Haunted landscapes: place, past and presence

ABSTRACT

This short introductory paper presents some key aspects of hauntological approaches in cultural studies and explores the varied connections between landscapes, archaeology, folklore, and the spectres of the past. It examines how these spectres can be uncovered in archaeological contexts, tied up with contemporary anxieties, and threaten the future. It further considers how spectres of the past in archaeology and folklore are adapted, commercialised and commodified in mass media and heritage consumption.

KEYWORDS:

• Landscape
• legends
• hauntology
• spectres

Acknowledgments

Thanks to two reviewers for reading through this paper and providing helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The particular concern with environmental issues and hauntings is explored in literary studies as ecospectrality (see White 2020).

2. This is one of the many things that contribute to the hauntological nature of The Shining; see Fisher (2012, 2014, 120–7, 206, 112–14) for his extensive treatments of this book and film (including its soundtrack). Stephen King’s Pet Sematary (1983) and film adaptation (Lambert 1989) also employ the Old Indian Burial Ground motif.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tina Paphitis

Tina Paphitis is Teaching Fellow in Heritage and Museum Studies at UCL Institute of Archaeology, and Assistant Librarian of the Folklore Society. Her research interests are in the fields of medieval to contemporary archaeology and folklore of Britain and the Nordic region, particularly along the themes of landscape, representations of the past and public participation. Her previous research has explored the folklore of archaeological sites in Britain, Nordic foodways as archaeological representation and heritage construction, and barrows and barrow-lore in literary fiction.