Ken Gelder – författare

Insatiable bloodlust, dangerous sexualities, the horror of the undead, uncharted Trannsylvanian wildernesses, and a morbid fascination with the `other': the legend of the vampire continues to haunt popular imagination.Reading the Vampire examines the vampire in all its various manifestations and cultural meanings. Ken Gelder investigates vampire narratives in literature and in film, from early vampire stories like Sheridan Le Fanu's `lesbian vampire' tale Carmilla and Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most famous vampire narrative of all, to contemporary American vampire blockbusters by Stephen King and others, the vampire chronicles of Anne Rice, `post-Ceausescu' vampire narratives, and films such as FW Murnau's Nosferatu and Bram Stoker's Dracula.Reading the Vampire embeds vampires in their cultural contexts, showing vampire narratives feeding off the anxieties and fascinations of their times: from the nineteenth century perils of tourism, issues of colonialism and national identity, and obsessions with sex and death, to the `queer' identity of the vampire or current vampiric metaphors for dangerous exchanges of bodily fluids and AIDS.

Insatiable bloodlust, dangerous sexualities, the horror of the undead, uncharted Trannsylvanian wildernesses, and a morbid fascination with the `other': the legend of the vampire continues to haunt popular imagination.Reading the Vampire examines the vampire in all its various manifestations and cultural meanings. Ken Gelder investigates vampire narratives in literature and in film, from early vampire stories like Sheridan Le Fanu's `lesbian vampire' tale Carmilla and Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most famous vampire narrative of all, to contemporary American vampire blockbusters by Stephen King and others, the vampire chronicles of Anne Rice, `post-Ceausescu' vampire narratives, and films such as FW Murnau's Nosferatu and Bram Stoker's Dracula.Reading the Vampire embeds vampires in their cultural contexts, showing vampire narratives feeding off the anxieties and fascinations of their times: from the nineteenth century perils of tourism, issues of colonialism and national identity, and obsessions with sex and death, to the `queer' identity of the vampire or current vampiric metaphors for dangerous exchanges of bodily fluids and AIDS.

Horror has been one of the most spectacular and controversial genres in both cinema and fiction - its wild excesses relished by some, vilified by many others. Often defiantly marginal, it nevertheless inhabits the very fabric of everyday life, providing us with ways of imagining and classifying our world; what is evil and what is good; what is monstrous and what is 'normal'; what can be seen and what should remain hidden.The Horror Reader brings together 29 key articles to examine the enduring resonance of horror across culture. Spanning the history of horror in literature and film and discussing texts from Britain, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Hong Kong, it explores a diversity of horror forms from classic gothic literature like Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to contemporary serial killers, horror film fanzines and low-budget movies such as The Leech Woman and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Themes addressed include:* the fantastic * horror and psychoanalysis * monstrosities * different Frankensteins * vampires * queer horror * American gothic * splatter and slasher films * race and ethnicity * lowbrow and low-budget horror * new regional horror.The Reader opens with an introduction to 'the field of horror' by Ken Gelder, and each thematic section includes an introductory preface. There is also a comprehensive bibliography of horror literature.

Horror has been one of the most spectacular and controversial genres in both cinema and fiction - its wild excesses relished by some, vilified by many others. Often defiantly marginal, it nevertheless inhabits the very fabric of everyday life, providing us with ways of imagining and classifying our world; what is evil and what is good; what is monstrous and what is 'normal'; what can be seen and what should remain hidden.The Horror Reader brings together 29 key articles to examine the enduring resonance of horror across culture. Spanning the history of horror in literature and film and discussing texts from Britain, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Hong Kong, it explores a diversity of horror forms from classic gothic literature like Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to contemporary serial killers, horror film fanzines and low-budget movies such as The Leech Woman and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Themes addressed include:* the fantastic * horror and psychoanalysis * monstrosities * different Frankensteins * vampires * queer horror * American gothic * splatter and slasher films * race and ethnicity * lowbrow and low-budget horror * new regional horror.The Reader opens with an introduction to 'the field of horror' by Ken Gelder, and each thematic section includes an introductory preface. There is also a comprehensive bibliography of horror literature.

