Spectral Matters

In this unique and fascinating book, Avery F. Gordon examines the sociological experience of 'haunting', drawing on both literary and political references. Haunting refers to a system that alters the experience of linear life and distorts the way we usually sequence past, present, and future. By taking the novels of Toni Morrison and Luisa Valenzuela as its basis and comparing them with more traditional sources of sociology (press articles, court reports, investigation reports), Matières spectrales demonstrates that social structures inherited from the past influence present life more than most researchers in the human sciences assume. To show how ghosts haunt the present, the author examines part of the history of psychoanalysis, before examining historical episodes such as slavery in the United States or mass disappearances during the military dictatorship in Argentina, where laws prohibited the population from speaking about the disappeared. Deeply interdisciplinary and truly innovative in its approach, Spectral Matters is written with a power that matches its subject matter, and offers a fresh take on the complex intersections of race, gender, and class.