This book is an original and innovative study of how Gothic nostalgia and toxic memory
are used to underpin and promote the ongoing culture wars and populist politics in
contemporary popular culture. The essays collected here cover topics from the spectral to
the ecological, deep fakes to toxic ableism, Mary Poppins to John Wick to reveal
how the use of an imaginary past to shape the present, creates truly Gothic times that we
can never escape. These hungry ghosts from the past find resonance with the Gothic
which speaks equally of a past that often not only haunts the present but will not let it
escape its grasp. This collection will look at the confluence between various kinds of toxic
nostalgia and popular culture to suggest the ways in which contemporary populism has
resurrected ideological monsters from the grave to gorge on the present and any possibility
of change that the future might represent.
Acknowledgements.- 1. Introduction Simon Bacon and Katarzyna
Bronk-Bacon.- 2. 1408 and the Structure of Haunting Jeffrey Andrew
Weinstock.- 3. Toxic Nostalgia in Contemporary Gothic Horror Brandon R.
Grafius.- 4. Toxic Nostalgia in the Wake of the Postmodern Turn Matthias
Stephan.- 5. Deepfake Sockpuppets: The Toxic Realities of a Weaponised
Internet Katy Wareham-Morris.- 6. The Nostalgia of Setting, Sex and Sound
in the Wicker Men Films Lauren Rosewarne.- 7. The American Dream and American
Nightmare: The Toxic Pursuit of Nostalgia and Happiness Presented
in Poltergeist (1982) and Poltergeist (2015) Rob Mclaughlin.- 8. Youre Too
Focused on Where Youve Been:Uncanny Nostalgia in Mary Poppins
Returns Daniel Kasper.- 9. Pulling Our Strings: The Gothic Nostalgia of Luca
Guadagninos Suspiria J. Simpson.- 10. I Just Wanted to Preserve It Just as
It is: Gothic Nostalgia in The Watcher Abel Fenwick.- 11. Prevention is
Better Than Cure: Anachronistic Therapists and Toxic Wellness Catherine
Pugh.- 12.Patriarchy Then and Now with a Twist: The Postmodern Horror of
Alex Garlands Men M. Keith Booker and Isra Daraiseh.- 13. But now, yeah,
Im thinking Im back: The All-consuming Gothic Nostalgia in the John Wick
Franchise Simon Bacon.- 14. Gothic Nostalgia in Louise Welshs The Cutting
Room and The Second Cut Martyn Colebrook.- 15. Toxic Ableism and Gothic
Nostalgia in Fanfiction about Mermaids Martine Mussies.- 16. Of Greed and the
Undead Past: Rahi Anil Barves Tumbbad as an Exercise in Toxic
Nostalgia Aparajita Hazra.- 17. Soviet Nostalgia in the Vampire
Trilogy A Tale of the Soviet Vampire by Aleksandr Slepakov (2014-18) Patrycja
Pichnicka-Trivedi.- 18. Oh no. Not again!: Toxic Nostalgia and Antisemetic
Recursive Memory in Ghost Stories.- Vicky Brewster.- 19. Extremist Nostalgia:
Mike Mas Novellas as 21st Century Far-Right Gothic Helen Young.- Notes on
Contributors.
Simon Bacon is an independent scholar based in Pozna, Poland.
Katarzyna Bronk-Bacon is Assistant Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in
Poznan, Poland.
