Weird Waterways: blue humanities and eerie canals in the Midlands

This article explores the eerie and uncanny qualities associated with the Midlands canal network, with particular focus on the gothic and weird fiction produced by three writers: Robert Aickman, Elizabeth Jane Howard, and L. T. C. Rolt. The article redresses the neglect canals have faced within the field of study known as the blue humanities and argues for the distinctive – and haunting – forms of affect and knowledge that canals can bring to humanities scholarship invested in bodies of water and their histories. Because of the extensive size of its canal network, the Midlands makes an excellent case study for establishing the role of the canal in the blue humanities. At the same time, the article argues for the value of apprehending the Midlands, particularly Birmingham and the surrounding region, as a richly aqueous or “blue” space, a region saturated and shaped by its inland waterways.