NAME: Katarzyna Ancuta
EMAIL ADDRESS: kancuta@gmail.com
ONLINE PORTFOLIO: www.asiangothic.houseoftoyols.com
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0035-8374
SOCIAL MEDIA: www.facebook.com/bangkokgothic
EDUCATION
- 2002 – PhD in English – English Literature, Literary Theory and Cultural Studies;
University of Silesia, Katowice, POLAND - 1996 – MA in English – English Literature and Literary Theory; degree with distinction,
University of Silesia, Katowice, POLAND
RESEARCH INTEREST
Gothic / Horror Studies with a focus on interdisciplinary and cross-cultural contexts of contemporary Gothic / Horror, and in particular:
- Asian Gothic / Asian Horror (literature, film, television, art, theatre, music, visual culture, folklore, fashion, lifestyles, etc.)
- Twentieth and Twenty-first century Gothic/Horror
- Gothic/Horror cinema and television
- Gothic in popular culture
- Gothic in contemporary art
- Gothic bodies
- Gothic technologies
- Gothic and the everyday life
- Gothic cities / Gothic spaces
- Ghosts and monsters
- Serial killing and cannibalism
COURSES TAUGHT
- Theories of Cultural Studies
- Film Analysis
- Literature and Film
- Television in the Age of Streaming
- Dracula and Modern Culture
- Introduction to Visual Arts
KEY PUBLICATIONS
Books
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. Where Angels Fear to Hover: Between the Gothic Disease and the Meataphysics of Horror. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2005.
Edited Collections (books and journals)
- Ancuta, Katarzyna and Li-hsin Hsu, eds. Special Issue on Asian Gothic. The Wenshan Review2 (2023).
- Ancuta, Katarzyna and Deimantas Valanciunas, eds. South Asian Gothic: Haunted Cultures, Histories and Media. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2021.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, Anita Lundberg, Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska, and Roger Osborne, eds. Special Issue on Tropical Gothic. eTropic 18.1 and 18.2 (2019).
- Ancuta, Katarzyna and Mary J. Ainslie, eds. Thai Cinema: The Complete Guide. London: I.B. Tauris, 2018.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna and Patrick F. Campos, eds. Special Issue on Locating Southeast Asian Horror Cinema. Plaridel 12.2 (2015).
- Ancuta, Katarzyna and Mary Ainslie, eds. Special Issue on Thai Horror Film. Horror Studies 5.2 (2014).
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, Wojciech Kalaga and Jacek Mydla, eds. Political Correctness: Mouth Wide Shut? Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009.
Selected Recent Articles (books and journals)
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “From Folklore to Horror: The Medium as a Case for Thai Folk Horror.” Horror Studies 14.2 (2023): 249-263.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Scared Stiff: Jiangshi and Chinese Vampires.” The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. Ed. Simon Bacon. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 1-21.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Asian Gothic: Asian Folklore and Globalgothic.” The Edinburgh Companion to Globalgothic. Ed. Rebecca Duncan. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023. 411-424.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Monsters in the Making: Phi Pop in Thai Folk Horror.” Folk Horror: New Global Pathways. Eds. Dawn Keetley and Ruth Heholt. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2023. 167-184.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Fight Like a Girl: Jeeja Yanin as a Female Martial Arts Star.” Film Stardom in Southeast Asia. Ed. Jonathan Driskell. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022. 203-219.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Sons, Husbands, Brothers: The Gothic Worlds of Thai Men in the Films of Kongkiat Khomsiri.” The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 11.1&2 (2022): 133-146.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Detecting Ghosts: Anjaan: Special Crimes Unit as Global Gothic Television.” South Asian Gothic: Haunted Cultures, Histories and Media. Eds. Katarzyna Ancuta and Deimantas Valanciunas. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2021. 243-258.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “B is for Baempaieo: The Rise of K-vampires.” Continuum 35.2 (2021): 233-245.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “From Revenants to Vampires: The Transmedia Evolution of the Jiangshi.” The Transmedia Vampire: Essays on Technological Convergence and the Undead. Ed. Simon Bacon. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland, 2021. 146-161.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Communal After-Living: Asian Ghosts and the City.” The New Urban Gothic: Global Gothic in the Age of the Anthropocene. Eds. Holy-Gale Millette and Ruth Heholt. London: Palgrave, 2020. 173-190.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “The Waiting Woman as the Most Enduring Asian Ghost Heroine.” Gothic Studies 22.1 (2020): 81-97.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Gothic and Installation Art: Spectral Materialities, Monstrous Ephemera.” Gothic and the Arts. Ed. David Punter. Edinburgh University Press, 2019. 82-106.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Asian Gothic.” Twenty-First Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion. Eds. Maisha Wester and Xavier Aldana-Reyes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. 249-262.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Love, Death and Laughter in the City of Different Angels: S.P. Somtow’s Bangkok Gothic.” eTropic 18.1 (2019): 70-89.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Hong Kong Gothic: Category III Films as Gothic Cinema.” B-Movie Gothic: International Perspectives. Eds. Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018. 186-208.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Patterns of Shadows: Japanese Crime Gothic as Neo-Gothic.” Echinox 35 (2018): 269-287.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna, “Strange Ghosts: Asian Reconfigurations of the Chinese Ghost Story.” The Routledge Handbook to the Ghost Story. Eds. Scott Brewster and Luke Thurston. London: Routledge, 2017. 260-269.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “The Return of the Dismembered: Representing Organ Trafficking in Asian Cinemas.” Neoliberal Gothic: International Gothic in the Neoliberal Age. Eds. Linnie Blake and Agnieszka Soltysik-Monet. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017. 83-103.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Beyond the Vampire: Revamping Thai Monsters for the Urban Age.” eTropic1 (2017): 1-15.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “That’s the Spirit: Horror Films as an Extension of Thai Spiritualism.” Ghost Movies in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Narratives, Cultural Contexts, Audiences. Eds. Peter J. Bräunlein and Andrea Lauser. Leiden: Brill, 2016. 123-140.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “The Smiling Dead, or On the Empirical Impossibility of Thai Zombies.” Vampires and Zombies: Transnational Transformations. Eds. Dorothea Fischer-Hornung and Monika Mueller. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2016. 21-42.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Lost and Found: The Found Footage Phenomenon and Southeast Asian Supernatural Horror Film Genre.” Plaridel 2 (2015): 149-177.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Asian Gothic.” The Cambridge Companion to Modern Gothic. Ed. Jerrold E. Hogle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 208-223.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Thai Horror Film: Ghosts, Archives of History/ies, ‘Real Life,’ and Collective Trauma.” Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese1 (2014): 46-61.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Spirits in Suburbia: Ghosts, Global Desires and the Rise of Thai Middle-Class Horror.” Horror Studies2 (2014): 233-247.
- Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Asian Gothic.” A New Companion to the Gothic. Ed. David Punter. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012: 428-441.