Lancaster University, 8th–10th August 2019
Long established as a relocation of sexual intercourse, the bloody feeding of the vampire is obviously its most iconic and embodied behaviour. How then do the authors and directors of the ever-popular children’s vampire story negotiate the clear inappropriateness of such consumption? Examining a range of recent television and film texts, such as Count Duckula, …
Following the release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), science fiction narratives focused on alien visitors to Earth become more popular and prolific than they had been since the 1950s. Invasion films experienced a particular resurgence, with many films borrowing their basic narratives from the science fiction films …
Barbara Creed’s (1993) concept of the monstrous-feminine is widely used to explore sexism in speculative media. Creed’s focus on reproduction and sexual desire means explorations of the monstrous-feminine have centred on attitudes to young women and adults, even in children’s fiction. However, Wilkie-Stibbs (2006) notes children are also abjected in children’s literature, while Daniel (2006) …