Ghosts

“Spells Out The Word of Itself, and Then Dispelling Itself”: The Chaotics of Memory and The Ghost of the Novel in Jeff Noon’s Falling out of Cars

by Andrew Wenaus

Forthcoming: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

This article is a study of British author Jeff Noon’s most recent novel Falling out of Cars (2002) as a literary... more This article is a study of British author Jeff Noon’s most recent novel Falling out of Cars (2002) as a literary experiment engaged in raising the ghost of the modern novel, long hailed as dead.  Here, Noon samples canonic literature then transforms, manipulates, and reconfigures it in much the same way a message is transformed when being passed through a communication circuit. The result is a kind of poetic prose Noon terms “metamorphiction”: an elegant experimental mode of fantasy in which signs mutate within certain systemic parameters.  In metamorphiction, the textual past literally haunts the textual present.  This formal experiment is mirrored in the content: the novel concerns a middle aged woman mourning the death of her daughter.  Ultimately, Falling out of Cars is both a virtuosic piece of fantastic fiction and a serious meditation on the contemporary state of the novel.     

Machines Have Feelings Too

by Gavan Bright

Framing document for a new media installation we produced as a group at QUT.

With much talk about machines having ghosts inside them (Shirow 1996; Kubrick 1968), at times it seems they do have a... more With much talk about machines having ghosts inside them (Shirow 1996; Kubrick 1968), at times it seems they do have a mind and personality of their own. What if tangible media could simulate personality and allowing the player to perceive human qualities? What effect would this have on the users position in relation to the installation?

What the Dickens?

by Rosalind Ormiston

Charles Dickens bi-centenary - review of two exhibitions

‘A Hankering after Ghosts: Charles Dickens and... more Charles Dickens bi-centenary - review of two exhibitions

‘A Hankering after Ghosts: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural’
The British Library
London NW1 2DB
29 November 2011- 4 March 2012

and

‘Dickens and London’
Museum of London
150 London Wall
London EC2Y 5HN
9 December 2011- 10 June 2012

To begin with: justifying Marley in A Christmas Carol

by Pete Orford

The Dickensian, forthcoming

This article examines the purpose of Marley's ghost in Dickens's tale. Marley is a vital role within the context of... more This article examines the purpose of Marley's ghost in Dickens's tale. Marley is a vital role within the context of the original, yet this has been minimised with the frequent appropriation of the Carol, so that popular memory of the play's structure and characters has been reduced to the fundamentals of Scrooge and the three spirits of Christmas past, present and yet to come.

The article first considers the role of Marley both as an agent of change alongside the other three spirits, which entails a consideration of Scrooge's experience as a paranormal course of cognitive behaviour therapy; the article then considers the narrative significance of Marley's ghost, in particular the depth of his relationship with Scrooge.

I “demoni dei bagni” tra acqua e fuoco

by Doralice Fabiano

dans : F. Prescendi et Y. Volokhine (éds.), Dans le laboratoire de l’historien des religions. Mélanges offertes à Philippe Borgeaud, Genève, Labor et Fides, 2011, pp. 275-288
http://www.laboretfides.com/?page_id=3&product_id=687077

From the City Looking Out, Out of the City Looking In

by Niamh Thornton

Special Section Introduction: Imagining the Impossible: Textual and Visual Negotiations of the City in Latin America: Guest Editors: Claire Williams and Niamh Thornton

The novel Muertos incómodos is subtitled `novela a cuatro manos'. It was written in `ping-pong' style, according to... more The novel Muertos incómodos is subtitled `novela a cuatro manos'. It was written in `ping-pong' style, according to the Web Prologue, by Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo II, where each wrote and reacted to the other through alternating chapters. The former is well known for his recourse to the imaginative and cultural tools at his disposal in his communiqués, the latter is one of the most prolific Mexican novelists. In this article, I shall examine the textual encounter of two apparently disparate worlds and show how the city is constructed in this richly layered text.

Magnetic Fields, Anomalous Experiences: A Sceptical Critique of the Current Evidence

by Dr Jason J Braithwaite

A comprehensive review of the literature on magnetic fields and anomalous haunt-type experiences published in The Skeptic Magazine.

Spettacoli spettrali: Spiritismo, cinema e fantasmi

by Simone Natale

In: Diversamente Vivi: Zombie, fantasmi, mummie, vampiri. Eds. Ortoleva, Peppino and Giulia Carluccio. Milano: Il Castoro 2010. 157-162.

