Two horror movies were released in close succession this summer and both have been sparking conversation – Obsession and Backrooms.

Obsession, directed by Curry Barker and starring Inde Navarrette, explores what happens when a man who is infatuated with his friend wishes that she would love him more than anyone in the world – and has that wish granted. Even if you haven’t seen the film, you can imagine  how horribly awry things go from there. The film explores the way that gender dynamics, power, and control of romantic partners intersect.

Read more about the portrayal and exploration of gender in the horror genre with these articles (be sure to be logged in for off-campus access or connected to UAA WiFi!):

• ‘“Do you feel held?”: Gender, Community, and Affective Design in Midsommar’ by Cary Elza
• Gender and Mental Health in Possession Film: A European and North American Portrait by Maria Gil Poisa
• The Horrors Persist, But so Do We: A Feminist Rhetorical Critique of Patriarchal Hauntings in Contemporary Horror Cinema by Crystal R. Orellano

Backrooms, directed by Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofo, follows a man living in a furniture store who discovers a portal into a seemingly endless liminal space. The film was based on a web series created by Parsons which was based on “the Backrooms” creepypasta. (Creepypasta is a term used to describe user-generated horror stories that are shared through online platforms, like chatrooms, videos, and forums.) Read more with these articles and books:

• Analog Horror and the Internet: The Mandela Catalogue and the Uncanny Reality of Mediation by Emma Eleanor Jones Culver
• The Creepypasta collection : modern urban legends you can’t unread edited by MrCreepyPasta
• The Emotion of Dread in Cinematic Horror by Matthias De Bondt

Both films are part of a new movement in horror that is shifting the way that horror is evoked and expressed (and both directors are in their 20s!). You can explore more with this ebook, Post-Horror: Art, Genre and Cultural Elevation by David Church.

If you’re interested in learning more about the horror genre or any other topic, get in touch with us at the Information and Research Help Desk – we’re always happy to help!

Interested in learning more about Iran? Iran has a long and rich history, which you can explore through the books and articles in our collection. Scroll down for some highlights from our print book collection!

Iran : a modern history by Abbas Amanat, an Iranian born scholar and historian, covers the history of Iran from 1501 to 2009. Rather than a linear survey of historical events, Amanat explores Iranian history through various themes, following through lines that have had impacts on the modern world.

A history of modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian focuses on Iran in the twentieth century. He writes about Iran under the rule of the Qajars at the beginning of the century all the way through to the rise of the Islamic Republic.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the history of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution that took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, check out History of the Iranian constitutional revolution by Ahmad Kasravi and translated from the Persian by Evan Siegel. Ahmad Kasravi was an important Iranian historian and legal scholar (among other things).

Learn more about contemporary Iranian art in Contemporary Iranian art : from the street to the studio by Talinn Grigor. Published in 2014, this book presents the art has been created in Iran since the 1979 revolution and the way it is influenced by the political, social, religious, and cultural context that surrounds it. It examines state sponsored art, works created by artists for galleries in Iran, and art created by the Iranian diaspora.

Explore Iran’s culture through it’s food with Joon : Persian cooking made simple by Iranian chef Najmieh Batmanglij. Adapted to accommodate busy lifestyles, Batmanglij shows you how to make Persian food with a few key ingredients and techniques.

Want to explore more? Search our catalog to find more books or use Quick Search to find articles! And don’t forget that you can always reach out to the Information & Research Help Desk for assistance finding resources – we’re accessible in person, by phone, chat, or email!

If you are writing a paper and trying to keep track of your references and citations, you have probably tried a citation tool to help. There are several different options that we highlight in our How To Guide for Citation Tools. In this post we wanted to highlight one you may not have tried yet – Zotero!

Zotero is a free to use open source program that allows you to easily save, organize, and cite your sources. It includes an application that you can download to your laptop as well as a browser plug-in called Zotero Connector.

Zotero Connector detects research and you can click it any time you find a useful source to save it – whether it’s a newspaper article or a scholarly work you found in one of the Library’s databases.

Once you save a source, you can find it in the application. There you can organize all your sources by project or topic. Zotero also integrates directly into Word and GoogleDocs so you can easily create in-text citations and a works cited/reference page.

Another perk to Zotero is that it is free to use for everyone – which means you can continue to use it after you graduate!

Find more information about Zotero in this handy Guide to Zotero or visit the Zotero website. If you need help getting started with Zotero, they provide an easy quick start guide.

If your heart hasn’t already been broken and healed by Punch, the abandoned baby Japanese macaque who is just doing his best and trying to fit in at a zoo in Ichikawa City Zoo, you’re in for a real emotional journey. When he first arrived at the zoo, he struggled with socializing and showed signs of anxiety from the isolation. To help him with his transition, zoo-keepers gave him an orangutan plushie which he took to very fondly – photos of him cuddling and carrying the plushie around the enclosure quickly went viral and the heart of the Internet was captured.

Happily, Punch has now been seen being groomed and held by one of the adult macaques – a wonderful development for his socialization with the other monkeys at the zoo! You can read the Ichikawa City Zoo’s update here (if you don’t read Japanese, click the “translate” button!)

