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Professor Bernice Murphy

Professor in (English)
ARTS BUILDING
      
Profile Photo

Professor Bernice Murphy

Professor in (English)
ARTS BUILDING

 murphb12@tcd.ie

 3531896 2547


  American literature   Gothic Fiction   Horror   Popular Literature   Suburbia   The American Gothic
Project Title
 The California Gothic in Fiction and Film
From
2018
To
2022
Summary
This monograph explores the ways in which the dark side of the 'Golden State' has been depicted in contemporary fiction and film.
Funding Agency
TCD Arts and Social Sciences Benefaction Programme
Project Type
Monograph
Project Title
 Key Concepts in Contemporary Popular Fiction
From
To
Summary
This short introduction to key concepts and terms within contemporary popular fiction studies for Edinburgh University Press was published in January 2017. The book is particularly targeted at undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Project Type
Book
Project Title
 The Highway Horror Film
From
June 2013
To
December 2013
Summary
I have recently completed a short monograph for the Palgrave Pivot series. There is an increasing interest in the relationship between space/environment and the individual in relation to horror and gothic studies. I argue that the anxieties articulated in the 'Highway Horror Film' reflect profound unease about the impact that the rapid transformation of American society in the years following World War II had upon both the individual and society at large.
Project Type
Monograph (40,000 words).
Person Months
6
Project Title
 The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture: Backwoods Horror and Terror in the Wilderness,
From
January 2010
To
April 2013
Summary
This monograph examines the role that rural surroundings/the wilderness play in American Horror and Gothic narratives from the beginning of European settlement to the present day. The book is was published in October 2013.
Funding Agency
Trinity Arts and Social Sciences Benefaction Fund
Project Type
Monograph
Project Title
 Lost Souls: Horror and the Gothic Genres Forgotten and Neglected Personages
From
To
2016
Summary
Along with Elizabeth McCarthy, I am currently editing this essay collection, which consists of 60 short essays on neglected and forgotten figures who have made an under appreciated contribution to the horror and Gothic genres. The book will be published by McFarland in 2016.
Project Type
Edited Collection

Details Date
External examiner for a PhD thesis on Suburban Gothic at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. May 2022
External Examiner for PhD thesis on 'Agricultural Gothic' at Durham University. June 2023
External Examiner for PhD thesis on Shirley Jackson at the University of Montreal. December 2021
External Examiner for a PhD on Shirley Jackson at the University of Cardiff. January 2021
External Examiner for a PhD on the work of horror writer Thomas Ligotti at Manchester Metropolitan University. July 2019
External Examiner for PhD on American Popular Conspiracy Fiction at Stirling University, Scotland. November 2023
Details Date From Date To
Member of the Society for the Study of the American Gothic 2024 Present
Member of the Irish Association of American Studies (IAAS) 2003 Present
Member of the International Gothic Association (IGA) 2006 Present
Bernice M. Murphy, Ashley Lawson, On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett, American Literary History, 37, (4), 2025, p1191 - 1193, p1191-1193 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
American Serial Killers in, editor(s)Vivien Miller and James Campbell , The Routledge History of Crime in America, London, Routledge, 2024, pp215 - 230, [Bernice M. Murphy], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy, Shirley Jackson: celebrating 75 years of taut, ambiguous, disturbing stories, 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
'Black Boxes: Tradition and Human Sacrifice in American Folk Horror' in, editor(s)Dawn Keetley and Ruth Heholt , Folk Horror: New Global Pathways, Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 2023, pp127 - 143, [Bernice M. Murphy], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy, The California Gothic in Fiction and Film, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2022, 1 - 314pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy and Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, Twentieth-Century Gothic, Edinbugh, Edinbugh University Press, 2022, 1 - 324pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Folk Horror in, editor(s)Mark Storey and Stephen Shapiro , The Cambridge Companion to American Horror, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2022, pp139 - 153, [Bernice M. Murphy], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
'Going to Extremes: The Gothic in the Twentieth-Century' in, editor(s)Bernice Murphy and Sorcha Ni Fhliann , Twentieth-Century Gothic, Edinburgh, 2022, pp1 - 12, [Bernice M. Murphy and Sorcha Ni Fhliann], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
'Masks of Sanity: Psychopathy and the Twentieth-Century Gothic' in, editor(s)Bernice M. Murphy and Sorcha Ni Fhliann , Twentieth-Century Gothic, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2022, pp213 - 227, [Bernice M. Murphy], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Psychoanalysis and the Popular Gothic in, editor(s)Catherine Spooner and Dale Townshend , The Cambridge History of the Gothic Volume 3, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp180 - 198, [Bernice M. Murphy], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
  