Paul Auster's Ghost Writers

by David Coughlan

Published in "Space, Haunting, Discourse." Ed. Maria Holmgren Troy and Elisabeth Wennö. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2008. 145-54.

Paul Auster has written of ghosts and writers since his first major work, The Invention of Solitude, where he wrote of... more Paul Auster has written of ghosts and writers since his first major work, The Invention of Solitude, where he wrote of the dead father and of the writer son. His works, however, are not about writers and ghosts, but about writers as ghosts.

Auster’s writers haunt two locations, the city and the room, uncanny places. Alone in labyrinthine cities, Auster’s characters tend to lose themselves unless they follow others, shadowing their subjects in a doubling which is, initially, a reading of the other’s passage, but then, inevitably, a re-writing of a path which is their own. As Derrida describes in “Perjuries” (speaking of trying to be faithful to those writers he follows like an acolyte), writing about, or for, another person, ghost writing so to speak, means an inevitable betrayal. But what does this mean for those who follow in mourning, as Auster’s characters do? Alone in the room, as in their lives, Auster’s characters give themselves over to the text, and become ghosts writing, uncannily undead or buried alive.

This essay analyses the significance of ghostly writing, taking place in cities and rooms, as a recurring theme in Auster’s work, arguing that, through this, Auster theorises on the nature of reading and writing as ethical practices related to the past, to mourning, to betrayal, and responsibility.

Fantasmas no universo literário inglês: complexidades dramáticas e teológicas na Inglaterra do século XVI

by Régis Augustus Bars Closel

2011

Geralmente relaciona-se muito do drama elisabetano às tragédias latinas. O tragediógrafo Lúcio
Aneu Sêneca é... more Geralmente relaciona-se muito do drama elisabetano às tragédias latinas. O tragediógrafo Lúcio
Aneu Sêneca é visto como uma grande fonte de elementos temáticos, estilísticos e estruturais das
tragédias de Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe e William Shakespeare. Entre os elementos
geralmente levantados, encontram-se: o verso branco, a divisão em cinco atos, a esticomítia, o
fantasma e o tirano. O elemento comum mais intrigante aponta para o tratamento dado ao
sobrenatural, em especial ao uso de fantasmas como personagens. Na Inglaterra, a partir de obras
que seguiam o estilo ‘De Casibus’, de Giovanni Boccaccio, o fantasma passa a fazer parte de
diversos enredos dramáticos. Cronologicamente, seu  papel dentro da tragédia desloca-se da
observação e comentário sobre a ação, passando, gradualmente, das pequenas intervenções em
sonhos e aparições para os outros, até ganhar objetividade e presença marcante como no Hamlet. 

Never Give Up the Ghost: An Analysis of Three Edinburgh Ghost Tour Companies

by Joy Fraser

MA thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada (2005)

This thesis is a discourse analysis of three Edinburgh-based ghost tour companies: Mercat Tours, Witchery Tours and... more This thesis is a discourse analysis of three Edinburgh-based ghost tour companies: Mercat Tours, Witchery Tours and City of the Dead. It explores the attitudes, values and aesthetics of these companies and their construction and presentation of self-images to their audiences. It identifies key characteristics of the tours and links them to important themes in scholarship on contemporary tourism. Firstly, the construction of an ideology of authenticity within the Mercat Tours discourse exemplifies the model of modern tourism as a "quest for authenticity" (MacCannell, Tourist). In contrast, the light-hearted performance aesthetic of Witchery Tours reflects recent scholarship on postmodern- or post-tourism, in which tourism is seen as a playful game rather than a serious quest. Lastly, the case of City of the Dead offers an insight into the role of fear as a motivating factor in visits to tourism sites.

Ghost Tours as A Form of Alternative Tourism

by Kristine Keller

A paper written for Anth 424 last year, looking at ghost tours in Los Angeles from an anthropological perspective.  Unpublished.

Esprits d’outre-mer : The Hundred Secret Senses d’Amy Tan et Célanire, cou coupé de Maryse Condé, une étude comparée.

