The re-enchanted ghost: spectral literature in twenty-first century America

McCarthy, Karen Frances ORCID: 0000-0001-9215-0556 (2024). The re-enchanted ghost: spectral literature in twenty-first century America. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The Re-Enchanted Ghost: Spectral Literature in Twenty-First Century America explores an emerging trend in spectrality and liminality in contemporary American fiction. The four novels examined move beyond the metaphorisation of the ghost and its traditional tropes, presenting instead a spectre with agency in non-theological, complex, multi-dimensional afterlife spaces. The ghosts begin in fractured states of trauma, disconnection, uncertainty, and disenchantment without a guide to restore them to wholeness. Yet, the absence of a grand theological narrative allows a dialectic to emerge to bring the spectre to a state of re-enchantment, that is, a state of delight but not delusion. To explore this trajectory, this thesis follows the literary journey of the contemporary ghost towards new ways of being that percolate within a postsecular syncretism of cultural, religious, and scientific thought and how this leads them to the recognition of the illusion of self and the importance of understanding our essential inte

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):