konferencepaper: Realizing the Unreal: Anthropological Fieldwork about the Experience of Ghosts and Haunting

Through the analytical perspective of hauntology (and of “the ghostly”, “spectralities” and other concepts from this register) unforeseen and disruptive aspects of aesthetics and social life can be theorized; the concept coins expressions otherwise difficult to grasp. This metaphorical, analytical use of the ghostly can prove fruitful when it reacts on the empirical field of haunting: on the concrete subject matter of ghost-experiences (or as concrete as ghosts can get). In other words: How can the analytical perspective of hauntology shed light on the empirical field of people experiencing haunted houses? Based on my ongoing anthropological fieldwork concerning haunted houses in Denmark today this abstract adresses the convergences of hauntology and haunted houses, focusing on spatial and material aspects. The concept of hauntology is part of the effort to understand the experience of ghost in contemporary living.