Please note that this event has been postponed, due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We hope to reschedule the sessions as soon as it’s safe and we’re able to do so.

———-

Eco-Gothic and Mary Barton

A talk by Dr Lindsey Stewart

This talk will consider how Mary Barton presents emotional and psychological distress and argue that, in this novel, Gaskell uses eco-gothic tropes to frame the environment as pathological.

Lindsey is a member of our branch and a Visiting Fellow in the English Department at the Open University, having received her PhD from the OU last year. She is currently converting her research, which considered the medical and cultural uses of the Victorian psychiatric idea of monomania, into a monograph. She recently published ‘Monomania in Mary Barton (1848)’ in the Journal of Victorian Culture and has a forthcoming chapter on the short fiction of best-selling author Dinah Craik in an essay collection, The Woman Question and Fiction 1850 – 1930.

————-

All meetings are held at Francis Holland School for Girls, 39 Graham Terrace London SW1W 8JF. The school is only a three-minute walk from Sloane Square tube station on the District and Circle line. This central location means that the meeting is convenient for anyone interested  in Elizabeth Gaskell’s writing. 

Everyone is welcome any time after 12.45pm – please bring a packed lunch. Talks begin at 2pm and usually last about an hour. Each talk is followed by questions, and then tea is served.

At each meeting there is a bring-and-buy book stall in aid of The Gaskell House in Manchester. Please bring any books that you wish to rehome and which will be of interest to other members, marked with an appropriate price. If, at the end of the meeting, your books have not been sold, we will ask you to take them away with you again.

We ask for a contribution of £5.00 to cover speakers’ expenses, a donation to the school and tea. If you have any queries please contact Jenny Keaveney
07791 309784     

Come along – you will be sure of a friendly welcome!