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Why is it important?
This article looks beyond the familiar focus on literary fiction to explore the Gothic elements in the Victorian urban legend of Spring-heeled Jack. This leads into a consideration of how the Gothic could escape from literary texts and shape how people viewed supposedly 'real' events. While encouraging scholars to think about folklore as another type of Gothic text, it emphasises the need to appreciate the different way literary and folkloric tales operate.
Perspectives
Contributing to this edition of the journal was very important to me as a cultural historian interested in folklore and the Gothic. Gothic scholars have understandably prioritised literary and visual sources and, to date, there has been limited focus on stories from oral culture. It was an exciting opportunity to encourage scholars to broaden their range of sources and texts, and to consider more collective forms of Gothic storytelling.
Karl Bell
University of Portsmouth
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gothicizing Victorian Folklore: Spring-heeled Jack and the Enacted Gothic, Gothic Studies, March 2020, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/gothic.2020.0035.
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