by Noah Patterson  In William Peter Blatty’s film The Exorcist, the catalyst of demonic possession transforms Regan, a young girl, into a prime example of the abject and grotesque. Through reasons unknown (though one posited explanation includes playing with an Ouija board), Regan becomes the target of a powerful demon and is rendered unrecognizable by […]

By Sarah James “It was bloody. Messy. Thirty-one flavors of bottom-dwelling nasties. Hell, most days it felt like 360 degree combat. But there was something about being there.” These are the words Dean Winchester of The CW’s Supernatural chooses to describe his experience in purgatory. The idea of purgatory is not new; many religions have […]

By Rose Franklin Few fictional characters have attained the level of fame that British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has held for over a century. The eccentric detective was first introduced to readers in the late 1800s through a series of short stories and novels that quickly captivated British and American audiences, whose […]

By: Shannon Walter “Good zombie movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society and our society’s station in the world. They show us gore and violence and all of that cool stuff too but there’s always an undercurrent of social commentary and thoughtfulness.” – Robert Kirkman When […]

by Natali Cavanagh Gravity Falls is a Disney Channel children’s television show that follows Dipper and Mabel Pines, twelve-year-old twins visiting their great uncle (or “Grunkle”) Stan for the summer in the small town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. Stan is a con artist who has transformed his home into a kitschy tourist trap, the Mystery […]

By Cassandra Grosh Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games is a coming-of-age novel with a twist: horrific, murderous monsters. These monsters are man-made mutations, called “muttations” or “mutts,” that serve as another means by which the characters die or kill each other. The mutts cause pain and suffering to the characters, but they also serve as […]

The Digital Literature Review is back, and we are eager to receive your submissions for our upcoming issue on Monsters! Last year, we researched freak shows and other forms of human exhibits in our society and culture as a whole. This year, in preparation, we’ve been reading a wide variety of articles and narratives about […]

Greetings readers!  We at the DLR have appreciated your commitment and interest in our journal and blog throughout the year.  As the academic year winds down and the team prepares for the journal’s next chapter, we thought we would bring all of you into the daily life of a DLR team member. In this blog […]

By Lauren Cross Human trafficking has become a prevalent aspect of our society, and an awareness of its impact can be seen everywhere, from college organizations to Facebook timelines and even to Hollywood movies (which raise awareness–sometimes inadvertently–by casting top actors in the roles of heroes rescuing victims from this horrendous business). While human trafficking […]

By Gabriel Barr [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEddixS-UoU] Our society is one that prides itself on its differences but still chooses to judge others on the ones that stick out the most in relation to restrictive norms. There are stigmatizing labels for everything from sexuality to gender to whether or not one enjoys certain foods. One way that […]