Acknowledgements
Introduction: 'Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs'
1. Foundations: Towards a Hardyan Folk Horror
2. Haunted Hardy
3. Cultural Bereavement
4. Re-Enchantment
5. Hardy Constructed and Re-Constructed
6. Hardy’s Range of Narrative Perspectives
7. Wessex on Page and Screen
Conclusion: 'Teach me to live that I dread the grave as little as
my bed'
Works Cited
Index
Examines the recent resurgence of folk horror and argues that Thomas Hardy is one of its progenitors by analysing his prose (in particular his rarely examined short fiction) and its adaptations as foundational in the development of folk horror in literature, film and television.
Alan G Smith is a researcher who specializes in
screenwriting, TV drama and Thomas Hardy. He has contributed to
Adaptation for Screenwriters (Bloomsbury, 2019), an anthology
Horrifying Tales (2021) and the forthcoming Venue Stories
(2023).
Robert Edgar is Professor in the York Centre for Writing
based in the School of Humanities at York St John University, UK.
He has published on Screenwriting (2009), Directing Fiction (2009),
The Language of Film (Bloomsbury, 2010 and 2015), The Music
Documentary (2013), The Arena Concert (Bloomsbury, 2015) and Film
Adaptation for Scriptwriters (Bloomsbury, 2019).
John Marland is Senior Lecturer in Film and Literature at
York St John University, UK, where he has both taught and developed
undergraduate courses in scriptwriting. He has published on
Screenwriting (2009), The Language of Film (Bloomsbury, 2010 and
2015), and Adaptation for Scriptwriters (Bloomsbury 2019).
This uniquely individual book melds the traditions of folklore,
folk horror, the Gothic and surrealism in order to create an
enhanced experience, one focused on interiority, for when we reread
the novels, short stories and poetry of Thomas Hardy that we know
and love. We are presented with witches and conjurors, skimmity
rides and phantom coaches alongside Social Darwinism and eugenics
and the 'wierding' of Emma Gifford, Hardy's first wife. Such
eclectic elements combine with the philosophy of Schopenhauer and
Taylor's notion of the Immanent Frame to remind us of how Hardy
re-enchants the universe – reconnecting us with 'an experience that
modernity disavows.' From The Wickerman to Hookland, the authors
seamlessly posit Hardy as progenitor of modern folk horror and its
many visual adaptations, lamenting that with one exception, the
1970s television adaption of certain stories from Wessex Tales, the
'eerie' in Hardy's stories is often turned to the 'dreary',
favouring the 'heritage' approach at the cost of the sublime and
the supernatural. This book aims to redress that balance, and does
so exceedingly well.
*Tracy Hayes, Independent Scholar and Secretary, The Thomas Hardy
Society, UK*
This book breaks new and important ground. Pointing to a long and
deep British history of folk horror, Thomas Hardy and the Folk
Horror Tradition delves into folklore, contemporary texts, and
Victorian literature. Uncovering a little examined vein of Hardy’s
work, this book paves the way for new and exciting explorations of
not only Hardy scholarship but also the whole tradition of folk
horror. Identifying a ‘Hardyan folk horror’, the authors focus on
his ‘dark side’, leading to an enticing and reinvigorating
conception of Hardy, his landscapes, beliefs, and the eerie
folklore of Wessex. By proving that Hardy’s folk horror was indeed
‘of its age’, the authors open up a whole new world for folk horror
scholars, Victorianists, and Hardy specialists.
*Ruth Heholt, Associate Professor of Dark Economies and Gothic
Literature, Falmouth University, UK*
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