Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 342-358).

This document recounts the development of my feature length horror screenplay “Woodwork,” from the conception of the idea through the completion of three separate drafts. It attempts to inform the reader of the choices made that led to the subsequent changes in each draft, as well as examining elements of the story (or backstory) that remain absent in the final draft. It also describes the evolution of myself as a writer over the nearly two-year period between first picking up this idea and finalizing a third draft for presentation to graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting. / text

This thesis addresses the central role of the haunted house in mid-to-late Victorian Gothic texts. It argues that haunting in fiction derives from distinct architectural and spatial traits that the middle-class Victorian home possessed. These design qualities both reflected and reinforced current social norms, and anxiety about the latter surfaced in Gothic texts. In this interdisciplinary study, literary analysis works alongside spatial examination, under the premise that literature is a space that can be penetrated and deciphered in the same way that buildings are texts that can be read and interpreted. This work is divided into two main sections, with the first three chapters introducing theoretical, historical and architectural notions that provide a background to the literary works to be discussed. The first chapter presents various theorists’ notions behind haunting and the convergence of spectrality and space, giving rise to the discussion of domestic haunting and its appeal. The second chapter examines the Crystal Palace as the icon of public space in Victorian times, its capacity for haunting, as well as its ability to frame the domestic both socially and historically. The third chapter focuses on the prototype of private space at the time—the middle-class home—in order to highlight the specificity of this dwelling, both as an architectural and symbolic entity. The second section also consists of three chapters, dedicated to the “dissection” of the haunted house, divided into three different areas: liminal, secret, and surrounding space. The fourth chapter examines works where marginal space, in the shape of hallways and staircases, is the site of intense haunting. A novel by Richard Marsh and stories by Bulwer-Lytton, Algernon Blackwood and W.W. Jacobs are analyzed here. The fifth chapter is a journey through rooms and secretive space of the spectral home; works by authors such as Wilkie Collins, J.H. Riddell and Sheridan Le Fanu are considered in order to argue that the home’s exceptional compartmentalization and its concern for secrecy translated effortlessly into Gothic fiction. The final chapter addresses an integral yet external part of the Victorian home—the grounds. Gardens in works by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Margaret Oliphant, M.R. James, and Oscar Wilde are inspected, proving Gothic fiction’s disregard for boundaries and its ability to exceed the parameters of the home.

According to the Gospel of Haunted Women is a collection of seventy-five poems divided into four sections. The voices speaking within, are, indeed haunted by varying definitions. They bespeak complex, troubled emotions such as guilt, shame, and anxiety, yet work towards expressions of courage. The dead and the living are cajoled and accused, while others are provided a format through which they may be heard long after their mouths have closed. The poems are arranged in four sections. Section I, “We Begin,” consists of memoir pieces from the poet's early life. Section II, “We Speak,” is a dedicated space for the voices of both the famous and the obscure. The third section, “We Migrate,” gathers an eclectic assortment of female speakers expressing geographical and mental transference, interweaving personal migratory poems of the author. The final section, “We Hunger,” returns to personal pieces that speak from a more settled, albeit still haunted, vantage point.

<p>In the 19th century, photography was often employed in attempts to objectively capture evidence of paranormal phenomena. With the advent of television, this tradition came to be coupled with the apparent mystery of distant communication through electromagnetic waves. The television set has often been depicted as intrinsically occult or even haunted.</p><p>It is therefore natural that television has proven to be an ideal medium to present beliefs, tales, and investigations about paranormal phenomena. Most such presentations have been openly ficticious, but in television the distinction between fact and fiction is often blurred, and the emergence of shows where the crew claims to pursue a serious investigation was inevitable. One of the most successful such shows is the British Most Haunted, airing since 2001. In this thesis, the presentation of occult phenomena in three episodes of Most Haunted is analyzed and discussed in light of this framework of traditions.</p><p>One main result is that the distinction between fact and fiction is indeed often blurred in Most Haunted. Reconstructions and purported evidence are similar to each other as well as to the historical ghost pictures, and sometimes the crew's reactions or lack of reactions is the only means to tell them apart. Elements aiming at creating a "ghost feeling" are abundant throughout both investigative and other parts of the show, and include monochrome (and sometimes inverted) imagery, blue or green light tones, modified motion speed, and perspectives that let the spectator "be the ghost". Black and white imagery is also a part of the usage of analogue or pseudo-analogue technology to convey connotations of authenticity. Filming the crew's reactions is the most common means of broadcasting a sense of hauntedness, as is often the case in traditional horror motion pictures.</p>

