I have not posted anything here in a long while, since I was stuck in the worst moving stress. But that’s over for the time being: No closet is assembled yet, but as we all know, it’s most comfortable to live on packed boxes. There is a lot to report from the past two months. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on.
Writing Projects
At the end of August, my monograph The Supernatural Media Virus: Virus Anxiety in Gothic Fiction Since 1990 was published by transcript. This now marks the official end of my time as a graduate student, six years after I began the process. In the book, I explore virus and network metaphors in Gothic and horror fiction since 1990, coining the term supernatural media virus to make tangible monsters like the ghost girl Sadako/Samara from Ringu/The Ring or the supernatural house from Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves. In Gothic fiction, the supernatural media virus describes the confluence of viral and network metaphors and deep-seated fears/worries in a technologized and mediatized world. If you want to learn more about the book, you can check out the excerpt on the publisher’s website. I also talked about The Supernatural Media Virus and the academic approaches behind it in a short interview on the H. P. Lovecast podcast.
Due to the move, I had to cut back on my other writing projects the last weeks. However, it has never been entirely quiet: In issue #7 of Lovecrafter, the magazine of the German Lovecraft Society, I contribute a short analysis of M. R. James’ ghost story “The Ash-tree” to the patchwork article “Zwischen Wahn und Wirklichkeit: Das Hexen-Thema in Lovecrafts Literarischem Dunstkreis” (“Between Delusion and Reality: The Witch Theme in Lovecraft’s Literary Environment”). Meanwhile, a review of Go Tanabe’s manga H. P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu appeared on Zauberwelten-Online.de.
Other Projects
As already mentioned above, I had the pleasure of being a guest on a very exciting podcast again. This time I was invited by the H. P. Lovecast podcast to talk about my new monograph. Podcast hosts Michele Brittany and Nicholas Diak talked with me about where the idea for my book came from, what I think the most important points of the publication are, what I learned myself while writing it, and what projects I’ll be devoting myself to in the future.
Speaking of future projects: The essay volume Kulturelle Spiegelungen zwischen H. P. Lovecraft und Deutschland (Cultural Reflections between H. P. Lovecraft and Germany) has now also found a reputable publisher in the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (wbg)!
Outlook
In the next weeks I will have more time for my own projects and plans again. Just in time for this year’s Spooktober, several reviews for Zauberwelten and VIRUS are already in the works. In addition, there are multiple articles to get to – and of course my scientific contribution to the essay volume. Well then – let’s go!
In the meantime you can have a look at my publications or my lectures/talks if you want to know what’s been on my mind the last months.