Encountering Fear: Introductory Remarks

Fear is an elementary, archetypal human emotion, yet it is also the current diagnosis of our time. Of all the emotions analysed in the social sciences and humanities over the last several decades within the framework of the affective turn, fear has been the most prominent, precisely because it seems to have been the principal attribute of the human condition since the end of the short 20th century onwards. Responding to the specific challenges posed by the growing pertinence of fear in contemporary life both locally and globally, but also by delving into its historical manifestations and cultural changes, the authors in this edited volume approach chronotopes of fear from the perspectives of anthropology, ethnology, folklore studies, theatre studies, art history, history, and memory studies. The editors have completed Encountering Fear in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, fully aware that life will never be disentangled from natural and social threats, yet convinced that narrating, analysing, and better understanding fear may lead to constructive changes in the consciousness of both individuals and society.