The Gothic and Horror genres have consistently been used as methods to deny Black humanity since the 19th century. At best, Blacks are absented from the representational politics of the two genres; more often than not, the plots of hellish locations and traumatic encounters figures Black people—either literally or figuratively present—as monstrous villains. While Toni Morrison reminds us that such representations are merely reflections of the dreamer’s own repressed desires and disdained behaviours, such representations have had very real, awful ramifications for Black people in their day-to-day existence. Produced as monsters in fiction, Blacks were and are treated like real monsters in the sociopolitics of predominantly white, Western countries like the US and UK.

 However, Blacks have not simply accepted this representational fate. Not long after pro-slavery advocates and politicians began welding Gothic tropes to rationalize Black oppression, formerly enslaved narrators appropriated the genre to tell their stories, pointing the monstrosity back at their white enslavers. Although later Black Gothic writers moved away from depicting whiteness as Monstrosity through most of the 20th century, 21st century Black Gothicist have returned to the trope in order to critique systemic whiteness. Authors like P Djelli Clark, Matt Ruff—who participates in the tradition—and filmmakers like Jordan Peel and Uche Aguh investigate, name, and attempt to understand the monster which neglects, violates and throws away African American subjects. As such, this talk will examine several African American Gothic texts and Horror films, and their meditations upon the nature of whiteness and its will to destroy Black subjects. We’ll consider how various fictions seem to confront the monsters behind anti-Blackness only to discover that either the rationale or the true villain ultimately escapes.

Maisha Wester is a visiting lecturer from Indiana University, Bloomington at the University of Sheffield, sponsored by the British Academy’s Global Professorship fellowship. Her research focuses on Gothic literature and Horror Film, investigating racial discourses and manifestations in Gothic Literature and Horror film, as well as the way Black Diasporic people have appropriated the genres to speak back against oppressive socioeconomic rhetoric.