This revised and updated edition of a hugely successful book brings together the most valuable and stimulating writings on subcultures, from the early work of the Chicago School on ‘deviant’ social groups to the present day theories and research.This new edition features a wide range of articles from some of the biggest names in the field including Dick Hebdige, Paul Gilroy and Stanley Cohen, and expertly combines contemporary essays and critique with classic and canonical texts on subcultures.Examining an eclectic array of subcultures, from New Age travellers, to comic book fans, The Reader looks at how they are defined through their social position, styles, sexuality, politics and their music, and this new edition gives expression to the diversity of subcultural identifications, from scenes and ‘tribes’ to the ‘global underground’.With specially selected articles, grouped sections, editors introductions and a general introduction which maps out the field, it gives students and teachers of cultural studies an invaluable study aid.

This revised and updated edition of a hugely successful book brings together the most valuable and stimulating writings on subcultures, from the early work of the Chicago School on ‘deviant’ social groups to the present day reasearch and theories.This new edition features a wide range of articles from some of the biggest names in the field including Dick Hebdige, Paul Gilroy and Stanley Cohen, and expertly combines contemporary essays and critique with classic and canonical texts on subcultures.Examining an eclectic array of subcultures, from New Age travellers, to comic book fans, The Reader looks at how they are defined through their social position, styles, sexuality, politics and their music, and this new edition gives expression to the diversity of subcultural identifications, from scenes and ‘tribes’ to the ‘global underground’.With specially selected articles, grouped sections, editors introductions and a general introduction which maps out the field, it gives students and teachers of cultural studies an invaluable study aid.

In this important book, Ken Gelder offers a lively, progressive and comprehensive account of popular fiction as a distinctive literary field. Drawing on a wide range of popular novelists, from Sir Walter Scott and Marie Corelli to Ian Fleming, J. K. Rowling and Stephen King, his book describes for the first time how this field works and what its unique features are. In addition, Gelder provides a critical history of three primary genres - romance, crime fiction and science fiction - and looks at the role of bookshops, fanzines and prozines in the distribution and evaluation of popular fiction. Finally, he examines five bestselling popular novelists in detail - John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, Jackie Collins and J. R. R. Tolkien - to see how popular fiction is used, discussed and identified in contemporary culture.

In this important book, Ken Gelder offers a lively, progressive and comprehensive account of popular fiction as a distinctive literary field. Drawing on a wide range of popular novelists, from Sir Walter Scott and Marie Corelli to Ian Fleming, J. K. Rowling and Stephen King, his book describes for the first time how this field works and what its unique features are. In addition, Gelder provides a critical history of three primary genres - romance, crime fiction and science fiction - and looks at the role of bookshops, fanzines and prozines in the distribution and evaluation of popular fiction. Finally, he examines five bestselling popular novelists in detail - John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, Jackie Collins and J. R. R. Tolkien - to see how popular fiction is used, discussed and identified in contemporary culture.

This book presents a cultural history of subcultures, covering a remarkable range of subcultural forms and practices. It begins with London’s ‘Elizabethan underworld’, taking the rogue and vagabond as subcultural prototypes: the basis for Marx’s later view of subcultures as the lumpenproletariat, and Henry Mayhew’s view of subcultures as ‘those that will not work’. Subcultures are always in some way non-conforming or dissenting. They are social - with their own shared conventions, values, rituals, and so on – but they can also seem ‘immersed’ or self-absorbed. This book identifies six key ways in which subcultures have generally been understood:through their often negative relation to work: idle, parasitical, hedonistic, criminaltheir negative or ambivalent relation to classtheir association with territory - the ‘street’, the ‘hood’, the club - rather than propertytheir movement away from home into non-domestic forms of ‘belonging’their ties to excess and exaggeration (as opposed to restraint and moderation)their refusal of the banalities of ordinary life and in particular, of massification.Subcultures looks at the way these features find expression across many different subcultural groups: from the Ranters to the riot grrrls, from taxi dancers to drag queens and kings, from bebop to hip hop, from dandies to punk, from hobos to leatherfolk, and from hippies and bohemians to digital pirates and virtual communities. It argues that subcultural identity is primarily a matter of narrative and narration, which means that its focus is literary as well as sociological. It also argues for the idea of a subcultural geography: that subcultures inhabit places in particular ways, their investment in them being as much imaginary as real and, in some cases, strikingly utopian.

