Hauntings in Twenty-First Century Fiction

There has been a proliferation in the first quarter of the twenty-first century of fiction that features haunting – be they traditional ghost stories or stories that feature other kinds of haunting. The reasons for this are identified as particular to the rapid changes and global upheavals of the political, economical, and technological situation of the times. These factors complicate for the reader, and for individuals more broadly, what is real and what can be trusted. While ghost stories have always encouraged mistrust in the reader towards the narrator, contemporary haunted fiction upends the stability of place and time, as well as narrative voice. In examining this concept, this thesis develops the work of late twentieth century theorists such as Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard, who both theorised the ephemerality of reality: Derrida with his essays on hauntology, and Baudrillard with his work on simulacra and simulation. These haunted texts are also peculiar in that they destabilise the notion of who and what haunts. This thesis argues that contemporary haunted fiction revises the notion of who haunts and who is haunted by moving agency away from those who traditionally control the narrative (the heteronormative, patriarchal, colonial subject), and towards voices previously unheard and/or suppressed. This builds on Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock’s work on Object Oriented Ontology in the Gothic, as the identity of the haunted subject and haunting object becomes fluid. This thesis researches texts largely new to literary examination, focusing on popular and award-winning contemporary fiction to truly reflect the stories that are desired for consumption by the ‘average reader today’ (with acknowledgement this is a construct), but also the stories publishers believe should be told. The methodology uses close textual analysis, building on Gothic and horror theory of the twentieth century, as well as personal correspondence with the authors for perspectives on authorial intention and the state of the text before publishing/editorial intervention.