In the 19th century, photography was often employed in attempts to objectively capture evidence of paranormal phenomena. With the advent of television, this tradition came to be coupled with the apparent mystery of distant communication through electromagnetic waves. The television set has often been depicted as intrinsically occult or even haunted. It is therefore natural that television has proven to be an ideal medium to present beliefs, tales, and investigations about paranormal phenomena. Most such presentations have been openly ficticious, but in television the distinction between fact and fiction is often blurred, and the emergence of shows where the crew claims to pursue a serious investigation was inevitable. One of the most successful such shows is the British Most Haunted, airing since 2001. In this thesis, the presentation of occult phenomena in three episodes of Most Haunted is analyzed and discussed in light of this framework of traditions. One main result is that the distinction between fact and fiction is indeed often blurred in Most Haunted. Reconstructions and purported evidence are similar to each other as well as to the historical ghost pictures, and sometimes the crew's reactions or lack of reactions is the only means to tell them apart. Elements aiming at creating a "ghost feeling" are abundant throughout both investigative and other parts of the show, and include monochrome (and sometimes inverted) imagery, blue or green light tones, modified motion speed, and perspectives that let the spectator "be the ghost". Black and white imagery is also a part of the usage of analogue or pseudo-analogue technology to convey connotations of authenticity. Filming the crew's reactions is the most common means of broadcasting a sense of hauntedness, as is often the case in traditional horror motion pictures.

The 'haunted home' has enjoyed a long-standing position as a motif within society, crossing a span of narratives, from anecdotal local stories shared informally between family and friendship networks, to the established Gothic traditions of literature and film. This project uniquely examines the ways in which people who believe their homes to be haunted negotiate the experience of co-habiting with ghosts. It is a qualitative study which has applied a mix of creative methodologies to a number of in-depth case studies in England and Wales. Geographers and researchers in related disciplines have recently expressed interest in the idea of ghosts or haunting, but have tended to focus upon public metropolitan spaces, and to employ the ghost as a metaphor or social figure. In contrast, this project contributes to a growing literature on the material and immaterial geographies of the home, the intangible and affective aspects of everyday life within the particular context of the domestic interior. The project explores the insights uncanny events experienced within this space reveal about people's embodied, emotional, spatial and temporal relationships with 'home' as both physical place and as a set of ideals. It studies the way in which people negotiate experiences which appear to lack rational or natural explanation, and the interpretative narratives employed to explain them. It suggests ways in which different forms of belief influence interpretations of uncanny events. It also suggests ways in which inhabitants of haunted homes negotiate the co-habitation with ghosts through a number of strategies which reinforce their own subjectivity in the face of potential encroachment into their private space.

In contemporary America the haunted house appears regularly as a figure in literature, film, and tourism. The increasing popularity of the haunted house is in direct correlation with the disintegration of the home as a refuge from the harsh elements of the world. The mass media populates society with dark images and subjects, portraying America as a dark place to live. Americans create fictional narratives of terror and violence as a means of coping with their own modern horrors. Their horrors are psychologically displaced within these narratives. The haunted house is therefore a manifestation of contemporary anxieties surrounding the dissolution of the home, a symbol of the infusion of terror and violence into domestic space.

Spaces are determined not only by their physical qualities, but also by the narratives created during their occupation. These persistent yet ephemeral stories infuse our experience of space with meaning and can be the vehicle through which we consciously express our world view and explore our evolving identity. In architecture, the immaterial is explained as a ‘genius loci’, a spirit tied to a physical space that gives it a specific character and allows for deep connection and identification to occur. Through an exploration of metaphors that have traditionally conveyed the presence of immaterial forces, this thesis reveals how the relationship between psyche and space is embedded in a logic of the imagination; interpreting the experience of space in a language of light and shadow. Additionally this thesis examines how spaces are transformed through the psychological process of mental projection and explores how associations that are deeply rooted in the collective unconscious affect the inner world of the individual. Architecture is therefore seen not as a practice that is psychologically neutral but one that is filled with rich emotional content. To build, constitutes a way to bring order, to set boundaries, to transform the apparent chaos of the world into a comprehendible form. This thesis investigates how the experience of inhabiting can be a catalyst for the imagination to project layers of memory, myth and symbolism onto a location, thereby facilitating the translation of space into place. For Architects the conscious incorporation and evocation of the immaterial is seen as a vital and necessary process that can uniquely contribute to the ensouling of architecture, and the creation of meaningful places.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 234-247). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.