[Commlist] Call for papers: a companion to Dennis Wheatley

Dennis Wheatley sold around one million books a year at the height of 
his popularity and over 50  million in total. Britain’s ‘occult uncle’ 
shaped modern popular understanding of the weirdly esoteric and the 
darkly satanic in a way without parallel, but his books equally 
celebrated the luxuries of good wine and cigars, were adapted into 
successful films by Hammer, taught suspicion of the foreigner, described 
sex and sexuality in surprisingly frank terms for the era, influenced 
the Bond stories and the course of the Second World War, and drew on 
copious research.

Writing across genres, from non-fiction works on history and magic, 
science fiction, historic fiction, spy and war thrillers to his most 
familiar black magic novels, Wheatley’s fame and success are apparent 
but his writing career remains under-interpreted. That is despite his 
global success and many ways he continues to influence contemporary 
themes and issues. A writer sensitive to the power of landscapes and 
national identity, to the role of language in the supernatural, to the 
way sex and the sacred and profane could intermingle, his works 
undergird many areas of modern significance from folk horror to Brexit.

This collection intends to be the first sustained scholarly 
interrogation of this prolific writer’s works and impact.

The proposed volume is intended to be scholarly but accessible in tone 
and approach.

Abstracts of up to 250 words are invited explaining the focus and 
approach the chapter will take.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

Satanic panics

English and continental witchcraft

Women as witches, women as victims, women in the occult

Landscapes, standing stones and folk horror

Language and the supernatural

European environments and travel writing

Sexuality and exploitation

Paranoia and otherness

Conspicuous consumption

Wheatley’s contemporaries in pulp and black magic fiction

The popularisation of other writers in the Library of the Occult

Wheatley on film

Wheatley and his critics

Spy fiction

War writing and fictional wars

Army intelligence and deception planning

The Nazi occult

Historical fiction

Genre and narrative experiment

Abstracts of up to 250 words and a biography of 100 words should be 
emailed to Gina Wisker at (gw647 /at/ bath.ac.uk) <mailto:(gw647 /at/ bath.ac.uk)> and 
Marcus Harmes at (marcus.harmes /at/ usq.edu.au) 
<mailto:(marcus.harmes /at/ usq.edu.au)> by August 12^th 2024. Decisions will 
be returned August 24^th 2024.

The chapter drafts of 4500 words (including references) are due November 
1^st 2024.

We are in discussion in with a European publisher.


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