The Spectre Barber: Shaving the Ghost in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

Abstract The article discusses the transmission of the folktale at a critical juncture when it moved into the mainstream of polite literature. The case study is Johann Karl August Musäus’ “Stumme Liebe”, included in Volksmärchen der Deutschen (1782–1786), a collection that preceded theBrothersGrimmby nearly threedecades.Musäus helped sparkan interest in the low form of the folktale by re-packaging oral tradition as elegant and humorous stories palatable to a middle-class readership. However, as “Stumme Liebe” was transmitted in print by others, Musäus’ conception of the folktalewas challenged, and the story itself was radically changed. The article pays particular attention to the retelling of the story inBritain because the changes it underwent in English translation reveal an important cultural history of folktale reception, not least in regard to theRomantic-period renegotiation of the supernatural.

Keywords

• Folktale
• Johann Karl August Musäus
• supernaturalism
• ghost story
• print culture