in press). “Waked, and unquiet”: William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land. In C. Sederholm, & K. Woofter (Eds.), The Weird: A Companion. Oxford: Peter Lang

William Hope Hodgson (1877-1917) is a central but sometimes overlooked figure in the development of weird fiction in the early twentieth century. Hodgson’s work flourished at the intersection of what we now call science fiction, Gothic, fantasy, and... Read More about “Waked, and unquiet”: William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land.

Arctic Ghosts: Whale Hunting and Haunting in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 'The Captain of the Pole-Star' (2022)
Journal Article
Alder, E. (2022). Arctic Ghosts: Whale Hunting and Haunting in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 'The Captain of the Pole-Star'. Victorian Studies, 65(1), 43-66

Over-hunting in Arctic seas drove bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) nearly to extinction by the end of the nineteenth century. Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Captain of the ‘Pole-Star’” (1883), inspired by his youthful 1880 voyage on the Scottish whalin... Read More about Arctic Ghosts: Whale Hunting and Haunting in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 'The Captain of the Pole-Star'.

Time and the Terrors of the Shoreline in Dunsany and Wells (2022)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2022, July). Time and the Terrors of the Shoreline in Dunsany and Wells. Paper presented at Gothic Interruptions: 16th Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

The shoreline is a popular stage for the end of the world in fin-de-siècle fiction – it is upon a shore that H. G. Wells’s Time Traveller witnesses the final remnant of animal life, William Hope Hodgson’s Recluse discovers the meaning of eternity, an... Read More about Time and the Terrors of the Shoreline in Dunsany and Wells.

Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles (2022)
Book
Alder, E., Packham, J., & Passey, J. (Eds.). (2022). Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles. London: British Library

From foreboding cliffs and lonely lighthouses to rumbling shingles and silted estuaries, the coasts of the British Isles have stoked the imaginations of storytellers for millennia, lending a rich literary significance to these spaces between land and... Read More about Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles.

Creatures of Moonshine: H. G. Wells’s ‘The Sea Raiders’ and the Oceanic Romance (2022)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2022, April). Creatures of Moonshine: H. G. Wells’s ‘The Sea Raiders’ and the Oceanic Romance. Paper presented at BSLS 2022 Annual Conference, Manchester

There is a strand of nineteenth-century fiction interested in tentacled monsters based to a greater or lesser extent on cephalopods. Although the legendary kraken remained a legend, biology had learned a little about the real existence of giant squid... Read More about Creatures of Moonshine: H. G. Wells’s ‘The Sea Raiders’ and the Oceanic Romance.

Spectres in the Arctic: Whales and Arthur Conan Doyle (2021)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2021, July). Spectres in the Arctic: Whales and Arthur Conan Doyle. Paper presented at Dark Economies, University of Falmouth

Whales have long held powerful symbolic places in the art, writing, and folklore of coastal and sea-going cultures globally. Under the expansion of industrialised whaling in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, however, both the whales and their me... Read More about Spectres in the Arctic: Whales and Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Entangled Terrestrials: Mapping E.T.’s Ecological Web (2021)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2021, April). The Entangled Terrestrials: Mapping E.T.’s Ecological Web. Paper presented at British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference, Online

Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) has accrued an eclectic but small body of scholarly criticism. With this paper I contribute an ecocritical analysis of the film, suggesting that the disruption to Elliott’s schoolboy life caused by... Read More about The Entangled Terrestrials: Mapping E.T.’s Ecological Web.

Shades of Sail: Edwardian Nautical Hauntings (2021)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2021). Shades of Sail: Edwardian Nautical Hauntings. In C. Bloom (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Steam Age Gothic (839-856). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40866-4_45

Ghost ships are an enduring trope in history, literature, and folklore of the sea, and continually change in meaning according to their cultural contexts. The early twentieth century produced British nautical gothic fiction that grapples with the imp... Read More about Shades of Sail: Edwardian Nautical Hauntings.

