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PALGRAVE GOTHIC

Gothic
Hauntology
Everyday Hauntings
and Epistemological Desire

Joakim Wrethed

Luke Roberts
Palgrave Gothic

Series Editor
Clive Bloom
Middlesex University
London, UK
Dating back to the eighteenth century, the term ‘gothic’ began as a desig-
nation for an artistic movement when British antiquarians became dissatis-
fied with the taste for all things Italianate. By the twentieth century, the
Gothic was a worldwide phenomenon influencing global cinema and the
emergent film industries of Japan and Korea. Gothic influences are evident
throughout contemporary culture: in detective fiction, television pro-
grammes, Cosplay events, fashion catwalks, music styles, musical theatre,
ghostly tourism and video games, as well as being constantly reinvented
online. It is no longer an antiquarian pursuit but the longest lasting influ-
ence in popular culture, reworked and re-experienced by each new genera-
tion. This series offers readers the very best in new international research
and scholarship on the historical development, cultural meaning and
diversity of gothic culture. While covering Gothic origins dating back to
the eighteenth century, the Palgrave Gothic series also drives exciting new
discussions on dystopian, urban and Anthropocene gothic sensibilities
emerging in the twenty-first century. The Gothic shows no sign of
obsolescence.
 Joakim Wrethed

Gothic Hauntology
Everyday Hauntings and Epistemological Desire
Joakim Wrethed
English Department
Stockholm University
Stockholm, Sweden

ISSN 2634-6214     ISSN 2634-6222 (electronic)

Palgrave Gothic
ISBN 978-3-031-41110-6    ISBN 978-3-031-41111-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41111-3

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 Book Blurb

Gothic Hauntology: Everyday Hauntings

and Epistemological Desire

The study pursues the phenomenon of hauntology within the gothic

genre. Hauntings in various forms constitute one of the defining features
of the gothic category of fiction from the very Walpolian beginning. Here,
hauntology is mainly defined in accordance with Derrida’s central con-
cepts of limitrophy, temporality and the presence of the past in the pres-
ent. Hauntology is sought on a primordial level of experience in the
characters of the narratives. Therefore, hauntology is generally seen as an
inevitable affective and experiential phenomenon that highlights a funda-
mental human predicament. Fiction is an eminent tool for scrutinising
such phenomena, which the selection of heterogenous works here emphat-
ically demonstrates. The investigation moves from contemporary works by
Atwood, Munro and Ajvide Lindqvist back to older canonised gothic fic-
tion by Polidori, Poe, James and Lovecraft. Hauntology is shown to be a
central force in these works in similar but also slightly different ways. By
utilising the phenomenological concept of epistemological desire, which is
set apart from the desire of needs, the analysis seeks to explicate the human
striving for knowledge as a Sisyphus project and as an impossible desire for
desire itself. By zooming in on details of experience, parts of the study
move within the everyday spheres of the gothic and hauntology. In that
way, the gothic and hauntology merge as a realistic force in any life lived

v
vi BOOK BLURB

and the paradox of absolute indeterminacy seems to constitute the only

reasonable way of understanding life as an experiential movement. The
gothic has always filled the function of reminding us of our vulnerability
and to beware of rational and scientific hubris. This study confirms that
this is also the case in contemporary fiction.
 Contents

1 Introduction:
 “Avaunt! And Quit My Sight! Let the Earth
Hide Thee!”  1

2 “Penelope
 Was Not a Phantom”: Everyday Hauntology in
Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood 27

3 “His
 Eye Spoke Less than His Lip”: Hauntology, Vampires
and the Trace of the Animal in John Polidori’s The
Vampyre, John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the Right One In,
Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling and Guillermo del Toro’s
Cronos 45

4 “Nothing
 Is but What Is Not”: Spectral Temporality and
Hauntology in Selected Works by Edgar Allan Poe 67

5 “The
 Gray Pool and Its Blank, Haunted Edge”: The
Hauntology of Indeterminacy in Henry James’s The Turn
of the Screw 89

6 “Light
 Is Dark and Dark Is Light”: H. P. Lovecraft and
Hauntology as Epistemological Desire105

vii
viii Contents

7 “What
 She Had Seen Was Final”: Everyday Hauntology,
the Threat of Male Violence and the Power of Fiction in
Alice Munro’s “Free Radicals”, “Runaway” and “Passion”127

