Ken Gelder

Gelder and Salzman's work (this and its sequel, [b:After the Celebration: Australian Fiction 1989-2007|7008472|After the Celebration Australian Fiction 1989-2007|Ken Gelder|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328840797l/7008472._SY75_.jpg|7253316]) is appreciated by everyone. Literally, everyone. I can't find a single person who disapproves.

As the title suggests, The New Diversity explores the range of writing in Australian fiction between 1970, the era in which many of the Western social changes of the previous decade finally caught up with the Land Down Under, and 1988, the Bicentenary of white Australia and thus a landmark moment for discussion, celebration, rejection, anger, cheer, and unbridled nationalism. Also, conveniently enough, it was an era in which arts funding reached its greatest peak in Australia, primarily due to the progressive view of the Gough Whitlam government, and in which a new generation pushed to explore literature on Australian terms.

This is an intelligent, thoughtful book. Some of the chapters remain easy reading; others have become time capsules. All remain useful ways of approaching Australian texts, even as the generation of writers profiled here have either gone on to become iconic elder statespeople, or respected-but-unread names, or otherwise been forgotten completely, while new voices rise to the fore.… (meer)

A useful compilation of academic essays on classic works of horror (mainly film). I will note that the collection was published in 2000, meaning it does not contain anything from the last two decades of literary criticism of the horror genre. There are some classic pieces in here I was especially interested in having (e.g., ones on body horror and the final girl trope). I would say this is a collection geared almost entirely to those with an academic interest in the genre, and who are primarily oriented toward films. If one is a non-academic, or primarily interested in non-film literature, there's probably much less of interest here. It's not comprehensive--how could it be?--but it does provide a clear sense of what could be done in serious horror studies. If nothing else, it makes clear that this is a genre to be taken seriously.… (meer)

The Horror Reader brings together 29 key articles to examine the enduring resonance of horror across culture:

The Fantastic.
1. Definition of the Fantastic – Tzvetan Todorov.
2. 1848: The Assault on Reason – Jose B. Monleon.
3. Phantasmagoria and the Metaphysics of Modern Reverie – Terry Castle.

Horror and Psychoanalysis.
4. Vampires, Breast-feeding and Anxiety – Jsan Copjec.
5. Kristeva, Femininity, Abjection – Barbara Creed.
6. “In His Bold Gaze My Ruin Is Writ Large” – Slavoj Zizek.

Monstrosities.
7. Introduction to Monstrous Imagination – Marie-Helene Huet.
8. FREAKS – Mary Russo.
9. The Serial Killer as a Type of Person – Mark Seltzer.

Many Frankensteins.
10. Production and Reproduction: the Case of FRANKENSTEIN – Paul O’Flinn
11. Here Comes the Bride: Wedding, Gender and Race in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Reading the King Vampire.
12. Dialectic of Fear – Franco Moretti.
13. The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonisation – Stephen D. Arata.
14. Vampyric Typewriting: Dracula and its Media – Jennifer Wicke.

Queer Horror.
15. Dr Jekyll’s Closet – Elaine Showlater.
16. Tracking the Vampire – Sue-Ellen Case.
17. Female Spectator, Lesbian Spectre: THE HAUNTING – Patricia White.

Ethnic Monsters.
18. Vampires in Greece – Ken Gelder.
19. KING KONG and the Monster in Ethnographic Cinema – Fatimah Tobing Rony.

American Gothic.
20. Introduction to American Horrors – Gregory A. Waller.
21. Introduction to American Gothic – Teresa A. Goddu.

Reading Splatter/Slasher Cinema.
22. Horrality – The Textuality of Contemporary Horror Films – Philip Brophy.
23. The Terror of Pleasure: the Contemporary Horror film and Postmodern Theory – Tania Modleski.
24. Her body, Himself – Carol J. Clover.

Low Brow/Low Budget Horror.
25. The Horror Film Fanzine – David Sanjek.
26. A (Sadistic) Night at the Opera: Notes on the Italian Horror Film – Leon Hunt.
27. Revenge of the LEECH WOMAN: On the Dread of Ageing in a Low Budget Horror film.

New Regional Horror.
28. Ghost Stories, Bone Flutes, Cannibal Countermemory – Graham Huggan.
29. Preposterous Hong Kong Horror: ROUGE’s (Be)hindsight and A (Sodomical) CHINESE GHOST STORY – Audrey Yue.… (meer)

This is a compilation of short stories that fans of crime fiction in general, and the local product in particular, will have on their must read lists.

Written from 1859 to 1933, this selection of 17 stories provide a fascinating insight into the social issues that were being addressed by crime fiction authors during that period. Not surprisingly, the delivery may have changed - and I suppose we're not tracking murderers through the bush on horseback much anymore - but the fundamental worries then are not a lot different from those that are being written about now. Nor is the standard of the storytelling, which in this book is absolutely fantastic. The collection contains stories from some of our finest early writers - John Lang, William Burrows, Mary Fortune, James Skipp Borlase, BL Farjeon, RP Whitworth, Campbell McKellar, Francis Adams, Ernest Favene, Guy Boothby, Roderic Quinn, Coo-ee (William Sylvester Walker), EW Hornung, 'Rolf Boldrewood' (Thomas Alexander Browne), Randolph Bedford, Norman Lindsay and Alan Michaelis.

Particular favourites of mine were the Mary Fortune stories (not just because she stands out amongst the male writers), the Norman Lindsay story and the Francis Adams - which contains references to events in The Murder of Madeline Brown; as an added bonus many of the stories are based in and around the Goldfields of Victoria (which gives the whole thing a particularly local feel for me anyway). All the stories are replicated from their originals, so the language and terminology is exactly as it was at the time - giving a very accurate representation of the style of writing, talking and living for the period. This has the added bonus of giving readers a look at how long so many of our local colloquialisms have been around, and conversely, how much has been lost.

Despite the possibility of local flavour, not just because it contains entries from favourite authors, this Anthology is a fascinating glimpse into our history, and into the quality and breadth of the Australian crime fiction writing fraternity, which it's easy to forget has been around for a long long time now. Australian have always told their own stories, and books like THE ANTHOLOGY OF COLONIAL AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION remind us how strong that tradition has always been.… (meer)