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Spectral Spaces and Hauntings — Occult Philosophy

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Spectral Spaces and Hauntings

Name: Spectral Spaces and Hauntings
Price: 225.00 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9781138856820

✍️ Lee, Christina

Reader Score

4.6

(1 review)

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📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

This anthology delves into the intricate relationship between physical environments and the persistent presence of the past. It explores how places become charged with memory, absence, and unseen forces, revealing that what seems gone often powerfully endures. By examining diverse case studies from abandoned towns to digital specters, the collection asks why certain locations resonate with such haunting intensity, compelling us to confront the ethical and political dimensions of these spectral phenomena and the "afteraffects" they leave on human experience.

Lee, Christina

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🕯️

Occult Philosophy

Praise for this book

“How might contact with geographies of absence shift our taken-for-granted understandings of space and time? In this timely intervention, a range of scholars and artists explore how the memories, experiences and material environments of particular places have the power to haunt the social imaginary and our individual psyches.”

— Karen E. Till, Maynooth University, Ireland

“A timely and important collection of incisive and insightful essays which address some of the most urgent and important issues which concern scholars working in memory studies, and humanities more generally.”

— Anindya Raychaudhuri, University of St Andrews, UK

🏛 Routledge 📅 2017 📖 220 pages 📔 Hardcover ISBN: 9781138856820

Fun Fact

This collection excels in its sophisticated, interdisciplinary approach to haunting, moving beyond the supernatural to illuminate profound cultural and political dimensions. It will richly reward readers eager for rigorous theoretical engagement with space, memory, and absence. Those seeking traditional ghost stories, however, may find its academic depth less satisfying. It carves a significant niche in spectral studies, pushing boundaries by foregrounding the ethical imperative of engaging with our collective, often unsettling, pasts.

📝 Description: Spectral Spaces and Hauntings

This anthology explores the spatial dimension and politics of haunting. It considers how the 'appearance' of absence, emptiness and the imperceptible can indicate an overwhelming presence of something that once was, and still is, (t)here. At its core, the book asks: how and why do certain places haunt us? Drawing from a diversity of mediums, forms and disciplinary approaches, the contributors to Spectral Spaces and Hauntings illustrate the complicated ways absent presences can manifest and be registered. The case studies range from the memory sites of a terrorist attack, the lost home, a vanished mining town and abandoned airports, to the post-apocalyptic wastelands in literary fiction, the photographic and filmic surfaces where spectres materialise, and the body as a site for re-corporealising the disappeared and dead. In ruminating on the afteraffects of spectral spaces on human experience, the anthology importantly foregrounds the ethical and political imperative of engaging with ghosts and following their traces.

📑 What's inside

Introduction: Locating Spectres
Christina Lee
PART I: Private Hauntings
1 The Haunted Spaces of 7/7: Memory, Mediatisation and Performance
John Tulloch
2 Dream House
Pippa Tandy
3 Home is Where the Hearth Was: Remembering and Place-Making a Vanished Town
Christina Lee
4 Unsettling Space and Time: Journey to Purton Ships' Graveyard
Lisa Hill
5 'Popping Up to See Pat' Attending Absence at Roadside Shrines
Elly Bavidge
PART II: Spectres of the Social
6 'Un aéroport-fantôme' The Ghost of Mirabel International Airport
Liz Millward
7 Zombie South: Cormac McCarthy's Architectures of the Undead
Daniel Cross Turner
8 Double Exposure: Rephotography and the Life of Place
László Munteán
9 Ghosts on Screen: The Politics of Intertemporality
Alison Landsberg
10 'Our Monuments Shall be the Maws of Kites' Laura Oldfield Ford and the Ghosts of Psychogeography Past
Christopher Collier
11 From Spectres of Horror to 'The Beautiful Death' Re-Corporealising the Desaparecidos of Argentina
Sonia M. Tascón

