Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination

Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock

ISBN 10: 0299199509 / ISBN 13: 9780299199500

Published by University Of Wisconsin Press Jun 2004, 2004

About this Item

Neuware - From essays about the Salem witch trials to literary uses of ghosts by Twain, Wharton, and Bierce to the cinematic blockbuster 'The Sixth Sense, this book is the first to survey the importance of ghosts and hauntings in American culture across time. From the Puritans' conviction that a thousand preternatural beings appear every day before our eyes, to today's resurgence of spirits in fiction and film, the culture of the United States has been obsessed with ghosts. In each generation, these phantoms in popular culture reflect human anxieties about religion, science, politics, and social issues. 'Spectral America asserts that ghosts, whether in oral tradition, literature, or such modern forms as cinema have always been constructions embedded in specific historical contexts and invoked for explicit purposes, often political in nature. The essays address the role of 'spectral evidence' during the Salem witch trials, the Puritan belief in good spirits, the convergence of American Spiritualism and technological development in the nineteenth century, the use of the supernatural as a tool of political critique in twentieth-century magic realism, and the 'ghosting' of persons living with AIDS. They also discuss ghostly themes in the work of Ambrose Bierce, Edith Wharton, Gloria Naylor, and Stephen King.

Seller Inventory # 9780299199500

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Spectral America: Phantoms and the National Imagination
• Publisher: University Of Wisconsin Press Jun 2004
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299199509
• ISBN 13: 9780299199500
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 238W x 158H x 22D millimeters 238 millimeters width by 158 millimeters height by 22 millimeters depth
• Weight: 522 grams

About this title

Synopsis

From essays about the Salem witch trials to literary uses of ghosts by Twain, Wharton, and Bierce to the cinematic blockbuster The Sixth Sense, this book is the first to survey the importance of ghosts and hauntings in American culture across time. From the Puritans’ conviction that a thousand preternatural beings appear every day before our eyes, to today’s resurgence of spirits in fiction and film, the culture of the United States has been obsessed with ghosts. In each generation, these phantoms in popular culture reflect human anxieties about religion, science, politics, and social issues.
Spectral America asserts that ghosts, whether in oral tradition, literature, or such modern forms as cinema have always been constructions embedded in specific historical contexts and invoked for explicit purposes, often political in nature. The essays address the role of "spectral evidence" during the Salem witch trials, the Puritan belief in good spirits, the convergence of American Spiritualism and technological development in the nineteenth century, the use of the supernatural as a tool of political critique in twentieth-century magic realism, and the "ghosting" of persons living with AIDS. They also discuss ghostly themes in the work of Ambrose Bierce, Edith Wharton, Gloria Naylor, and Stephen King.

About the Author

Jeffrey Weinstock is assistant professor of English at Central Michigan University. He is the editor of The Pedagogical Wallpaper and coeditor, with Sarah Lynn Higley, of Nothing That Is: Millennial Cinema and The Blair Witch Controversies.