Gothic fiction is full of stories of women falling in love with monsters. This event brings together two feminist interpretations of seminal gothic texts – Frankenstein, and the relationship between Percy and Mary Shelley, and Carmilla, the sapphic precursor to Dracula.

Caroline Lea’s Love, Sex and Frankenstein explores female rage, creative madness and the steamy scandal that birthed the world’s most famous work of gothic fiction. Set against the violent wilderness of the Peaks and the uncontrolled appetite of the Industrial Revolution, Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone is a modern retelling of Carmilla, a captivating story of female hunger and desire.

Chaired by Anna Metcalfe.    

Sponsored by the University of Birmingham.