• About Laura Kremmel

    I am a graduate student working on my dissertation on unwhole bodies in Romantic Gothic literature at Lehigh University. My areas of interest are Romanticism, Gothic literature (Romantic to Contemporary), photography and visual arts, and depictions of the body in art and literature. I also like zombies and horror films.

    The Monk (Le Moine): A Film Review

    by  • February 3, 2013 • Pedagogy, Reviews • 0 Comments

    As I begin my dissertation chapter on Matthew Lewis, I try to think of not only what research I can contribute to the field but also what related teaching opportunities and activities could be useful in future classes. One possibility for teaching well-known literature is often to include a lesson on adaptation: how can...

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    Last-Minute Gift Ideas for Academics (or what to get with your holiday Amazon giftcards)

    by  • December 23, 2012 • Advice • 0 Comments

    My department has recently introduced these two books to the grad students through reading groups and classes. Both give great professionalization advice for various stages in the studying, working, and writing processes. Semenza, Gregory Colón. Graduate Study for the 21st Century: How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,...

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    Getting to the Good Parts: Chapbooks and Blue Books

    by  • October 12, 2012 • Research • 2 Comments

    demon of venice

    One of my favorite things about Broadview Press’s 2006 edition of Zofloya (1806), by Charlotte Dacre, is the inclusion of a chapbook version of the original text in the appendix. Dacre’s novel, which occupies 216 pages in this edition, has been condensed into a 19-page document that speeds through the tale, sidestepping scenes of...

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    Vital Viscera

    by  • August 25, 2012 • Research • 3 Comments

    dissection_lesson.-SPL

    Though I have temporarily shifted my research from early nineteenth-century depictions of the body to contemporary zombie studies, I’m finding my previous research and the ideas of Romantic-era physicians to be astoundingly enlightening for this project in terms of the vitalism controversy: does materialism or vitalism—“the theory that life is generated and sustained through...

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    Love Letter to Mr. Lewis

    by  • July 15, 2012 • Reading, Research • 2 Comments

    monk lewis

    As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the original Gothic tradition met with some pretty extreme ambivalence from other writers and pretty staunch criticism from reviewers in the late eighteenth century. Matthew G. Lewis—the writer of The Monk, who also happened to be an MP—got the brunt of abuse from those critical...

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    Graduate Study: Abroad and at Home

    by  • June 8, 2012 • Advice • 0 Comments

    flags

    Many of the top graduate programs in British Romanticism can be found in the United States. Some might find this strange: that, for many of us, our academic interests, geographically-speaking, lie so far from where we live, work, and study. Why, if we’re so invested in learning about the culture of another country, regardless...

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    On Starting a Reading Group

    by  • April 22, 2012 • Advice • 0 Comments

    Once I’d finished my coursework requirements, I found myself really missing the chance to regularly gather with fellow grad students and talk about reading. Studying for exams and writing the dissertation can be isolating experiences.  Some large programs may have a few students studying or writing within similar fields, but smaller programs don’t always...

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    A Gathering of Gothics

    by  • March 30, 2012 • Conference Digests • 0 Comments

    It was a dark and stormy afternoon, and a small group of learned scholars gathered to whisper amongst themselves the secrets of haunted castles, monstrous creatures, and dark forbidden crimes. The rain pelted against the large windows as the wind howled through the trees… the palm trees? San Diego, CA had found its own...

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