Theresa Gutmann

Derridean hauntology attempts to theorize the ghostly and puts the possibility of an undisturbed present into question. According to Jaques Derrida, no present moment is not haunted by ghostly anachronism, every present is always-already marked by spectral absence. This opens up the question of how haunting takes shape in artworks and specifically, in literature. In my project, I will read contemporary intermedial books in relation to hauntological theory and, therefore, intermediality as a hauntological form. The underlying thesis is that the examined works possess hauntological qualities not only in terms of content, so due to their thematic link to spectrality, haunting and mourning, but furthermore, because of their intermedial form. As points of reference, media and phenomena of 19th century spiritism, such as spirit photography, will be considered in relation to the contemporary intermedial books under observation. These artworks, I will argue, can be read both as works of ghostly evocation and exorcism.