In 2018 I was asked to give some lectures on a topic of my choice to students at Xidian University, Xi'an, where I'm currently teaching. Scrabbling around for something straightforward enough for non-native English speakers, which I could do some basic introductory talks about with limited access to research materials, and which would be interesting for me, I settled on weird fiction.

These are the lectures I delivered. I don't consider myself any kind of expert, and welcome suggestions, corrections and constructive criticism. I may even find myself needing to lecture again, and in that case I'd have a new, better version to offer.


De Decker, Boris (2011). Gothic elements in the fantasy worlds of Mervyn Peake and Sylvia Townsend Warner - an analysis and comparison
Joshi, S. T. (2016) The Evolution of the Weird Tale
Machin, James Fabian (2016) ‘Determined to be Weird’: British Weird Fiction before Weird Tales
Nevins, Jess (2018). Horror Needs No Passport: 20th Century Horror Literature Outside the U.S. and U.K.
Sedgwick, Marcus (2014) What makes Gormenghast a masterpiece? The Guardian, 16 August 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/16/gormenghast-masterpiece-mervyn-peake
Skulls in the Stars (2011) Laird Barron’s “Occultation”. 14 May 2011 https://skullsinthestars.com/2011/05/14/laird-barrons-occultation/
Wilkinson, Kate (2015). Baddies in books: Steerpike, the great manipulator. The Guardian, 24 February 2015 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/24/baddies-in-books-steerpike-gormenghast-mervyn-peake
Zeitlin, Judith T. (1997) Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale