Laura R Kremmel

Niagara University, English, Faculty Member

University of Stirling, Gothic Imagination, Alumna

Lehigh University, English, Visiting Assistant Professor

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Humanities, Faculty Member

Followers

122

Following

Co-author

Public Views

Professional website: https://laurakremmel.wordpress.com/

I don't use academia.edu very much. Check out my website above or find me on Twitter: @LKremmel

I am an assistant professor in the Humanities Department at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, starting Fall 2017. I received my PhD from Lehigh University in May 2016 and was a visiting assistant professor in the English department there. My dissertation considers a range of Romantic-era poetry, novels, drama, and chapbooks within the context of the history of medicine to examine ways in which Romantic-era Gothic literature picks up late eighteenth century medical theory. I teach interdisciplinary literature and composition courses at SDSMT, and I have taught both traditional and online courses at Lehigh. I recently served as grad student co-chair for the NASSR Grad Student Caucus and postgraduate rep for the International Gothic Association. I also spent three years as supervisor for the undergraduate research journal, The Lehigh Review, and ran the grad student Gothic Reading Group at Lehigh for many years. I also founded and co-organized Lehigh's Annual Literature and Social Justice Graduate Conference.
Supervisors: Beth Dolan, Dawn Keetley, Michael Kramp, and Dale Townshend
Address: 101 Drown Hall
Lehigh University

less

Professor David Bolt

Liverpool Hope University

Doron Dorfman

Stanford University

Tanya Titchkosky

University of Toronto

Devon Healey, PhD

University of Toronto

Rod Michalko

Amanda Cachia

University of Houston

Georgina Cole

The National Art School, Sydney

Jeno Kidasi

John Bagnato

University of Pittsburgh

Katie Ellis

Curtin University

InterestsView All (27)

Uploads

Papers by Laura R Kremmel

Blind Survival: Disability and Horror in Josh Malerman's Bird Box

Studies in Gothic Fiction, 2018

Josh Malerman’s 2014 apocalyptic horror novel, Bird Box, reverses Gothic depictions of disability... more Josh Malerman’s 2014 apocalyptic horror novel, Bird Box, reverses Gothic depictions of disability as monstrous or metaphor for ignorance or weakness by presenting disability as protection. Creatures roam the earth, the mere sight of which causes immediate insanity, violence, and suicide. This unexplained event introduces blindness as a necessary choice, complicating the dichotomy between blindness and sight by making sight a fatal disability. I argue that this novel pushes the boundaries of ocularcentric thought through both a version of horror independent of visual spectacle and a depiction of a community that thrives by revising attitudes towards visual impairment. Despite the significant exposure and punishment of ocularcentrism that the novel presents, its main character struggles to surpass her old, societal judgment of blindness when outside the community that helps her relearn new ways to navigate the world. The nonlinear narrative highlights a tension between blindness as life-saving and blindness as monstrous. The novel closes with the dread-filled reminder that true revision of ableist attitudes requires more than horror—even inclusive horror—to overcome fear-inspired stigma.
https://sgf.cardiffuniversitypress.org/3/volume/6/issue/1/

Download

"Suddenly Monstrous: Gothic Configurations of Disability and Justice in Joshua Pickersgill Jr.’s The Three Brothers

This essay places Joshua Pickersgill’s novel The Three Brothers (1803) in the historical context ... more This essay places Joshua Pickersgill’s novel The Three Brothers (1803) in the historical context of Romantic-Era bodily difference and considers the options Gothic narratives offer to the monstrous Other pushed outside of the biopolitical sphere and the protection of the law. The Three Brothers, though obscure, captured the literary imagination of central Romantic figures, such as Lord Byron and Matthew Lewis, both of whom wrote plays inspired by the novel’s plot: a hunchback, Arnaud, suffering social and legal persecution for his deformity, makes a deal with the devil for a new, ideal body. Pickersgill’s text offers detailed insight into the experience of disability in the late eighteenth century, and it differs from other depictions of the period in that the disabled figure is not born into difference but rather acquires it later in life and, therefore, must navigate a new multiplicity of self and the uncertainty of bodily stability.