The Dark World of Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is one of the most adapted Victorian novels, yet the most misunderstood. Is it romance or horror? And why is Heathcliff such a recognisable antihero?

Join Dr Joan Passey in unpacking the novel’s enduring influence and the ways its shadows still captivate and challenge readers today. We will also introduce the novel’s historical and cultural context, explore key themes, and examine how the characters reflect the sexual politics at the time. From Cliff Richard’s musical to Emerald Fennell’s bold 2026 reimagining, this talk reconsiders Wuthering Heights through the lenses of Gothic, medicine, and sexuality.

**Doors open at 4.30pm, talk starts at 5pm.**

**Speaker Bio:**

Dr Joan Passey is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Bristol where she specialises in the gothic, horror, and folklore in literature and culture. She has a Masters from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Exeter, both focusing on the gothic and the supernatural. She is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker and regularly contributes to and presents for BBC Radio 3, and has spoken at Hay Festival and from the BBC Proms. She edits anthologies for the British Library Tales of the Weird series, with titles including Cornish Horrors: Tales from the Land's End, Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles, and Phantoms of Kernow: Tales from Haunted Cornwall.

Presented by Seed Talks

This is an 18+ event