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Dr Erin Mercer

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities Media and Creative Comm

Erin teaches and researches in American literature, New Zealand literature, and genre, particularly gothic and realism. She gained a degree in performance from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked as a performer in New York before completing a double major BA in English and Theatre at the University of Otago and postgraduate studies in literature at Victoria University of Wellington. She taught both drama and literature at Victoria University before taking up a position at Massey in the English programme where she teaches courses on New Zealand and American literature, Young Adult fiction, as well as coordinating Introduction to English Studies. In 2014 Erin received a Special Commendation in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Awards. 

Erin is the author of Telling the Real Story: Genre and New Zealand Literature (Victoria University Press 2017), In Johnsonville or Geraldine: An Introduction to New Zealand Literature (Pearson 2013) and Repression and Realism in Post-War American Literature (Palgrave 2011). Her research has also appeared as book chapters and as articles in the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, the Journal of New Zealand Literature, and the Journal of New Zealand Studies, among others. Erin is the New Zealand Deputy Officer for the Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia (GANZA), and sits on the Advisory Board for the Popular Culture Research Centre at Auckland University of Technology.

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Research Expertise

Research Interests

Twentieth-century and contemporary American and New Zealand literature, genre (particularly realism, fantasy and Gothic), Beat literature, New Zealand literary nationalism, the uncanny and psychoanalytic theory.

Thematics

21st Century Citizenship

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Languages, Communication And Culture (200000): Literary Studies (200500): Literary Theory (200525): New Zealand Literature (excl. Maori Literature) (200505): North American Literature (200506)

Keywords

Twentieth-century and contemporary American and New Zealand literature, with a focus on genre, particularly Gothic and realism.

Research Outputs

Journal

Mercer, E. (2024). “This sense of otherness”: The Horrors of the Countryside in Andrew Michael Hurley’s Starve Acre.. Critique (Washington): studies in contemporary fiction. Latest Articles, 1-11 Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00111619.2024.2317890
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2021). “'In America?’: Children, Violence and Commodification in Stephen King’s The Institute”. Extrapolation. 62(2), 199-213 Retrieved from https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/extr.2021.11
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2021). “The Flaw Is Only the Inability to Accept”: Roads, Rationality and the Horror of Modernity in Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. Journal of Popular Culture. 54(1), 131-145
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2020). “‘This horrible patrimony’: Masculinity, War and the Upper Classes in Jessie Douglas Kerruish’s The Undying Monster.”. Gothic Studies. 22(3), 300-312 Retrieved from https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/gothic.2020.0063
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2020). "God is cruel": The Apocalyptic Imaginary of Stephen King's Desperation. The Journal of American Culture. 43(2), 123-132 Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jacc.13130
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2019). “‘He was afraid of my insistence on “Ghostses”’: Haunting, Spectrality, and Jack Kerouac. Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies. 6(1), 20-33 Retrieved from https://www.aeternumjournal.com/volume-6-issue-1
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2019). "The Difference Between World and Want: Adulthood and the Horrors of History in Stephen King's IT.". The Journal of Popular Culture. 52(2), 315-329 Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpcu.12786
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2017). “‘Shot at and slashed and whacked’: The Gothic Slaughterhouse in New Zealand Fiction.. Journal of New Zealand Literature. 35(2), 51-72 Retrieved from https://jnzl.ac.nz/
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2017). Impossible horrors in ordinary front yards: The uncanny and Elizabeth Knox’s wake. Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies. 4(1), 16-27 Retrieved from https://www.aeternumjournal.com/
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2016). The wolf bane is blooming again: Gothic desire in R.H. Morrieson’s the scarecrow. Text: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses. 35, 1-13 Retrieved from http://www.textjournal.com.au/
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2016). Sylvia Ashton-Warner's "strange cadences": Rereading Spinster and Incense to Idols. Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 51(3), 446-464
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2015). Violence and the return of the repressed in Mike Johnson’s dumb show. Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies. 2(2), 60-71
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2014). “‘A deluge of shrieking unreason’: Supernaturalism and Settlement in New Zealand Gothic Fiction.”. M/C Journal. 17(4)
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2014). 'Manuka bushes covered with thick spider webs': Katherine Mansfield and the Colonial Gothic Tradition. Journal of New Zealand Literature. 32(2), 85-105
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2013). The great unread New Zealand novel: David Ballantyne's Sydney Bridge Upside Down. Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 48(3), 393-409
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2013). Slumming among the gravestones: Elizabeth Knox's daylight and the New Zealand canon. Journal of New Zealand Literature. 31, 130-149
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2013). The great unread New Zealand novel: David Ballantyne's Sydney Bridge upside down. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 48(3), 393-409
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2012). War, homecoming and genre: John Mulgan's man alone and Jack Kerouac's on the road. Journal of New Zealand Studies. 13, 77-88
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2010). “Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand Theatre and Drama in an Age of Transition.”. Illusions: Moving Image and Performing Arts Criticism. , 48-51
[Book Review]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2010). "As Real as the Spice Girls": Representing Identity in Twenty-first Century New Zealand Literature.. Journal of New Zealand Studies. , 99-114 Retrieved from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/stout-centre/research/journals
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2010). Automatons and the Atomic Abyss: The Naked and the Dead. The Mailer Review. 4(1), 471-482 Retrieved from http://normanmailersociety.org/the-mailer-review/
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2010). Monstrous identities: Critical realism and gothic fantasy in Maurice Gee's the fire-raiser. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 45(1), 23-35 Retrieved from http://jcl.sagepub.com/
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2009). “Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative.”. Australasian Journal of American Studies. 28(2), 83-85
[Book Review]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2009). Frae ghosties and ghoulies deliver us: Keri Hulme's the bone people and the Bicultural Gothic. Journal of New Zealand Literature. 27, 111-130 Retrieved from http://www.waikato.ac.nz/wfass/jnzl/
[Journal article]Authored by: Mercer, E.

