New College Symposium

New College Symposium, 13–14 April 2012

 

This New College Symposium will examine ideas around what might be called a ‘spectral turn’ in modern culture in an  interdisciplinary context. It is driven first by the plethora of ghosts, phantoms, spectres and manifestations of the undead that have appeared in recent literature, film, music and culture and which has led Mark Fisher to say that ‘“hauntology” is the nearest thing to a Zeitgeist’ at the moment; but it also seeks to explore these individual manifestations within larger overarching philosophical, ideological and cultural categories. Traditionally, the appearance of a revenant has been interpreted as the sign of unfinished business: a disturbance in the symbolic, moral or epistemological order, which is resolved once the ghost has delivered its message. But it can also manifest unaccommodated, censored or taboo aspects of the past which have been overwritten in the governing ideological interest. This symposium will draw on these pivotal approaches to the question of haunting; but also attempt to open up debate in new ways. It draws together distinguished speakers from various different disciplines (Cultural Studies, English, French, German,  Latin American Studies, Russian) as well as a practising artist and a writer.

 

Ghosts have always attracted people's mind and excited their imagination; therefore this fascinating symposium pulls together not only academics and students from various disciplines, but also everyone who is interested in the subject.

 

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Online credit:Wm. B. Becker Collection/www.photographymuseum.com © MMXII