3.21 - Global Gothic 3: Gothic in Modern Scandinavia

Summary

Since the millennium, there has been a boom in Gothic stories in the Scandinavian countries. Many of them have received global attention, such as John Ajvide Lindqvist’s vampire novel Let the Right One in (2004), which has been adapted into two films, one Swedish-language film and one American version. This chapter addresses the historical and cultural context for this contemporary outburst of Gothic stories in the Scandinavian countries. It also presents some possible prerequisites for its international success. First, the chapter provides a survey of Gothic fiction in the Nordic countries, from its beginning in the nineteenth century up to the present. It demonstrates how Scandinavian Gothic is densely intertextual at the same time as it makes visible political and ecological anxieties central for the understanding of Scandinavian identities and ideologies. It also emphasises the use of Nordic settings and local folklore. Second, the mode expands on three distinct Gothic categories in Scandinavian narratives: the use of local popular believes in today’s crossover and Young Adult stories, the Gothic qualities of the Scandinavian landscape and its mythic creatures, and the rise of certain Gothic hybrid genres, such as Gothic crime.