ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful for the unwavering support and sage advice of Andy Nestingen, series editor for New Directions in Scandinavian Studies, as this book took shape over the last few years. Andy showed admirable flexibility as my idea for the book changed in both topic and scope, and has been a generous sounding board and adviser as I worked to complete the manuscript. Larin McLaughlin, editorial director at University of Washington Press, also deserves recognition for supporting my work and shepherding this book through the rounds of peer review, revision, and publication. Larin always made herself available and patiently talked this first-time author through the many questions I had at every step of the process. I am thankful for the wisdom and insight she brought to the project. Special thanks go out to Caroline Hall and the entire UW Press editorial staff for their work on the layout, design, and many other practical matters that helped make this book a reality. I am also deeply grateful for the detailed and productive feedback I received from two anonymous peer reviewers. Their input helped me hone my argument and smooth out the manuscript’s many rough edges. I am indebted to them for their careful and generous reading of my work.

The entirety of this book was written amid the restrictions and upheavals of public and private life brought about by a global pandemic. I am grateful that, despite this strange new reality of isolation, my work benefited from robust and inspiring conversation with colleagues in Nordic film studies in both Europe and North America. In the final stages of revision—when I most needed support—I was invited to take part in a virtual Nordic film writing group that provided a valuable accountability mechanism to help me keep my deadlines. I am grateful to the participants in that group—Amanda Doxtater, Kimmo Laine, Arne Lunde, Anders Marklund, and Anna Estera Mrozewicz—for their support. I’m especially grateful to Arne Lunde—and his cat, Ingrid—for continuing the meetings with me and cheerleading my work this summer even when other members of the group couldn’t make it. Arne has always been beyond generous with his time and encouragement, and it has been a privilege to keep the virtual connection alive over the past couple of years. For her generous encouragement, support, and time over the last several years, I am grateful to Claire Thomson.

It is no exaggeration to say that this book probably would not have been completed without the support of my other virtual Nordic studies writing group, SSAWA—an acronym whose origins remain murky to those of us in the group. Meeting with my dear SSAWA colleagues, Amanda Doxtater, Benjamin Mier-Cruz, and Liina-Ly Roos, roughly every other week for the past two years has provided a steady rhythm of incisive feedback and shared conversations about our professional and personal lives. An invaluable intellectual alchemy has emerged from this group that had to do with reading and responding to so much of each other’s work in progress—a process that has been as pleasurable as it has been productive. Heia SSAWA!

In the final stages of writing this book, I was supported by a generous faculty fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Study here at the University of Minnesota, which allowed me to take a leave from my teaching duties during the fall of 2021. I am grateful to former IAS director Jennifer Gunn and to the amazing group of scholars she and the staff of IAS brought together. The interdisciplinary exchange of ideas during that semester inspired me to think critically about my assumptions and exposed me to new methodologies and ways of thinking that have had an immense impact on the direction of my work. I am grateful to Susannah Smith and the rest of the staff at IAS, who helped keep our cohort connected and supported amid the many practical challenges of remote work and an ongoing pandemic.

Throughout this process, I have enjoyed the support of an exceptional group of colleagues in the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch (GNSD) at the University of Minnesota. I am forever grateful to Charlotte Melin, chair of the department when I was hired in 2017, who welcomed me to Minnesota and subsequently drew me into a community of environmental humanities scholars here in Minneapolis. In that connection, I am thankful to Charlotte and her co-organizers of the Environmental Humanities Initiative, Christine Marran and Dan Phillipon, for involving me in the initiative and for organizing many inspiring workshops, talks, and colloquia. In GNSD, I have been fortunate to have received the tireless mentorship and generous counsel of Leslie Morris, who has gone above and beyond as chair to advocate for my work, shepherd the department through the disruptions and stress of the pandemic, and share her insights and advice. Jim Parente has been an exceptional mentor whose deep knowledge of the institution and commitment to the future of Nordic studies at the University of Minnesota have been an inspiration. I am grateful to my current and former Nordic language colleagues here at Minnesota—Aija Elg, Dan Haataja, Kristiina Jomppanen, Kyle Korynta, Lena Norrman, Liina-Ly Roos, and Hanna Zmijewska-Emerson—who have generously shared their wisdom and insights, and have inspired me with their hard work and commitment to keeping Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish studies alive and well here at the U of M. Former colleagues Rüdiger Singer and Ross Etherton deserve special acknowledgment for collaborating with me and sharing many great conversations about professional and personal life during their time in Minnesota. I am inspired by the work of fellow GNSD faculty members Matthias Rothe and Jamele Watkins, and have benefited greatly from their ideas and support. I am grateful to the graduate students I have worked with during my time in GNSD, who have shared their work and scholarly interests with me and contributed to an increasingly productive dialogue in the department. I am especially grateful to Kathleen Ibe for participating in a reading group on material ecocriticism and to Olivia Branstetter for participating in a research mentorship on folk horror with me last summer—both experiences that led to fruitful dialogues at different stages in the process of writing this book.

The research I undertook for this book came directly out of my experience designing and teaching a course at the University of Minnesota called Scandinavian Gothic: Horror and the Uncanny in Nordic Literature and Media. I am grateful to the graduate and undergraduate students who took part in that course during the spring semesters of 2020 and 2022. Their enthusiasm for the horror genre and their commitment to probing the many complex ideologies and cultural implications reflected in texts that are easy to dismiss as low-brow entertainment have been a source of intellectual inspiration and joy. Thank you to all my students for contributing to an ongoing conversation that has helped me grow as a scholar and a person.

Although this book is in some ways a departure from the work I did in graduate school, I am deeply grateful for the mentorship I received as a PhD student in the Department of Scandinavian at University of California, Berkeley. Linda Rugg and Karin Sanders were supportive and incisive readers of my work, from whom I learned to think more precisely and creatively. Mark Sandberg has remained a generous adviser and friend to whom I will always be indebted. Mark’s unwavering attention to detail and his uncanny ability to ask precisely the right question have helped me challenge my assumptions and test the strength of my arguments as they are being shaped.

I am grateful to my family for supporting me, encouraging me, and bringing happiness and joy into my life. My parents, Wil and Vicki Bigelow, deserve special thanks for always being there for me and supporting me and my family. I am thankful for my sister, Alyson Horrocks, who inspired an early love of scary stories and horror films. Such interventions on the part of an older sibling may have led to some nightmares in my early childhood, but they also inspired an enduring fascination with the thrill of being scared and an interest in the traditions and histories that horror narratives tapped into. I am grateful to my children—Lucy, Clio, and Felix—for being inexhaustible sources of laughter, joy, and energy. In very different ways, each has given me much happiness, and they have never ceased to surprise and delight me with their creativity and intelligence. Finally, I am forever grateful to Sophie—the best partner I could ever have asked for. It has been an adventure navigating the joys and challenges of parenthood, full-time careers, and the adjustment to life in four very different locations and cultures, but Sophie has brought real joy, spontaneity, love, and laughter during our now seventeen years together. Writing this book would not have been possible without your patience and support, Sophie. Thank you.