In the introduction to Ghostly Matters, Avery Gordon explains her thoughts and challenges she faced as she undertook the difficult task of writing Ghostly Matters, touching on the necessity to comprehend modern forms of systematic racial, political, and social abuse and their impacts on people, and developing ways to write about the lingering damage caused by “historical alternatives” to modern systems of power. To accomplish this, Gordon analyses “haunting,” describing it as “a way in which abusive systems of power make themselves known and their impacts felt in everyday life, especially when they are supposedly over and done with.” Haunting, Gordon indicates, is the way in which we are alerted to the continued presence of societal abuses and tragedies we may have thought ware long gone. It puts us face to face with “ghosts.” It renders the unseen, seen. This trope of “haunting,” also comes into play in David Ward’s, “Why Can’t We Turn Our Eyes Away From the Grotesque and Macabre?,” through the analysis of the first instances in which “grotesque and macabre” images garnered large audiences and extensive renown like those seen in the media all too frequently today. Ward’s article covers the career of Alexander Gardner and the societal impact of his Civil War photography. Gardner’s pictures of the grotesque nature of war made him one of the most famous photographers of his time, and his audience’s excitement with his photographs is, as stated by Ward, “difficult, even today, to explain except as part of human psychology’s attraction to… the unseen.” Gardner highlighted the tragedies of war in such a way that his audience could not ignore them. Lastly, Paul Post’s, “Historical Marker Resurrects Debate Over Photographer’s Birthplace,” analyses Matthew Brady’s coming to terms with his cultural and national identities. Brady, another famous Civil War photographer, changed his birthplace on government documents from Ireland to Johnsburg, NY on more than one occasion, sparking debate over his true identity. Ultimately Post concludes that although Brady’s birthplace cannot be confirmed, his New York upbringing undoubtably gave him an American identity that would be wrong to ignore.
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Gordon, Avery F.. Ghostly Matters : Haunting and the Sociological Imagination, University of Minnesota Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bates/detail.action?docID=346045.
Ward, David C. “Why Can’t We Turn Our Eyes Away From the Grotesque and Macabre?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 27 Aug. 2015, www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-cant-we-just-turn-our-eyes-away-grotesque-and-macabre-180956424/.