Book

Mercer, E.(2023). Stephen King and the Uncanny Imaginary. : Routledge
[Authored Book]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E.P. O'Donnell, S. Burn, & L. Larkin (Eds.)March(pp. 1 - 6). MarchAprilMercer, E.P. O'Donnell, S. Burn, & L. Larkin (Eds.)MarchApril
[Reference Book]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2021). "Totalitarianism". In M. Mckinley (Ed.) Norman Mailer in Context. (pp. 183 - 192). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press
[Chapter]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2018). “‘There Was More in this Darkness’: The New Zealand Ghost Story.”. In S. Brewster, & L. Thurston (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook to the Ghost Story. (pp. 242 - 250). New York, United States of America: Routledge
[Chapter]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2017). The gothic in Oceania. In A. Jackson (Ed.) New Directions in Children’s Gothic: Debatable Lands. (pp. 119 - 131). New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
[Chapter]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES.(2017). Telling the real story: Genre and New Zealand literature. : Victoria University Press
[Authored Book]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES.(2013). In Johnsonville or Geraldine: An introduction to New Zealand literature. Auckland, New Zealand: Pearson
[Authored Book]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES.(2011). Repression and realism in post-war American literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
[Authored Book]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2009). Urban spaces, hybrid faces: Rethinking identity in Paula Morris's Hibiscus Coast. In A. Jackson, & J. Stafford (Eds.) Floating Worlds: Essays on Contemporary New Zealand Fiction. (pp. 124 - 141). Wellington: Victoria University Press
[Chapter]Authored by: Mercer, E.

Thesis

Mercer, ES."Repression and Realism in Postwar American Literature 1945-1955": A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English.. (Doctoral Thesis)
[Doctoral Thesis]Authored by: Mercer, E.

