The History of Gothic Fiction & Dark Academia - Talks in the Pub

Dr Sarah Gamble is taking the stage at The Blues Kitchen Brixton on Wednesday 4 November for a talk on the history of gothic fiction and dark academia. It's part of Talks in the Pub, a series by the team behind Seed Talks that pairs a pint and pub snacks with talks on things like the rise of dark academia and the female vampire. Seed Talks itself covers psychology, neuroscience and wellness, and has hosted over 150 talks across London with more than 44,000 people through the doors.

Dr Gamble is an Associate Professor in English Literature at Swansea University and a specialist in contemporary gothic fiction and women's writing. She's spent a good deal of her career on the life and work of Angela Carter, on whom she's written two monographs, Angela Carter: Writing from the Front Line (1997) and Angela Carter: A Literary Life (2006), and co-edited a two-volume collection of academic essays on Carter in 2025. That background in the gothic and in women's writing sits right at the heart of what she'll be talking about here.

The session traces dark academia's history from its gothic roots to its modern appeal, and it doesn't stop at the aesthetic. Gamble looks at how the trend speaks to contemporary worries about education becoming a business and about who really gets access to knowledge and privilege. It's a chance to see where the whole thing comes from and why it's still sticking around.

Doors open at 6:00pm and the talk starts at 6:15pm, running for about an hour and a half. Tickets are £16, and the venue is The Blues Kitchen Brixton, 40 Acre Lane, London SW2 5SP.