Template for Terror: The Revival of the Gothic

This weekend of activity looks at the prevailing influence of the Gothic on contemporary culture. In 2005, Pablo Bronstein self-published a series of reprinted Gothic novels with hand drawn covers, including Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764). A collector, publisher, antiquarian, social commentator and novelist, Walpole was instrumental in reviving ‘the Gothic’ both through his writing and his fanciful neo-gothic creation, Strawberry Hill—his home in south west London that ignited a widespread rejection of the Neoclassical style of the time.

From Dracula and Frankenstein to Twilight and Shaun of the Dead, contemporary culture continues to appropriate the stock themes of the eighteenth and nineteenth century gothic novel. This weekend of panel discussions, presentations and screenings will explore the societal impulse that draws us to the darker side of life, looking at the influence of the gothic in contemporary art, literature, film and music.

Saturday 11 June 2011
1.00 pm - Dark Vision, Haunted Time: Gothic in History, Gothic in the Contemporary
Presentation, theatre
With Goldsmiths University lecturer, Gilda Williams

3.00 pm - A Gothic Story
Panel Discussion, theatre
Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) is considered the first Gothic novel. What are stock themes of the Gothic novel and how do they play out in contemporary culture?
Chaired by University of Westminster Lecturer Monica Germana, with Lancaster University Professor, Catherine Spooner and Kingston University Professors, Avril Horner and Fred Botting.

5.00 pm - Style, Subculture and Identity in the Goth Scene
Presentation, theatre
This session will focus on different ways of understanding the meaning and significance of the contemporary Goth subculture. The talk asks how much we can learn about Goths by analysing the content of their distinctive fashion and music – or that of the broader tradition of Gothic culture with which the subculture is often associated. It will outline the ways in which research focused upon the experiences and understandings of subcultural participants has contributed to somewhat different understandings of the group by illuminating everyday subcultural practices, identities and lifestyles.
With Sociologist and University of Surrey lecturer, Paul Hodkinson

7.00 pm - Jan Ŝvankmajer Shorts
Screening, cinema 2
The Castle of Otranto, 1973-79, color, 17 mins
Ŝvankmajer's short film based on Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto.
The Ossuary, 1970, black & white, 10 mins
A short film devoted to the wonders of the Sedlec Ossuary, a small chapel located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic

8pm onwards - Everything
Bar
Gothic-themed creative clubnight with DJs, music and live performance, programmed by the ICA Student Forum.

10.30pm - Late Night Screening
Cinema 1, Free
The Fall of the House of Usher, 1960, colour, 79 min
Directed by Roger Corman and based on the epynonomous short story by Edgar Allen Poe.

Sunday 12 June 2011
2.30 pm: Horace Walpole and the Experience of Strawberry Hill
Presentation, theatre