Page 1 of 5
'It is a Wonderful Pleasure to Write to You...' in, editor(s)Laurence J. Hyman , The Letters of Shirley Jackson, New York, Random Houuse, 2021, ppxvii - xxxii, [Bernice M. Murphy], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Bernice M.Murphy, 'Beyond Midsommar: Folk Horror in Popular Fiction', 2019, -, Notes: [https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/beyond-midsommar-folk-horror-in-popular-fiction-1.3963971], Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy, 'Not a Place Fit for People: Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House', The Irish Times, (November 10th), 2018, Review Article, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy, Death on the Roads: Defining the Highway Horror Film, 2017, -, Notes: [http://www.horrorhomeroom.com/tag/highway-horror-film/], Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy , 'The Last Broadcast: Christine and Carnival of Souls', Review of Christine (2016), Horror Homeroom, 2017, Notes: [http://www.horrorhomeroom.com/tag/christine/], Review, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy, 'Girl Trouble: The Blackcoat's Daughter', Review of The Blackcoat's Daughter, Horror Homeroom, 2017, Notes: [http://www.horrorhomeroom.com/tag/the-blackcoats-daughter/], Review, PUBLISHED
Lost Souls of Horror and the Gothic: Fifty-Four Neglected Authors, Actors, Artists and Others , Bernice M. Murphy and Elizabeth McCarthy (Editors), 1st, North Carolina, McFarland, 2016, 1 - 248pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy, ''Short, Sharp Shocks'', The Stinging Fly Winter 2016-17: Fear and Fantasy Issue, Ireland, 2016, 86 - 89, Notes: [Nonfiction Piece ], Fiction and creative prose, PUBLISHED
'You Mean they Ate Each Other Up?' The Shining as Wendigo Narrative. in, editor(s)Danel Olson , The Shining: Studies in the Horror Film, Centipede Press, 2015, [Bernice M. Murphy], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Bernice M. Murphy, "The Suburban Gothic in CInema: Top 10", 2015, -, Notes: [http://www.moviegeek.eu/the-suburban-gothic-in-cinema-top-10.html], Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED

  


Page 1 of 2
Award Date
'Society for the Study of the American Gothic' 2024 Award for Best Scholarly Monograph on the American Gothic 2024
Elected a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin April 2017
IRCHSS Government of Ireland Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship October 2006
Arts and Social Sciences Benefaction Fund, €2,000 awarded towards research costs for 'California Gothic' January 2018
Arts and Social Sciences Benefaction Fund, €3,000 awarded towards research costs for 'The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture' ' January 2010
Provost's PhD Project Award November 2018
Leverhulme Post-Doctoral Fellowship (declined in favour of IRCHSS fellowship) May 2006
Trinity College Postgraduate Award 2002, 2003.
My research spans three overlapping areas. I am an expert on American writer Shirley Jackson (1916-1965). I edited the first essay collection dedicated to her work (2005); have published numerous book chapters on Jackson, and was academic consultant to The Selected Letters of Shirley Jackson (Penguin Random House, 2021). I have in recent years been working towards making Trinity an internationally recognised centre for Jackson studies. I was awarded a Provost's PhD award for my project, `Shirley Jackson: Beyond Hill House' in 2018, and along with my (then) PhD student Janice Deitner and my colleague Dara Downey, co-organised a successful online symposium dedicated to Jackson in December 2021 and 2022. I also specialise in American horror and Gothic studies and have published four monographs in this area: The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture (2009), The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture (2013), The Highway Horror Film (2014) and The California Gothic in Fiction and Film (2022), which won the 2024 Society for the Study of the American Gothic award for Best Monograph. I have also (with Sorcha Ni Fhlainn) edited the volume Twentieth-Century Gothic (2022). My research output also encompasses Popular Literature as a broader subject area. My textbook Key Concepts in Contemporary Popular Fiction was published in 2017 and (with Stephen Matterson) I edited the collection Twenty-First Century Popular Fiction (2018). I am currently co-editing The Cambridge Companion to True Crime with my colleague Clare Clarke, and have just started work on a new, Shirley Jackson-related book. Conferences: I have presented my research at numeous national and international conferences, including numerous International Gothic Association (IGA) biannual conferences; the 2012 Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association annual conference held in Boston, and the 2019 ASLE conference held at the University of California, Davis. I have given keynote addresses at conferences including the July 2018 IGA, the `Madness in Popular Culture" conference held at Edinburgh University in May 2018, and `Folk Horror in the Twenty-First Century" (Falmouth, UK, September 2019). In November 2024 I was a guest speaker and panellist at the 'Festival de Gènres Fantastàstics de Barcelona'. Publications: Monographs: The California Gothic in Fiction and Film, Edinburgh University Press, submitted. The Highway Horror Film. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Editions: (Academic consultant), The Letters of Shirley Jackson, edited by Laurence Jackson Hyman, Random House: New York, 2021. Edited Collections: (Edited with Sorcha Ni Fhlainn), Twentieth Century Gothic, EUP, 2022. (Edited, with Stephen Matterson), Twenty-First Century Popular Fiction. Edinburgh University Press, 2018. (Editor, with Elizabeth McCarthy), Lost Souls of Horror and the Gothic. North Carolina: McFarland, 2016. (Editor, with Elizabeth McCarthy and Darryl Jones) It Came From the 1950s: Popular Culture, Popular Anxieties, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. (Editor) Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy, North Carolina: McFarland, 2005. Textbooks: Key Concepts in Contemporary Popular Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.