Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination

In this book, Avery F. Gordon considers the cultural experience of haunting. Drawing on a range of sources, including the fiction of Toni Morrison and Luisa Valenzuela, Ghostly Matters demonstrates that past or shadowy social forces control present life in different and more complicated ways than most social analysts presume. Ghostly Matters scrutinizes the evidence of things barely seen for what they can tell about the relationship between knowledge, power, and experience. Gordon illustrates how haunting more fully registers phenomena like torture and slavery than do other modes of social experience. Genuinely cross-disciplinary and truly innovative, written with a power to match its subject matter, Ghostly Mutters offers a way of looking at the complex intersections of race, gender, and class as they traverse our lives in sharp relief or shadowy manifestations.
This is a new edition of Gordon's 1997 work. A sociologist teaching at U. of California, Santa Barbara, she uses the metaphor of haunting to reflect on how contemporary society hides from its past. Using the fiction of Toni Morrison and Luisa Valenzuela, as well as paintings, photographs and her own version of Marxist theory, Gordon argues that current social attitudes are governed by past ones, even if they have been intentionally discarded. Thus, slavery and colonialism haunt us collectively still. Her conclusion is that, rather than being determinedly blind to race, class and gender, we listen to the ghosts of injustices and incorporate them into our understanding of ourselves. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
“Avery Gordon’s stunningly original and provocatively imaginative book explores the connections linking horror, history, and haunting. ” —George Lipsitz “The text is of great value to anyone working on issues pertaining to the fantastic and the uncanny.” —American Studies International “Ghostly Matters immediately establishes Avery Gordon as a leader among her generation of social and cultural theorists in all fields. The sheer beauty of her language enhances an intellectual brilliance so daunting that some readers will mark the day they first read this book. One must go back many more years than most of us can remember to find a more important book.” —Charles Lemert Drawing on a range of sources, including the fiction of Toni Morrison and Luisa Valenzuela (He Who Searches), Avery Gordon demonstrates that past or haunting social forces control present life in different and more complicated ways than most social analysts presume. Written with a power to match its subject, Ghostly Matters has advanced the way we look at the complex intersections of race, gender, and class as they traverse our lives in sharp relief and shadowy manifestations. Avery F. Gordon is professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Janice Radway is professor of literature at Duke University.