I confirm that the thesis is my own work and that all published or other sources of material consulted have been acknowledged in notes to the text or the bibliography. I confirm that the thesis has not been submitted for a comparable academic award. This dissertation considers space, the figure of the ghost and the practice of haunting in contemporary fiction. Through textual analysis of contemporary literary hauntings, the principal argument throughout this thesis is that haunting highlights an enigmatic, multifaceted violence within space. Such violent traces disturb a preexisting historical trauma that punctures all spaces; an obscure scarring that philosophy attempts to erase, contributing its own violence as it does so. Through the remainder of the trace, the insecurity of a philosophical system based upon binary oppositions is disclosed. Hence, this study is predominantly theoretical and philosophical in its approach. Texts under examination are Lunar Park, House of Leaves, The Sea, Beyond Black, The Gathering, The Sea, The Sea, and Life: A User's Manual. Chapter One evaluates how the impossibility of mourning results in a haunted memorial crypt that incorporates the mourned within the mourner, and Chapter Two expands on the cryptiike nature of writing, as exemplified through the sending and receiving of letters. The relation of the law, finance and textual material of ownership (as outlined through mortgage) is the focus for Chapter Three, and Chapter Four considers the inheritance of the gothic trace; the influence of haunting upon the patriarchal lineage of father to son. Chapter Five explores the relationship between language and space, in particular, the ability to build through writing. Chapter Six examines the complex relationship between creation and erasure, and the ethics of the gift of death. Finally, Chapter Seven surveys the significance of the border crossing guest: a threshold anxiety experienced through the law of Hospitality
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:497406 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Watkiss, Joanne Amy |
| Publisher | Leeds Beckett University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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