Episode 9 | "The Rocky Road: Irish Gothic, Ancestral Memory, and Sinners" | Dr. Kathryn O'Callaghan

The vampire in Sinners is Irish. That is not an accident. Dr. Kathryn O'Callaghan, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, brings a perspective no one else in this series can: the Irish Gothic tradition, from Bram Stoker to the present, and what it means that Ryan Coogler chose an Irishman as his monster. In this episode, she traces the real historical solidarity between the Irish and the Choctaw Nation, explains why that solidarity broke down when Irish immigrants arrived in America, and shows how all of it is encoded in the character of Remick — a man who lost his soul and wants someone else's ancestors to replace it. The most surprising conversation in the series. This episode is hosted by Dr. Brittney Frantece, Thurgood Marshall Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of African and African American Studies, Dartmouth College, and is produced by the Dartmouth Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life in collaboration with the Dartmouth Media Production Group.