Monsters, Vampires and the Gothic Imagination

Tuesday 14th February at the DeCotta Law Lecture

An Evening with Lord Byron: Monsters, Vampires and the Gothic Imagination, presented by Elizabeth Merry

The date is June 18th, 1816; the venue is the Villa Diodati beside Lake Geneva and the dramatic Jura mountain range. Byron’s guests are his secretary Dr Polidori and Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley. Outside, the rain is beating down and thunder and lightning flash across the lake from the mountains. Inside, each of the four tries to intensify the gothic atmosphere by telling a ghost story.

Mary’s creation is ‘Frankenstein’ which was to be the most enduring result of that stormy night. This talk explores the artistic origins of the Gothic revival and the fascination with vampires, monsters and other horrors which found their expression in those stories.

We look at some of the weird, supernatural and fantastic subjects pictured by a range of artists including Fuseli, Blake, Wright of Derby and others, and at some depictions of Prometheus to explain Mary Shelley’s subtitle to Frankenstein: ‘The Modern Prometheus.’

About Elizabeth Merry
Over twenty years’ experience lecturing on a range of subjects including classical art and architecture, aspects of the visual arts and literature. Has lectured to the WEA, the University of Bristol’s Department of Continuing Adult Education, the Royal Society of Arts and the Jane Austen Society. Acted as a co-lecturer on study tours to Rome, Aachen, Cologne, Brittany and the Dordogne, and run study weekends for the WEA.

The lecture starts at 6pm in the Cultural Centre (Casa Cultura), Calle Granada, Nerja

Other NADFAS Society Members & Students €5, Non Members €10. For further information please telephone, Ali Durston (Nerja) 95 253 3373

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