💎 Expert review

“

💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

This anthology offers a rigorous intellectual exploration of spectral phenomena, appealing primarily to academics and theorists interested in spatial politics and memory studies. However, it is decidedly NOT suited for casual readers seeking traditional ghost stories or immediate supernatural thrills. The text demands patience with its dense theoretical framework and abstract case studies, ranging from digital specters to physical ruins. Those expecting light entertainment or simple paranormal anecdotes will likely find the analytical tone dry and inaccessible. It is a serious scholarly contribution that prioritizes critical inquiry over narrative escapism.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Readers who find themselves drawn to the liminal spaces between history and the present will gain profound insight from this collection. It is ideal for those seeking to understand how abandoned towns or digital remnants hold emotional weight, offering a framework to confront the ethical implications of lingering pasts. By exploring these 'afteraffects,' the book empowers individuals to recognize the unseen forces shaping their environment, transforming abstract anxiety into tangible understanding. It serves anyone interested in the political dimensions of memory, providing a sophisticated lens through which to view the persistent echoes that define our shared spatial experience.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.6/5

★★★★★

For scholars and curious minds intrigued by the unseen forces shaping our world, this book offers rigorous exploration. If you ponder how places hold memory, or the cultural significance of absence, prepare for a captivating journey through critical theory, media studies, and human geography.

Reader rating

4.6

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

This anthology offers a rigorous intellectual exploration of spectral phenomena, appealing primarily to academics and theorists interested in spatial politics and memory studies. However, it is decidedly NOT suited for casual readers seeking traditional ghost stories or immediate supernatural thrills. The text demands patience with its dense theoretical framework and abstract case studies, ranging from digital specters to physical ruins. Those expecting light entertainment or simple paranormal anecdotes will likely find the analytical tone dry and inaccessible. It is a serious scholarly contribution that prioritizes critical inquiry over narrative escapism.

❓ Frequently asked questions

While the concept of "haunting" is central, this anthology broadens the definition beyond traditional apparitions. It explores how absence, memory, and past events manifest as powerful, often imperceptible, presences in various spaces and media.

The contributors analyze a wide array of phenomena, from actual memory sites of tragedy and vanished towns to fictional post-apocalyptic landscapes, photographic traces, and even the human body as a vessel for re-corporealizing the disappeared.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

The Geography of Haunting

This collection meticulously examines how physical and conceptual spaces—from ruins to digital realms—become imbued with residual presences. It investigates the mechanisms through which past events, trauma, and forgotten histories imprint themselves onto locations, creating sites where absence paradoxically manifests as an overwhelming, often unsettling, presence.

The Power of Absence

The book thoughtfully explores the phenomenon of "absent presences," where that which is no longer physically there continues to exert significant influence. It illustrates how these imperceptible yet powerful forces can shape human experience, memory, and perception, prompting readers to reconsider the boundaries between what is visible and what truly exists.

Engaging with Specters Ethically

A core tenet of this work is the imperative to ethically confront and engage with these spectral traces. It argues that acknowledging and interpreting the lingering echoes of the past is not merely an academic exercise, but a crucial political and moral act, highlighting our responsibility to the unquiet histories that surround us.

📜 Historical context

This volume stands at the intersection of critical geography, cultural studies, and spectral theory, building upon traditions that interrogate the social construction of space and the enduring power of memory. It extends work recognizing haunting not just as supernatural, but as a potent metaphor for historical injustice, trauma, and the political dimensions of the past impinging on the present.

📚 Glossary

Spectral Spaces
Absent Presences
Aftereffects

📔 Questions to reflect on

Reflect on a specific place you know that feels 'haunted' by its past. What makes it so, and what does that lingering presence communicate?
How might the concept of "absent presences" apply to current social or political issues, and what ethical responsibilities do we have towards these unseen forces?
Consider how media (photography, film, literature) transforms places into spectral spaces. What are the implications of these mediated hauntings?