Ghosts: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, History / Edition 1

by P. Buse, A. Stott

Overview

Ghosts exist as a means of expressing our concerns for life and death, the passing of time, and the conscious and unconscious minds. The powerful metaphor of haunting has been used as an intellectual tool by writers and thinkers such as Marx, Freud, and Derrida in the fields of politics, psychoanalysis and philosophy. Ghosts is the first collection of theoretical essays that interrogates these ghosts, employing a variety of theoretical perspectives to consider the efficacy and use of the concepts of haunting and spectrality as they appear in literature, culture, and theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312217396
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	02/08/1999
Edition description:	1999
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

CLIVE BLOOM Reader in English and American Studies at Middlesex University CHRISTINA BRITZOLAKIS Lecturer in English at the University of Warwick STEVEN CONNOR Professor of Modern Literature and Theory at Birkbeck College, University of London NATALKA FREELAND Assistant Professor of English at the University of Alberta KEN GELDER Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies at Melbourne University, Australia JANE M. JACOBS Lecturer in Geography at Melbourne University, Australia ROGER LUCKHURST Lecturer in English at Birkbeck College, University of London WILLY MALEY Lecturer in English at the University of Glasgow NIGEL MAPP Research Fellow at the University of Leeds MANDY MERCK former editor of the film and television studies journal, Screen RALPH NOYES Honorary Secretary of the Society for Psychical Research RUTH PARKIN-GOUNELAS Associate Professor of English at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Future for Haunting--Peter Buse and Andrew Stott
• Part I: Spectrality and Theory
• Specters of Engels--Willy Maley
• On the Ghostly Origins of Psychoanalysis--Roger Luckhurst
• Phantasmagoria: Walter Benjamin and the Poetics of Urban Modernism--Christina Britzolakis
• Spectre and Impurity: History and the Transcendental in Derrida and Adorno--Nigel Mapp
• Part II: Uncanny Fictions
• Anachrony and Anatopia: Specters of Marx, Derrida and Gothic Fiction--Ruth Parkin-Gounelas
• Theft, Terror and Family Values: The Mysteries and Domesticities of Udolpho --Natalka Freeland
• The Medium of Exchange--Mandy Merck
• The Post-Colonial Ghost Story--Ken Gelder
• Part III: Spectral Culture
• The Machine in the Ghost: Spiritualism, Technology, and the "Direct Voice"--Stephen Connor
• Angels in the Architecture: The Economy of the Supernatural--Clive Bloom
• The Other Side of Plato's Wall--Ralph Noyes
• Index

Editorial Reviews

'Ghosts: Deconstruction, psychoanalysis, history'...includes...superb essays, searching dark and cobwebby nooks and passages in Victorian and modern thought.' - Marina Warner, Times Literary Supplement

Voted one of the best books of 1999 in the Times Literary Supplement by Marina Warner

From the Publisher

Positing the idea of the ghost not as a physical presence but as a means of expressing concerns about life and death, the passing of time, and the conscious and unconscious mind, the contributors discuss the powerful metaphor of haunting as it has been used as a metaphorical tool by writers and thinkers such as Marx, Freud, and Derrida and in fields ranging from technology to psychoanalysis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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