Growing Gothic, Making Monsters

by Sophia and Kenshin Staite

This article proposes that if the Gothic is something that is done, it is surely done by children as well as adults. Reflecting on monsters as a site of intersection between the author’s doctoral candidature and their youngest child’s first years of schooling, it questions the boundaries and distinctions between academic work and home life, productivity and play, and joy and failure. Taking monster drawing as an instance of children’s Gothic practice, the article argues that focusing on adult reactions to this practice (rather than attempting to read meaning from the drawings themselves) is an approach with the potential to generatively disrupt the pedagogical logics and  disciplinary and disciplining norms that often underpin children’s Gothic research.