Ellesse Patterson
Affiliation: University of Sheffield
Research Areas:
Period: 18th Century Gothic, 19th Century Gothic, 21st Century Gothic
Gender: Female Gothic, Gothic Masculinity, Queer Gothic, Gothic Gender
Interdisciplinary Approaches: Eco-Gothic, Folklore and Myth
Genres and Media: Fiction, Film and TV, Games, Comics and Graphic Novels
Regions and Cultures: Postcolonial Gothic, American Gothic, Black Gothic, Creole Gothic, English Gothic, European Gothic
Creatures: Ghosts, Monsters, Vampires, Zombies
Ellesse Patterson recently began her second year as a PhD student at the University of Sheffield. She is AHRC funded through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH). Her thesis, ‘Monstrous Reproduction and Nation in the Long Nineteenth-Century British Gothic’, examines the intersection of life, death, and national terror embedded within Gothic reproduction narratives. She has previously published her research in Gothic Studies and regularly presents her research on the Gothic at conferences in the UK and internationally.
Her passion for the Gothic was ignited when she read Angela Carter’s anthology of dark fairy-tales, The Bloody Chamber and Other Tales, during her BA in English and History, sparking a deep interest in weird fiction and the macabre. After falling in love with Carter, Ellesse began to voraciously read the works of authors such as Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Mary Shelley, and Bram Stoker.
Outside of her PhD, Ellesse enjoys creative writing, spoiling her cats, baking, exploring new places, and taking long walks (usually with a coffee in hand). She loves learning strange historical facts and thinks the best conversation starter opens with, “Did you know…?”
Email: elpatterson1@sheffield.ac.uk
