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ILK, Evelyn Koch (Marburg): "Early-Modernism in Folk Horror: Re-Imagining the Long Seventeenth Century in Folk Horror"

Veranstaltungsdaten

Das Interdisziplinäre Literaturwissenschaftliche Kolloquium (ILK) ist ein Forum für Promovierende und PostDocs mit literaturwissenschaftlichem Schwerpunkt, welches dem interdisziplinären wissenschaftlichen Austausch und der Vernetzung dient. An drei Dienstagen verteilt über das Wintersemester 2024/25 bietet es die Möglichkeit, themenoffen die eigene Forschung zu präsentieren und zur Diskussion zu stellen.

Format: 

• Zwei Wochen vorher: Zirkulation einer eigenen Forschungsarbeit, z. B. eines Kapitels oder Essays, unter den Teilnehmenden. Falls es sich um ein Kapitel oder einen Abschnitt einer größeren Arbeit handelt, wird um eine kurze Synopse der Arbeit gebeten.
• Am Tag der Diskussion: kurze Vorstellung und Zusammenfassung (ca. 10 Minuten) des zirkulierten Texts mit anschließender Diskussion. Je nach Nachfrage werden zwischen 45 und 90 Minuten pro Beitrag geplant (1-2 Beiträge pro Treffen).
• Um am Kolloquium teilzunehmen und die Texte zu erhalten, wird um vorherige Anmeldung bei Florian Gödel gebeten.

The Interdisciplinary Colloquium in Literary Studies (ILK) offers doctoral candidates and postdocs at any stage a forum and serves as a platform for interdisciplinary scholarly exchange and networking. On three Tuesdays spread over the winter semester 2024/25, we invite (post)doctoral candidates working in literary studies to present their research and put it up for discussion.

Format: 

• Two weeks before: Circulation of a self-selected, own research paper, like, for example, a thesis chapter or a research article among the participants. If the text is part of a longer project, please include a short synopsis of the larger project.
• On the day of the discussion: short presentation and summary (ca. ten minutes) of the pre-circulated text with subsequent discussion. Depending on the number of contributions, we plan 45 to 90 minutes per contribution (1-2 contributions per meeting).
• To participate in the colloquium and receive the texts, please register with Florian Gödel in advance.

Abstract:

In recent years, adaptations of the early modern period have increased beyond adaptations of Shakespeare and royal period dramas. Particularly the seventeenth century has been adapted more in various media. But so far, the phenomenon of early-modernism, i.e. the re-imagining of the early modern period in post-early modern cultures, has received little scholarly attention compared to the vast field of medievalism. This paper seeks to add to the field of early-modernism by looking at Folk Horror, which has seen a revival in the 2000s and 2010s in Britain and beyond. First, this study looks at why the seventeenth century is a setting frequently used in Folk Horror narratives and focuses exemplary on Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968) and Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). Secondly, these films are analysed as adaptations of ‘popular demonic pamphlets’ of the early modern period and hence do not adapt history but a version of the long seventeenth century as it appears in sensational pamphlets. By recreating this violent version of the long seventeenth century, both Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan’s Claw also point to social and political challenges of the time, in which the films were produced. Thirdly, not only is the early modern period used as a setting for Folk Horror narratives but the overall aesthetics of Folk Horror is strongly influenced by seventeenth-century print culture and popular demonic pamphlets. The roman typeface of seventeenth-century print is frequently adapted in Folk Horror to convey a certain atmosphere and to evoke historical authenticity. By now it has become so recognisable that it is instantly associated with Folk Horror. The article also looks at elements of early modern print culture in Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England (2013) and its function. Folk Horror narratives that are not set in the long seventeenth century, equally feature elements of early-modernism and by the example Richard Wells’ art, which evokes early modern woodcuts, these elements are analysed and how early modern set pieces in Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth (2021) can contribute to the film’s atmosphere.

In diesem Kolloquium wird auch folgender Beitrag besprochen: Christian Junge. "Trauma, Empathy, and the Egyptian Revolution: Cultural Functions of Reading and Reviewing Al Aswany’s The Republic of False Truths on Goodreads"