Join the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies for this book launch to celebrate the exciting recent publication of Contemporary Body Horror (Cambridge Elements, 2024) by our Centre member, Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes. The book addresses biopolitics, infection, embodied identities and metamorphosis and the consequences of the biotechnological revolution on the human, focussing specifically on 21st-century body horror on screen.

The event will begin with refreshments from 17.00 in the Geoffrey Manton atrium (outside Lecture Theatre 5 on the ground floor). There will be the opportunity to buy discounted copies of the book at a publisher’s stall. At 17.30 there will be a Q and A with the author, hosted by Brontë Schiltz, from the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, followed by questions from the audience.

This is a free hybrid event, with the option to join us on campus in central Manchester or online via Teams. If joining online, the link will be emailed to you two days in advance of the event and on the morning of the event as a reminder. Please book at least 24 hours in advance in order to register for the online link and join us from 17.20 onwards on Teams.

Contemporary Body Horror https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/contemporary-body-horror/10961433A22AB27B686E06079F5EAECF

‘Body horror’, a horror subgenre concerned with transformation, loss of control and the human body’s susceptibility to disease, infection and external harm, has moved into the mainstream to become one of the greatest repositories of biopolitical discourse. Put simply, body horror acts out the power flows of modern life, visualising often imperceptible or ignored processes of marginalisation and behavioural policing, and revealing how interrelations between different social spheres (medical, legal, political, educational) produce embodied identity. This book offers the first sustained study of the types of body horror that have been popular in the twenty-first century and centres on the representational and ideological work they carry out. It proposes that, thanks to the progressive vision of feminist, queer and anti-racist practitioners, this important subgenre has expanded its ethical horizons and even found a sense of celebratory liberation in fantastic metamorphoses redolent of contemporary activist movements.

Xavier Aldana Reyes is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. His publications include the books Contemporary Body Horror (Cambridge University Press, 2024), Gothic Cinema (Routledge, 2020), Horror: A Literary History (British Library Publishing, 2016), Horror Film and Affect (Routledge, 2016) and Body Gothic (UWP, 2014). Xavier is co-president of the International Gothic Association and chief editor of the Horror Studies academic book series.