This book presents a cultural history of subcultures, covering a remarkable range of subcultural forms and practices. It begins with London’s ‘Elizabethan underworld’, taking the rogue and vagabond as subcultural prototypes: the basis for Marx’s later view of subcultures as the lumpenproletariat, and Henry Mayhew’s view of subcultures as ‘those that will not work’. Subcultures are always in some way non-conforming or dissenting. They are social - with their own shared conventions, values, rituals, and so on – but they can also seem ‘immersed’ or self-absorbed. This book identifies six key ways in which subcultures have generally been understood:through their often negative relation to work: idle, parasitical, hedonistic, criminaltheir negative or ambivalent relation to classtheir association with territory - the ‘street’, the ‘hood’, the club - rather than propertytheir movement away from home into non-domestic forms of ‘belonging’their ties to excess and exaggeration (as opposed to restraint and moderation)their refusal of the banalities of ordinary life and in particular, of massification.Subcultures looks at the way these features find expression across many different subcultural groups: from the Ranters to the riot grrrls, from taxi dancers to drag queens and kings, from bebop to hip hop, from dandies to punk, from hobos to leatherfolk, and from hippies and bohemians to digital pirates and virtual communities. It argues that subcultural identity is primarily a matter of narrative and narration, which means that its focus is literary as well as sociological. It also argues for the idea of a subcultural geography: that subcultures inhabit places in particular ways, their investment in them being as much imaginary as real and, in some cases, strikingly utopian.

Subcultures attract a great deal of interest, both in popular media and in academic work. Comprehensive and fascinating, these four volumes represent work on subcultures across several disciplines: cultural history, cultural studies, criminology and sociology. Beginning by looking at accounts of subcultures in sixteenth-century England, the set then presents case studies that contrast work on gangs and graffiti with CCCS work on subcultures. Volume three then follows CCCS work on punks, by turning to music subcultures, and, lastly, the fourth volume highlights five recent trends in subcultural studies - body subcultures, sexed subcultures, fan and micro-media communities, grassroots and ‘neo-pagan’ subcultures, and ‘virtual communities’ and cybercultures.

From the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1770 to classic children's tale Dot and the Kangaroo, Ken Gelder and Rachel Weaver examine hunting narratives in novels, visual art and memoirs to discover how the kangaroo became a favourite quarry, a relished food source, an object of scientific fascination, and a source of violent conflict between settlers and Aboriginal people. The kangaroo hunt worked as a rite of passage and an expression of settler domination over native species and land. But it also enabled settlers to begin to comprehend the complexity of bush ecology, raising early concerns about species extinction and the need for conservation and the preservation of habitat.

This Element looks at adaptations of bestselling works of popular fiction to cinema, television, stage, radio, video games and other media platforms. It focuses on 'transmedia storytelling', building its case studies around the genre of modern fantasy: because the elaborate storyworlds produced by writers like J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling and George R. R. Martin have readily lent themselves to adaptations across various media platforms. This has also made it possible for media entertainment corporations to invest in them over the long term, enabling the development of franchises through which their storyworlds are presented and marketed in new ways to new audiences.

This book brings together new contributions in Popular Fiction Studies, giving us a vivid sense of new directions in analysis and focus.

Over the course of the 19th century a remarkable array of character types appeared – and disappeared – in Australian literature. Some had a powerful influence on the colonies’ developing sense of identity; others were more ephemeral. But all had a role to play in shaping and reflecting the social and economic circumstances of life in the colonies.