Poetics of the paranormal /
"The appearance of ghosts in art and popular culture has changed significantly throughout history. From the undead corpse of the medieval tradition to the transparent forms of photographic film, to the infrared and thermal images that now populate reality television, the paranormal has literall...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago :
McGill-Queen's University Press,
[2024]
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| Summary: | "The appearance of ghosts in art and popular culture has changed significantly throughout history. From the undead corpse of the medieval tradition to the transparent forms of photographic film, to the infrared and thermal images that now populate reality television, the paranormal has literally changed shape over the centuries. In Poetics of the Paranormal Kevin Chabot articulates the idea of "spectrality," demonstrating how the paranormal is far from a stable, metaphysical category; it is a dynamic and historically contingent discourse, the contours of which shift over time. Specific media, Chabot argues, present the ghost in distinct ways that emphasize the ghostly qualities of the medium and, conversely, the technological qualities of the ghost. Through detailed analyses of nineteenth-century spirit photography, horror films, ghost-hunting reality television, and the viral internet phenomenon "Slender Man," Chabot shows how the paranormal both shapes, and is shaped by, media. Exploring key historical shifts in contemporary media while providing a rich and novel theoretical framework, Poetics of the Paranormal addresses with renewed rigor relationships between media, perception, temporality, and the elusive concept of the evidential."-- |
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| Physical Description: | x, 224 pages : illustrations (black & white) ; 23 cm Issued also in electronic format. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-218) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780228022732 0228022738 9780228022985 0228022983 |