Foreword by Dr. Emily Adler (2020)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2020). Foreword by Dr. Emily Adler. In Footsteps in the Dark: Short Stories, Anthology of New & Classic Tales (8-9). London: Flame Tree Publishing

Ecocriticism and the Genre (2020)
Book Chapter
Alder, E., & Bavidge, J. (2020). Ecocriticism and the Genre. In C. Bloom (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic (225-242). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33136-8_14

‘Ecocriticism and the Genre’ explores a recent and topical development in Gothic scholarship, the ecogothic. Gothic literature often exhibits a fascination with sublime, terrifying, and horrifying aspects of the natural world, its creatures, plants,... Read More about Ecocriticism and the Genre.

Weird Sisters: Victorian women’s ghost stories and a new look at the weird tale (2019)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2019, August). Weird Sisters: Victorian women’s ghost stories and a new look at the weird tale. Paper presented at Victorian Renewals: British Association of Victorian Studies Conference 2019, University of Dundee

In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, weird fiction looks like a masculine tradition. While there are numerous women among recent ‘New Weird’ writers, female authorship of early weird tales barely shows up next to the success of H. P.... Read More about Weird Sisters: Victorian women’s ghost stories and a new look at the weird tale.

Our Progeny’s Monsters: Frankenstein Retold for Children in Picturebooks and Graphic Novels (2018)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2018). Our Progeny’s Monsters: Frankenstein Retold for Children in Picturebooks and Graphic Novels. In Global Frankenstein, 209-225. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78142-6

Frankenstein is surprisingly well-suited to stories aimed at children and is often adapted for young readerships. This essay explores why, through a focus on graphic narratives. I examine five books: picturebooks Do not build a Frankenstein! by Neil... Read More about Our Progeny’s Monsters: Frankenstein Retold for Children in Picturebooks and Graphic Novels.

Mould ships and fungal islands: mycology, ecoGothic and William Hope Hodgson’s ‘doubtful beings’ (2018)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2018, July). Mould ships and fungal islands: mycology, ecoGothic and William Hope Hodgson’s ‘doubtful beings’. Paper presented at 14th Conference of the IGA 'Gothic Hybridities', Manchester Metropolitan University

For most of the long nineteenth century, the apparently hybrid biological workings and the unstable taxonomical status of moulds and fungi puzzled and fascinated scientists. Their ubiquity, plasticity, and position in what Ernst Haeckel termed a ‘bou... Read More about Mould ships and fungal islands: mycology, ecoGothic and William Hope Hodgson’s ‘doubtful beings’.

Introduction (2017)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2017). Introduction. In The Island of Doctor Moreau & Other Stories (x-xxvii). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions

Underwater Plastic Frankenstein (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2017, November). Underwater Plastic Frankenstein. Paper presented at Gothic Nature, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

(Re)encountering monsters: animals in early-twentieth-century weird fiction (2017)
Journal Article
Alder, E. (2017). (Re)encountering monsters: animals in early-twentieth-century weird fiction. Textual Practice, 31(6), 1083-1100. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236x.2017.1358686

Early twentieth century weird tales occupy an important place in the development of genre fictions. Among the innovations they contribute are new forms of monsters, diverging from earlier Gothic or mythological traditions, which spring, in part, from... Read More about (Re)encountering monsters: animals in early-twentieth-century weird fiction.

Dracula’s Gothic Ship (2016)
Journal Article
Alder, E. (2016). Dracula’s Gothic Ship. Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies,

No abstract available. https://irishgothichorror.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/issue-15-full-final.pdf

Becoming a student of English: students experiences of transition into the first year. (2016)
Journal Article
Alder, E. (2016). Becoming a student of English: students experiences of transition into the first year. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022216628303

This study explored the transition to university as experienced by first-year students of English studies. The first year has been identified by existing research as a critical time for new students in terms of their persistence and success on their... Read More about Becoming a student of English: students experiences of transition into the first year..

