Gothic Folklore and Fairy Tale: Negative Nostalgia

This article introduces the special issue and outlines the field of Gothic folklore and fairy tale, demonstrating how the emergence of the Gothic in the late eighteenth century was closely imbricated with the surge of folklore and fairy tale collecting in Britain and Europe. The article then begins a theorisation of Gothic folklore and fairy tale through the concept of negative nostalgia, in which gothic and folk narratives borrow from each other, presenting archaic elements in a dark, violent, monstrous mode that abjects and disavows features that conflict with modern progressivism, but remain nostalgically desired.