This allied session, “California Gothic (co-sponsored by the Society for the Study of the American Gothic)," seeks papers on gothic texts that center the geographic spaces, cultural modes of engagement, or people of California either past or present. Following in the success of Bernice M. Murphy’s
The California Gothic in Fiction and Film and Charles L. Crow’s
California Gothic: The Dark Side of the Dream, this panel will examine the sunshine state’s gloomier histories, as well as the troubling trends still darkening its horizon.
Special consideration will be given to papers which respond to the PAMLA 2025 theme, “Palimpsests: Memory and Oblivion.”
Possible topics may include:
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Indigenous Gothic narratives
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Current Gothic trends in Hollywood/Silicon Valley
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Explorations of a “Californian Gothic” or “West Coast Gothic” mode
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Gothic readings of Californian architecture (such as the Spanish Missions becoming aestheticized on elite college campuses)
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Hollywood’s use of “Dumb Blondes” and “California Girls” in Gothic Noirs
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Gothic oblivion in California’s hazardous landscape (earthquakes, fires, landslides, and floods, oh my!)
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California’s gothic hyperrealities
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Works by James Ellroy, Alfred Hitchcock, Joan Didion, Dean Koontz, Coralie Fargeat, Dennis Etchison, Monika Kim, Jason Blum, and other prominent creatives with works focused on California
— Any other topic considering gothic motifs as relevant to California
This panel is co-sponsored by both PAMLA and the Society for the Study of the American Gothic (SSAG). If accepted, presenters on this panel will be required to be members of both PAMLA and SSAG. More information about SSAG membership costs can be found here:
https://ssag.wildapricot.org/Any questions or concerns about this double-membership rule can be directed to PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin: director@pamla.org.