Monstrous Mobility in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula

This thesis explores Late Victorian Gothic texts that are central to theories on monstrosity in terms of mobility by examining Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula. The goal of this project is to survey the ways in which two exemplary monsters, Mr. Hyde and Count Dracula, promote mobility for others and themselves as an inherent part of their monstrosity. The variety of this mobility is demonstrated by examples showing how monsters move and encourage movement in ways that are social and transformative as well as physical. Because social mobility is essential to these movements, this study also considers the societies these monsters enter and interrupt. The gentleman bachelors of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula\u27s Crew of Light and the women they seek to protect are presented as monolithic groups that the monster joins, transforms, and spurs into movement. By identifying mobility as one of the main attributes of monstrosity, this argument seeks to not only add to the copious amount of scholarship already done on these works but also to reconcile some of them since many of the most critically controversial aspects of these texts are rooted in the monster\u27s mobility. A study focused on movement not only adds something that is missing from the existing discussion on these seminal monsters but also provides a new framework through which to discuss constantly evolving theories of monstrosity

PowerGaming: Queer BDSM and Weird Little Games.

Powergaming is a series of game sketches exploring the ways Queer BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism) can inform the development of critically engaged games. More specifically, it is an investigation into the ways the considerations of Queer BDSM, such as the redefinition of pleasure, can be harnessed to create play that promotes queer subjectivities and challenges hetero/cisnormative play. Through designing specifically for the body as a site of brink/edge space, Powergaming uses the methods of feminist pornography to encourage the cross-pollination of meaning across these boundaries, with the ultimate goal of engendering queerly subversive play

Playing Games with Tito:Designing Hybrid Museum Experiences for Critical Play

This article brings together two distinct, but related perspectives on playful museum experiences: Critical play and hybrid design. The article explores the challenges involved in combining these two perspectives, through the design of two hybrid museum experiences that aimed to facilitate critical play with/in the collections of the Museum of Yugoslavia and the highly contested heritage they represent. Based on reflections from the design process as well as feedback from test users, we describe a series of challenges: Challenging the norms of visitor behaviour, challenging the role of the artefact, and challenging the curatorial authority. In conclusion, we outline some possible design strategies to address these challenges

Oedipus Fallen: Irony in the Fiction of Milan Kundera

The dialogue Kundera depicts between himself and his characters is central to his work because this interplay mirrors that between the author and the reader. In that Kundera is sometimes a character in his fictions (not just a narrator), we must consider his role in his fiction as one of personas; some stronger, some thicker than others. Kundera, as the self conscious, autobiography-writing narrator of his stories, uses irony to mediate between his and our perspective on the, subject matter. Considering that his narrative tone has remained remarkably similar throughout his novels, and that his subject matter has closely followed the events of his life, we can conjecture that the narrative voice of his novels is not a fictive lie as if he was telling the story through a character\u27s consciousness, like Faulkner\u27s The Sound and the I Fury, for instance, but rather that it is some approximation of a Milan Kundera character who is the narrator of all his novels. The tone of his novels also serves to screen the reader from the truth to be wrested from Kundera; he employs self-deprecation, playfulness, cruelty, and lyricism to set off a spark of mystery in the conversation between himself and his readers

Nature tourism and Irish film

This article provides a historical overview and reading of seminal Irish film from the perspective of nature tourism. Within Irish cultural studies, tourism is frequently equated with an overly romantic image of the island, which has been used to sell the country abroad. However, using notions like the tourist gaze and taking on board influential debates around space/place, one can posit a more progressive environmental vision of nature and landscape in our readings of film