Doctor Moreau’s Pink Rabbits (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2015, April). Doctor Moreau’s Pink Rabbits. Paper presented at British Society for Literature and Science annual conference, Liverpool University

'Sea Monsters'. (2014)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2014). 'Sea Monsters'. In J. Weinstock (Ed.), The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic MonstersAshgate Publishing

'Kraken'. (2014)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2014). 'Kraken'. In J. Weinstock (Ed.), The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters. Ashgate Publishing

'Always Sea and Sea': The Night Land as Sea-scape (2013)
Journal Article
Alder, E. (2013). 'Always Sea and Sea': The Night Land as Sea-scape. Sargasso: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies, 1(1), 89-101

Biographical accounts of William Hope Hodgson naturally tend to focus on two main features of his career before he became a full-time writer: sailing and physical culture (Everts). Both provide useful contexts for reading Hodgson’s fiction. In some e... Read More about 'Always Sea and Sea': The Night Land as Sea-scape.

The first law of time travel: The Time Machine and thermodynamics. (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2013, April). The first law of time travel: The Time Machine and thermodynamics. Paper presented at British Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference

Critical analyses of H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895) have attended closely to themes of biology, such as evolutionary degeneration, but those of physics have not been treated with comparable depth. While many accounts of The Time Machine do con... Read More about The first law of time travel: The Time Machine and thermodynamics..

Urban Gothic. (2012)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2012). Urban Gothic. In W. Hughes, D. Punter, & A. Smith (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the Gothic. Blackwell

Wiliam Hope Hodgson. (2012)
Book Chapter
Alder, E. (2012). Wiliam Hope Hodgson. In W. Hughes, D. Punter, & A. Smith (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the GothicBlackwell

Getting the Message: supporting students’ transition from Higher National to degree level study and the role of mobile technologies. (2012)
Journal Article
Fotheringham, J., & Alder, E. (2012). Getting the Message: supporting students’ transition from Higher National to degree level study and the role of mobile technologies. Electronic Journal of eLearning, 10, 331-341

In this paper, we explore roles that mobile technologies can play in supporting students’ transition to second and third year of university degree study, specifically along articulation routes from completing a Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Hi... Read More about Getting the Message: supporting students’ transition from Higher National to degree level study and the role of mobile technologies..

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.

Message of Support: Using mobile technologies to support the transition of students on articulation routes from Higher National level to degree (2011)
Conference Proceeding
Fotheringham, J., & Emily, A. (2011). Message of Support: Using mobile technologies to support the transition of students on articulation routes from Higher National level to degree. In S. Greener, & A. Rospigliosi (Eds.), Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on e-Learning. , (266-273)

This paper explores the role mobile technologies can play in supporting students' transition to second and third year of university degree study along articulation routes from Higher National Certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND) study... Read More about Message of Support: Using mobile technologies to support the transition of students on articulation routes from Higher National level to degree.

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.

Gothic at sea: ships, revenants, and the liminal realm of the ocean. (2011)
Presentation / Conference
Alder, E. (2011, August). Gothic at sea: ships, revenants, and the liminal realm of the ocean. Paper presented at Gothic limits / Gothic Ltd.’: 10th Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association. 2-5 August 2011

Many aspects of the ocean deep remain obscure to modern science and exploration, and in literature it has always been an area of mystery, sometimes of horror. Foucault’s characterisation of the ship as heterotopia, ‘a floating piece of space, a place... Read More about Gothic at sea: ships, revenants, and the liminal realm of the ocean..

William Hope Hodgson's borderlands: monstrosity, other worlds, and the future at the fin de siècle (2009)
Thesis
Alder, E. William Hope Hodgson's borderlands: monstrosity, other worlds, and the future at the fin de siècle. (Thesis). Edinburgh Napier University. Retrieved from http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/3597

William Hope Hodgson has generally been understood as the author of several atmospheric sea-horror stories and two powerful but flawed horror science fiction novels. There has been no substantial study analysing the historical and cultural context of... Read More about William Hope Hodgson's borderlands: monstrosity, other worlds, and the future at the fin de siècle.