Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Given the relevance of the ghost in fantastic and speculative fiction, this paper seeks to interrogate the mobilization of the spectral as a main tool for enacting a process of historical revision and for the configuration of an alternative historical memory. Such inquiry will be developed through the analysis of two contemporary neo-slave narratives, Grace (2016) by Natashia Deón and Let Us Descend (2023) by Jesmyn Ward, that illustrate the current shift toward anti-realist representations of historical processes. Adopting the theoretical framework of spectrality studies, this examination will discuss the intersections of the spectral with aspects of gender, maternity and temporality. The multi-layered dimensions of ghosts and the bidirectionality of haunting deployed in these novels redefine the spectral as a subversive space of resistance and a chief literary mechanism to articulate a major socio-political reflection on the condition of Blackness in the United States at present.
Author: Vanesa Lado-Pazos
Institution: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Award: G8921697867
OpenAlex ID: W4405577035