Towards a Definition of the Victorian Ghost

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F19%3A10404060" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/19:10404060 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=qRq0Fne_8T" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=qRq0Fne_8T</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Towards a Definition of the Victorian Ghost

Original language description

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the definition of the Victorian ghost story by defining the specific kind of ghost that is typical for the genre. It is not enough to define a ghost story through the mere presence of a ghost or a supernatural event, since that would also include other genres such as fairy tales, legends, folklore and mystery stories. Furthermore, the entities that appear in stories up to the eighteenth century are significantly different from the new kind of ghost that emerges only in the nineteenth century. In order to define the Victorian ghost, I turn to Jacques Derrida&apos;s theory of the spectre as articulated in Spectres of Marx. I argue that the specific characteristics he considers to be key to the spectre, most importantly its ability to destabilize both ontology and semantics, may be used to set apart the Victorian ghost from other kinds of ghosts. Furthermore, such a definition also means that events or entities which are not supernatural in nature but fulfil the same role as the Derridean spectre may be included within the definition of the Victorian ghost story, which would significantly redraw the boundaries of the genre.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_SC - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60205 - Literary theory

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

American and British Studies Annual

ISSN

1803-6058

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

2019

Issue of the periodical within the volume

12

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

9

Pages from-to

166-174

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85078474784