Description
Step into the shadowed world of passion, obsession and moral ambiguity in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
Join acclaimed Brontë scholar Dr Claire O’Callaghan and popular literary culture specialist Dr Jo Parsons for a thought-provoking discussion exploring the novel’s dark romantic legacy and its influence on contemporary phenomena, such as Twilight, After and The Vampire Diaries. Together, they will examine the enduring appeal of dark romance tropes including longing, intensity and toxicity, while questioning the ethics behind these narratives.
Is Heathcliff a romantic hero or something far more troubling? Discover why stories of destructive love continue to captivate audiences across generations and popular culture today.
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About the Author
Dr Claire O’Callaghan
Dr Claire O’Callaghan is a Lecturer in English at Loughborough University. She is the author of Emily Brontë Reappraised (2018) and has published widely on the Brontës lives and works. Claire is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of Brontë Studies, the journal of the Brontë Society.
About the Academic
Dr Jo Parsons
Dr Jo Parsons is Associate Professor of Popular Literature and Culture at Falmouth University. She specialises in romance and erotica, and is currently writing two books: one on the Bonkbuster and the other on SexTech and female pleasure. She is editor of Doomed Romances: Strange Tales of Uncanny Love (British Library 2024). She is co-editor, with Marie Macneill, of the creative anthology 13 Cornish Ghost Stories (Mabecron, 2024), which won the 2025 Holyer an Gof general fiction prize. She is co-founder of the International Women’s Writing Association.
Jo has also been featured in the media and press, including BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Germany’s Deutschlandfunk, the New Zealand Listener, Independent, Times Higher Education, the Death Studies Podcast, and Metro’s Mentally Yours.
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