Haunted Objects in Late Nineteenth-Century Ghost Stories

My PhD will take a new approach to the late nineteenth-century ghost story by reading the object as a way to understand the spectre. By examining the Gothic trope of the painting, book or artefact that serves as the catalyst for a haunting experience, the project examines the relationship between material and spectral realms in stories of this period. Applying recent thinking in speculative realism to the works of M.R. James, Vernon Lee and Sheridan Le Fanu, the project will show that the interplay between objects and human-subjects demonstrates the material world is as much a part of the haunting experience as the ghost itself.