Poetics of the Paranormal / Kevin Chabot.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chabot, Kevin, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ghosts in mass media.

Ghosts in popular culture.

Mass media and culture.

Parapsychology in mass media.

Parapsychology.

Spirit photography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : 18 photos

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2024]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The appearance of ghosts in art and popular culture has transformed 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 rigour the relationships between media, perception, temporality, and the elusive concept of the evidential.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

FIGURES

ACKNOWLEdGMENTS

1 A GHOST STORY

2 THE DIABOLICAL IMAGE: PHOTOGRAPHY, CINEMA, AND HAUNTED CELLULOID

3 TELEVISUAL GHOSTS AND PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION

4 TAPE: VIDEOGRAPHIC RUIN AND THE LURE OF THE TANGIBLE

5 HYPERLINKED HAUNTINGS: DIGITAL HORROR AND NETWORKED SPECTRALITY

6 SÉANCE CINEMA

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 19. Oct 2024)

ISBN:

9780228023104

0228023106

OCLC:

1434575774