Folk Horror: New Global Pathways

by Dawn Keetley (Editor), Ruth Heholt (Editor)

Overview

While the undisputed heyday of folk horror was Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, the genre has not only a rich cinematic and literary prehistory, but directors and novelists around the world have also been reinventing folk horror for the contemporary moment. This study sets out to rethink the assumptions that have guided critical writing on the genre in the face of such expansions, with chapters exploring a range of subjects from the fiction of E. F. Benson to Scooby-Doo, video games, and community engagement with the Lancashire witches. In looking beyond Britain, the essays collected here extend folk horror’s geographic terrain to map new conceptualisations of the genre now seen emerging from Italy, Ukraine, Thailand, Mexico and the Appalachian region of the US.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786839817
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
Publication date:	04/15/2023
Series:	Horror Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Dawn Keetley is professor of English and film at Lehigh University. She is the author of Making a Monster: Jesse Pomeroy, the Boy Murderer of 1870s Boston.


Ruth Heholt is associate professor of dark economies and gothic literature at Falmouth University. She is the author of Catherine Crowe: Gender, Genre and Radical Politics.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Dawn Keetley and Ruth Heholt Part One: Folk Horror’s Folklore Chapter One: The Frightening Folk: An Introduction to the Folkloresque in Horror Jeffrey A. Tolbert Chapter Two: Whose Folk? Community, Folklore, Landscape and the Case of the Lancashire Witches Catherine Spooner Chapter Three: Folkloric Origins of the Ukrainian Gothic Svitlana (Lana) Krys Chapter Four: ‘Wow, this place is spooky at night!’ Suburban Ennui, Legend Quests and What Folk Horror Shares with Scooby-Doo Ian Brodie Part Two: Re-Visioning Canonical Folk Horror Chapter Five: The Curse of the Cursive: The Horror of the Hand in Folk Horror Film Typography David Devanny Chapter Six: The Devil His Due: Folk Horror, Occulture and the Black Magic Story Timothy Jones Chapter Seven: Black Boxes: Tradition and Human Sacrifice in American Folk Horror Bernice M. Murphy Part Three: Folk Horror in New Places Chapter Eight: Sunny Landscapes, Dark Visions: E. F. Benson’s Weird Domestic Folk Horror Ruth Heholt Chapter Nine: Monsters in the Making: Phi Pop and Thai Folk Horror Katarzyna Ancuta Chaper Ten: Curses, Rites and Questionable Offerings: Ludic Folk Horror in Video Games Tanya Krzywinska Part Four: Folk Horror’s Politics Chapter Eleven: Catholicism, Unification and Liminal Landscape in Italian Folk Horror Cinema Marco Malvestio Chapter Twelve: ‘Me quitarán de quererte, Llorona, pero de olividarte nunca’: La Llorona, Colonial Trauma and Mexicanness Valeria Villegas Lindvall Chapter Thirteen: Sacrifice Zones in Appalachian Folk Horror Dawn Keetley

Editorial Reviews

"From Lancashire to Appalachia, from Thailand to Ukraine, from typography to Scooby-Doo, via human sacrifice. In Folk Horror: New Global Pathways, Keetley and Heholt curate a vital addition to the field of folk horror studies, which takes the form beyond its British roots and examines its global manifestations and thematic interconnections. This is essential reading."

Robert Edgar

"This collection expands the map of the folk horror landscape into new areas, and also fills in details and finds new perspectives on the more well-known landmarks and pathways of the genre. Wearing its deep knowledge and thinking lightly, this is an essential addition to the growing folk horror bookshelf."

Queen’s University Belfast Dr Derek Johnston

"This is a very welcome book which is impressive in its scope. Keetley and Helholt have edited a collection of chapters that usefully redefine the concept of folk horror, moving beyond its British origins to explore the myriad folk horrors that have arisen around the world."

Paul Newland

"Folk horror is a relatively new and popular area of study, but few collections have the understanding and vision of the subgenre as this collection. Dawn Keetley and Ruth Heholt have created an important book that reveals the richness and variety of folk horror, and the ever growing recognition of its almost rhizomic nature and what is says about our individual pasts and collective futures."

editor of The Anthropocene and the Undead (2022) Simon Bacon

"This is a timely addition to the growing global Folk Horror community. Its distinct contribution lies in the stimulating way it binds the (pre-)history of the genre with its canonical texts, to exciting new global landscapes (the Ukrainian Gothic and Thai folk horror). It deeply enriches our appreciation of where folk horror originated and in what directions it may be heading."

York St John University Dr Wayne Johnson