Conference

Mercer, E. (2022, January). “‘That weird cat’: Steven King’s Pet Sematary and the Return of the Dead.”. Presented at Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2022, September). “Second Sight: Gothic Identities in Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep”. Presented at Popular Culture Research Centre
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2021, April). “Stephen Kings’ The Institute: Children, Violence and Commodification". Presented at Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2019, April). “This horrible patrimony”: Houses, Histories and Madness in Jessie Douglas Kerruish’s The Undying Monster.. Presented at Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australis
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2019, April). looking Backwards: Contemporary Realism and the Masculine P膩keh膩 Past in Laurence Fearnley’s The Hut Builder. Presented at Association of Commonwealth Language and Literature Studies
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2019, May). “God is cruel”: The Apocalyptic Imaginary of Stephen King’s Desperation". Presented at PCA/ACA Annual National Conference
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2019, January). “’This horrible patrimony’: Houses, Histories and Madness in Jessie Douglas Kerruish’s The Undying Monster”. Presented at “Gothic Journeys: Paths, Crossings, and Intersections”. Surfers Paradise, Australia.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, E. (2018, July). “Gothic Histories in Stephen King’s IT: The Difference between World and Want”. Presented at The 9th Annual Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference. Auckland.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2017, January). “When Horror Won’t Sleep: Elizabeth Knox’s Wake and the Return of the Repressed”. Presented at “Gothic Afterlives: Mutations, Histories and Returns”. Auckland.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2016, August). “New Zealand Literature and the Slaughterhouse Tradition”. Presented at “Un/Popular Narratives”. Auckland University of Technology.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2016, June). Haunting and Spectrality in the Work of Jack Kerouac. Presented at The Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand. Sydney.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2015, February). "Gothic Death and Mike Johnson's Dumb Show". Presented at Popular Culture Research Centre Symposium. Auckland.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2015, January). "Necrophilia, Incest and Rape: Gothic Transgression in R. H. Morrieson’s The Scarecrow". Presented at Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia. Sydney.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2013, February). Manuka bushes covered with thick spider webs’: Katherine Mansfield as a Gothic writer. Presented at Katherine Mansfield: Masked and Unmasked. Victoria University of Wellington.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2012, January). Frank Sargeson, Gothic, and the Problem of Evil. Presented at Gothic Antipodes: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Auckland.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2012, December). This Unspeakable Evasion: Saul Bellow and the Holocaust. Presented at The Limits of Responsibility: Histories, Species, Politics. 淘料视频, Palmerston North.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2011, September). "Genre and Colonial Identity in Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' and John Mulgan's 'Man Alone'. Presented at "Man Alone". Stout Centre for New Zealand Research.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2011, September). Men, Sometimes with Other Men, Moving: Stereotypes and National Identity in John Mulgan’s "Man Alone" and Jack Kerouac’s "On the Road".. Presented at Man Alone Conference. Stout Centre for New Zealand Research, Wellington, New Zealand..
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2010, June). "Critical Realism and Gothic Fantasy in New Zealand Children's Fiction". Presented at Symposium: Children and Young Adults Literature in New Zealand. Victoria University.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2009, September). Performing self: Identity in recent New Zealand fiction and theatre. Presented at Antipodes: New Directions in New Zealand History and Culture. Stout Centre for New Zealand Research.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2008, July). “Don’t Mention the War: The Uncanny and Norman Mailer’s 'The Naked and the Dead'”. Presented at Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association conference. University of Sydney.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.
Mercer, ES. (2008, December). “Frae ghosties an ghoulies deliver us”: Gothic Horror in Keri Hulme’s 'the bone people'. Presented at Flogging a Dead Horse: Are National Literatures Dead?. Stout Centre for New Zealand Research.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Mercer, E.

Teaching and Supervision

Teaching Statement

Erin has supervised research projects focusing on New Zealand literature and drama, Gothic, science fiction and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Summary of Doctoral Supervision

Position Current Completed
Co-supervisor 4 0

Current Doctoral Supervision

Co-supervisor of:

  • Ali Khanihoolari - Doctor of Philosophy
    Conservative Political Ideas and Popular Fiction: The Works of Frederick Marryat
  • Robert McLean - Doctor of Philosophy
    Not to Exact a Full Look at the Worst: (Mis)representations of Violence and the Abnegation of Reality in New Zealand Poetry
  • Joan Jia - Doctor of Philosophy
    Ecofeminist Consciousness in 鈥楶relude鈥 and Tales of Hulan River ---A Comparative 淘料视频 of and beyond Katherine Mansfield and Xiao Hong
  • Hannah Hansen - Doctor of Philosophy
    Empowering the Paranormal: Monstrosity, Power, and Postfeminism in the Paranormal Romance

Media and Links

Other Links