Mentally I’m Here Medievalcore und postdigitale Resonanzräume des Mittelalters

Abstract

This article examines the internet aesthetic medievalcore as a symptomatic expression of contemporary cultural imaginaries. Drawing on theoretical concepts such as hauntology, post digital worldbuilding, atmosphere, and affect, the text explores how digitally circulated medieval imagery operates as an aesthetic and emotional response to crisis-ridden presents and uncertain futures. Rather than referencing the historical Middle Ages, medievalcore assembles audiovisual fragments from earlier medieval revival movements into immersive moodscapes of longing, resistance, and speculative retreat. Based on a corpus of 300 TikTok videos, the study analyses how these visual narratives generate affective resonance through recurring tropes, character types, sound design, and platform-specific formats. It argues that medievalcore functions less as nostalgic regression than as a creative mode of distancing: an atmospheric practice of reordering cultural meaning in the face of fragmentation, overload, and algorithmic control. As such, medievalcore exemplifies how internet aesthetics foster new forms of emotional worldbuilding, collective storytelling, and speculative subjectivities.