Kyra F. Alberts | Breaking out of the Coffin: The afterlife of specters, vampires and the haunted house in the post-postmodern hauntological dominant

Kyra F. Alberts | Breaking out of the Coffin: The afterlife of specters, vampires and the haunted house in the post-postmodern hauntological dominant | Leiden University | Supervisors: Dr Y. Horsman, Prof. dr M. Boletsi | September 2022 – September 2027

It has been argued that (Western) society is undergoing a paradigmatic shift, one that has been described by various scholars as one from postmodernism to post-postmodernism. A recurring theme of this shift is a sense of renewed social engagement with the world. In this thesis I will explore how this shift can be understood in terms of what Brian McHale calls a shift in the ‘dominant.’ Specifically, I propose to study the post-postmodern dominant as a hauntological dominant. To do so, I will develop a theoretical framework informed by Jacques Derrida’s notion of ‘hauntology’ and its recent theorizations in the context of what has been called the ‘spectral turn’ in the humanities and social sciences. I will analyze and theorize this shift towards a ‘hauntological dominant’ by analyzing the central role of three Gothic figures in contemporary fiction, the ‘haunted house’, the ‘specter’ and the ‘vampire.’ The varied functions of these figures as conceptual metaphors will be analyzed in a series of fictional texts ranging from published books to webcomics, creepypasta and visual novels.

This project aims to introduce the hauntological dominant as an essential tool to analyze and highlight important changes in contemporary society, as well as bringing to light important values of a sense urgency and historical awareness of post-postmodern media. Differing from the skepticism, fragmentation and sarcasm in the postmodern paradigm, post-postmodernism is deeply intertwined with globalization, as well as highlighting the previously ignored parts of history and the alternative futures that could have been, or might yet be. In this thesis I will analyze cultural objects by placing three Gothic figures (the specter, vampire and haunted house) in their historical context of the Gothic genre and the cultural context of Gothic Studies, Queer Theory, the Spectral Turn, as well as Gender Studies. I would argue that the post-postmodern paradigm is reflected within contemporary society through an awareness of the traumas inherited by highlighting the previously ignored pasts and a vulnerability to critically access this past and through healing make new futures feasible. In the interaction with the Gothic, a communication with the past becomes possible.