You can find photos and read more about Punch here.

Want to learn more about the social dynamics of Japanese macaques? Check out this search or some of the articles highlighted below (be sure to be logged in for off-campus access or connected to campus WiFi before clicking links)!

Male–male social bonds predict tolerance but not coalition formation in wild Japanese macaques by Tatsuro Kawazoe

Social play among juvenile wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) strengthens their social bonds by Masaki Shimada and Cédric Sueur

Have more questions about macaques or another topic? Reach out to us at the Information & Research Help Desk!

However you feel about Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, there is no denying that this classic novel is in the minds and on the lips of almost everyone right now. If your curiosity is piqued and you’d like to explore the text or its themes further, we have what you need at the Consortium Library!

We will be hosting a panel and community discussion featuring faculty from the UAA English Department both in person in Library Room 307 and on Zoom – check out the flyer below and scroll down to explore resources on your own.

Want to go back to where it all began and get your hands on the source text? There are several print copies available through the catalog. Browse copies and find an available one here (and remember that you can request a book from another library by clicking “place hold”).

This particular copy includes historical context, background on the Brontë sisters, contemporary reviews from 1847 and 1850, and modern criticism.

Wuthering Heights is now part of the public domain, so you can also download an eBook copy to read on your phone, computer, or eReader from Project Gutenberg.

Let’s dive deeper!

Twentieth century interpretations of Wuthering Heights : a collection of critical essays, edited by Thomas Vogler, explores various aspects of the text. Through these essays, you’ll read several different viewpoints that dive into the structure of the novel, its major themes, and offer perspectives on the work as whole.

Wuthering Heights: the writing in the margin by Maggie Berg can serve as a reading companion and will guide you through some of the historical context and main characters and themes. This would be helpful for both first-time readers and re-readers.

Romantic vision and the novel by Jay Clayton explores the role of the romantic visionary moment (a moment of transcendence) in the narrative structures of English novels. The author dives into a different text in each chapter – chapter 4 is devoted to Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship (and expression thereof) in Wuthering Heights. He also studies Mansfield Park, Clarissa, and Little Dorritt, among others.

You can also read this thesis by a UAA Masters Student from 1997: The text of subversion: mythic disruption in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights by Sheri Denison. The thesis explores mythical interpretations of the world created by the text and argues that it “emerges as a counter-cultural, subversive narrative, a narrative seeking the origins of chaos as well as civilization, and the origins of individual identity as well as social identity.”

Charlotte and Emily Bronte by Tom Winnifrith and Edward Chitham is a short text that gives an overview of the lives of the most well known of the Brontes. The complete poems of Emily Jane Brontë presents 200 of Bronte’s poems in one place. The volume was compiled posthumously by C. W. Hatfield.

Find other texts about Emily Brontë here and about Wuthering Heights specifically here.

Heathcliff’s character has always inspired debate and conversation – it’s no wonder that the film’s casting and portrayal of him would do the same. The articles and books below explore aspects of Heathcliff’s character, including his motivations and racialization. (Be sure to be logged in for off-campus access or connected to campus WiFi before clicking links)

• Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff: His Journey of Jealousy by Kitty Carlisle
• Heathcliff’s Abject State in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights by Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey
• Shadows and sparks in Wuthering Heights by Maria Panagiotopoulou
• Heathcliff as bog creature: racialized ecologies in Wuthering Heights by Emma Soberano
• Geometries of race, class, and gender : identity crossing in Wuthering Heights by Carine M. Mardorossian (available at UAF, place hold to request!)
• From Simianized Irish to Oriental Despots: Heathcliff, Rochester and Racial Difference by Elsie Michie
• Myths of Power. A Marxist Study of the Brontës by Terry Eagleton

The relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff has drawn discussion since the publishing of the text. Is this the greatest love story ever told? How else might we interpret their relationship? These themes are explored in the following articles (and you can find many more beyond these!)

• The Two Faces of Love in Wuthering Heights by James Phillips
• An Appraisal of Catherine and Heathcliff’s Love Relationship by Graeme Tytler
• The lunatic and the devil’s disciple: the ‘lovers’ in ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Marianne Thormahlen
• Catherine Earnshaw’s journey to her home among the dead: fresh thoughts on ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Epipsychidion.’ by Patsy Stoneman

A couple other articles I thought looked interesting are included below:

• Catherine Earnshaw’s Ghost Story: Wuthering Heights as Narrative of Female Revenge by Negeen N. Nikravesh
• Weeping and Wailing in Wuthering Heights by Graeme Tytler

Want to watch other adaptations of Wuthering Heights? There are several! These films are available on DVD through the library system – you may have to place a hold on some of them:

• Wuthering Heights (2011)
• Wuthering Heights, PBS Masterpiece Classic (2009)
• Wuthering Heights (2003)
• Wuthering Heights, BBC Mini-Series (1967)
• Wuthering Heights (1939)

If you’re interested in learning more about Wuthering Heights, or any other topic, get in touch with us at the Information and Research Help Desk – we’re always happy to help!