Yvonne Leffler

The book explores the Gothic tradition in Swedish literature. It aims to give an overview of the development of Swedish Gothic from the Romantic age until today and to highlight the characteristic features of the Swedish tradition of Gothic in relation to transnational developments, in particular in relation to the Anglo-American tradition. By using a contextualising comparative perspective, it highlights the most prevalent and prominent feature of Swedish Gothic, the significance of the Nordic landscape, the wilderness and local folklore. In Swedish fiction, the terror is not pointing to the medieval period but is located in pre-Christian, pagan times. Especially in today’s Gothic narratives, the presence of mythical creatures and nature beings, such as trolls, tomtes or vittras enhances the Gothic atmosphere. Other domestic trends are Gothic crime stories, where supernatural creatures and powers constantly obstruct the modern crime investigation, and the use of gendered and female monsters.

Landscapes of Untamed Nature

Swedish Gothic

Maria Holmgren Troy

Johan Hoglund

Sofia Wijkmark

Jerrold Hogle

Giving an overview of contemporary Nordic Gothic in different media as well as tracing its history, Nordic Gothic also provides a number of case studies and in-depth analyses of individual narratives. It explores Nordic folklore, settings and identities as well as making visible cultural anxieties haunting the welfare state.

Nordic Gothic

Dark Forces, Creatures and the Wilderness

Johan Hõglund

Nordic Gothic traces Gothic fiction in the Nordic region from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, with a main focus on the development of Gothic from the 1990s onwards in literature, film, TV and new media. The volume gives an overview of Nordic Gothic fiction in relation to transnational developments and provides a number of case studies and in-depth analyses of individual narratives. It creates an understanding of this under-researched cultural phenomenon by showing how the narratives make visible cultural anxieties haunting the Nordic countries, their welfare systems, identities and ideologies. Nordic Gothic examines how figures from Nordic folklore function as metaphorical expressions of Gothic themes and Nordic settings are explored from perspectives such as ecocriticism and postcolonialism. The book will be of interest to researchers and post- and- undergraduate students in various fields within the Humanities.

Yvonne Leffler

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