Contribution long abstract:

To the observer of the current UK folk resurgence, it seems like its appeal lies at both ends of the Gutenberg parenthesis, safely equidistant from the mixed mid-nineteenth legacies of early folklore. Yet the movement draws heavily on early folklore theory. It searches out an early modern, pre-imperial, prelapsarian Albion; inclusive, kind, connected to the land through stories, walks, enchantment and hauntings. In our present day, the old rituals, calendars, and ceremonies provide a glimpse of lost Arcadia, portals for activism, art, spirituality and people-power. It is digital, live, and fast moving. The folklorists, with their impenetrable theory, dull historiography, and inaccessible publications, would rather have the ‘mystery die on the autopsy table’ (Southwell 2016). Since discarded scholarly method has itself become both folklore and folkloresque, at least in the UK, how might we unwrite the discipline without unwriting the subject of study?