by Nathalie Schon

Le rêve est dans le roman migrant un espace privilégié de confrontation des cultures. Chez Maryse Condé, la parenté de... more Le rêve est dans le roman migrant un espace privilégié de confrontation des cultures. Chez Maryse Condé, la parenté de l’espace onirique avec celui du conte créole est évidente, tandis que chez Amy Tan, les légendes chinoises et américaines se heurtent en particulier à la tombée de la nuit, refuge des esprits ancestraux. La rencontre avec les esprits apporte des réponses à l’angoisse identitaire dans un univers régi par la rationalité et l’univoque : " This book argues that, despite the various manifestations of ghostliness in recent haunted literature, stories of cultural haunting are drawn together not only by their conjuring of ghosts to perform cultural work but also by their tendency to organize plots as a movement from negative to positive forms of haunting and by certain thematic concerns to which they obsessively return. " (1) Cette rencontre est étroitement liée au rêve, dimension complémentaire ou conciliation de l’espace familier et étranger, opposé aux modes d’investigation de l’ethnologie : le rêve survient comme marque du destin, de l’irrationnel et du surnaturel, alors que le regard ethnologique tente de classer et de comprendre les phénomènes étranges. Le rêve révèle, comme l’a montré Sigmund Freud, les souhaits refoulés par l’individu et lui permettent de les résoudre fictivement. Or, quand bien même le regard ethnologique n’est jamais objectif et implique des motivations et donc une subjectivité, on ne peut considérer son résultat simplement comme expression ou comme satisfaction de souhaits niés par la conscience de l’observateur. On peut considérer l’approche ethnologique comme un mode d’observation à un moment précis, dont le rêve est la manifestation souterraine. Ainsi, les séquences oniriques révèlent l’intégration du regard ethnologique dans l’intimité des personnages. Le regard à la fois extérieur de l’étranger qui découvre une culture inconnue jusque là et familier est présenté comme une constante dans leur univers.
Les romans de Maryse Condé, et en particulier Célanire, cou coupé, illustrent cette fonction du rêve qui s’avère double : le rêve confirme à la fois la distance qui sépare la narratrice de ses proches, car les rêves ne sont pas compris, et l’identité car le rêve de Célanire aboutit à un attachement culturel.

The Dead

by Debbie Felton

Chapter 5 in Blackwell's Companion to Greek Religion, edited by Daniel Ogden. Blackwell Press 2007: 86-99.

Surveys Greek attitudes, customs, and stories about the dead. Surveys Greek attitudes, customs, and stories about the dead.

Scary Stories and Tales of the Dead

by Debbie Felton

Iris XIII (2010): 17-21.

Introduces Greek and Roman ghost stories to a middle- and high-school audience. Introduces Greek and Roman ghost stories to a middle- and high-school audience.

Folkloric Anomalies in a Scene from the" Mostellaria"

by Debbie Felton

Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 91.62.2 (1999): 123-142.

Discusses the haunted house story in the "Mostellaria." Discusses the haunted house story in the "Mostellaria."

The Body of a Ghost: Returning to a Phenomenology of Nostalgia

by Dylan Trigg

Presented at SPEP 2009. Please do not cite without permission.

Why do certain memories involuntarily return to us over others? Far from being the sole concern of Proust scholars,... more Why do certain memories involuntarily return to us over others? Far from being the sole concern of Proust scholars, the question has significant implications for phenomenologists, too. In this paper, I will pursue the enigma of involuntarily memory through the lens of nostalgia. In doing so, I will ask two questions. First, how does nostalgic remembering differ from non-nostalgic remembering? Second, what is it that we are nostalgic for? In response to these questions, I will provide an account of embodiment that places spectrality and sublimity central, and at the same time tests the limits of phenomenological inquiry.

Spoken bestaan: geestverschijningen met paranormale informatie (There Really Is Such A Thing As Ghosts: Apparitions of the Dead With Paranormal Information)

by Titus Rivas

Published in 2003 in 'Prana', Vol. 135, pp. 75-85,

‘Telling Tales in Robert Mannyng deBrun’s Handlyng Synne’

by Andrew Power

in Julie Anne Stevens & Helen Conrad O’Briain, eds. Ghost Stories from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2010, pp. 34-46.

This paper discusses a small group of ghost stories that are scattered throughout Robert Mannyng's Handlyng synne... more This paper discusses a small group of ghost stories that are scattered throughout Robert Mannyng's Handlyng synne (1303); a text that could be described as an early C14th confessional manual (being a translation and expansion of the Manuel de Pesche) designed to illustrate the sins that people must avoid. Among the stories I examine are that of a foul and grisly monk's spirit who visits a church to warn a living monk against back-biting (and who all-the-while chews on his own tongue); a dead nun (who had spoken villainy during her life) who is heard screaming in her grave while devils tear at her tongue and burn her; and a slothful sergeant who before he dies is given the small and beautiful book of his good deeds and the great and hideous book of his sins to read (he returns to tell the tale as a warning). There are interesting implications in each of these tales for the telling and the writing of evil tales.

Strindbergs Gengangere

by Mads Bunch