Haunted subjects : deconstruction, psychoanalysis and the return of the dead / Colin Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Colin, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ghosts.

Spirits.

Deconstruction.

Psychoanalysis.

Physical Description:

vi, 181 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave, 2007.

Summary:

Why do the dead return? Are they lost to us forever, or do they remain part of the world of the living? Can we live with them, and can we live without them? Such questions emerge in popular films which depict ghosts, vampires and zombies. They are also key issues in psychoanalysis and recent theoretical writing. This book examines the return of the dead in areas as diverse as film, Holocaust testimony, and in the work of thinkers such as Freud, Sartre, Agamben, Levinas and de Man. It shows that the persistence of ghosts in recent films is related to broader philosophical and theoretical concerns, as explored in the work of Jacques Derrida and the psychoanalysts Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok. Through a series of close analyses, the book suggests that it may be as difficult for the living to get rid of the dead as it is to live without them.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The Return of the Dead 1

2 Vampires, Death Drives and Silent Film 20

3 Sartre's Living Dead 43

4 Lying Ghosts in Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis 66

5 The Ghosts of Auschwitz: Charlotte Delbo 93

6 Speaking with the Dead: De Man, Levinas, Agamben 111

7 Derrida's Haunted Subjects 128

8 Burying the Dead 151.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 172-177) and index.

ISBN:

9780230507821

0230507824

OCLC:

70676654

Online:

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