8 Concluding
 Remarks: “I Can Feel My Lost Child
Surfacing Within Me”151

Bibliography Gothic Hauntology157

Index163
 About the Author

Joakim Wrethed has hitherto mainly worked in Irish Studies—especially

on John Banville—but he also explores the contemporary novel in English
more generally without any primary emphasis on national boundaries.
Phenomenology, postmodernism, aesthetics, gothic literature and theol-
ogy are overarching topics of his scholarly work. Some of the more recent
publications have been on the postmodern gothic, the gothic origins of
Charles Maturin, aesthetics, the anthropocene and the posthuman zeit-
geist. Forthcoming with Routledge 2023 is a chapter in Literature and
Art: “Conceptual and Performative Art in Tom McCarthy, Michel
Houellebecq and Don DeLillo”. Wrethed has worked on hauntology and
the gothic since 2021.

ix
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: “Avaunt! And Quit My Sight!

Let the Earth Hide Thee!”

Haunt
a. Of diseases (obsolete), memories, cares, feelings, thoughts: To visit
frequently or habitually; to come up or present themselves as recurrent
influences or impressions, esp. as causes of distraction or trouble; to
pursue, molest.
b. Of imaginary or spiritual beings, ghosts, etc.: To visit frequently and
habitually with manifestations of their influence and presence, usually
of a molesting kind. to be haunted: to be subject to the visits and
molestation of disembodied spirits.
—(OED, s.v. “haunt”)

Hauntology could be said to constitute the bedrock foundation of the

whole category of the gothic, even though ‘bedrock’ is perhaps a bad
word choice when speaking of ghosts and such an ephemeral concept.
‘Gothic hauntology’ actually sounds like a tautology. This is so mainly
because of the massive presence of the past as a general ontological feature
and pervasive narratological function within this particular genre of litera-
ture. Speaking with literary history in mind, the gothic was from the
beginning constructed out of a specific literary representation of an, at
least partly, imagined or re-imagined historical era.1 Speaking more

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Wrethed, Gothic Hauntology, Palgrave Gothic,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41111-3_1
2 J. WRETHED

generally about the function of the past, in cases when it is not felt to be
always present, it may instead appear as a similar phenomenon in its per-
petual possible return—and sometimes actual return—in various types of
narratological arrangements. For instance, something of the past or per-
haps even a particular character—which a protagonist thought was forever
left behind in her or his life—suddenly reappears and brings all of that
troubled history back. Such a re-emergence of the past potentially calls for
different theoretical frameworks, which a quick glance at literary history
would swiftly confirm. Examples may be Schelling, Freud, Bloom, Lacan,
Kristeva, Fisher and Derrida, just to mention a few labels of such possible
conceptual configurations, which are intellectual hauntings of the haunt-
ing, so to speak. A very general experiential principle underpinning the
particular obsession with the past can be elucidated by Søren Kirkegaard’s
pertinent observation that we are forced to live our lives forwards, but
apparently—because of some experiential or cognitive law—we are com-
pelled to understand them backwards.2 This means that the past has to be
continuously processed, interpreted and re-interpreted, obviously both on
an individual and on a cultural or collective historical level. There are two
paths in every life and in every community, one leading forward and the
other leading backwards. We seem to always be travelling on both trails
simultaneously. Interestingly, this phenomenon also constitutes the cen-
tral structure of a great deal of crime fiction, which in many ways is a close
relative of the gothic genre.3 Typically, crime fiction displays the journey
from the corpse to the crime on the backwards path and the forward-­
moving investigation in the other direction, as it were.
Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto—the work seen by many as the
first one in the early wave of gothic narratives—unquestionably contains
the prominent characteristic of a powerful past.4 An unjust or somehow
immoral event or action in history haunts the characters of the narrative in
the present. We could certainly go further back in literary history to look
for similar examples, but it is perhaps more fruitful for this study to move
forwards in time. Along those lines of thinking, Merlin Coverley makes a
similar observation about the ubiquity of the past and hauntology as a
conspicuous part of our contemporary zeitgeist:

Hauntology, it would seem, has expanded its remit to bring everything it

touches within its ghostly embrace: the individual psyche, haunted by past
trauma; the family, governed by the repressive cycle of patriarchy; religion,
built upon the repetition and re-enactment of ritual; society, the patriarchal
 1 INTRODUCTION: “AVAUNT! AND QUIT MY SIGHT! LET THE EARTH HIDE… 3

relationship writ large; and history itself, endlessly revisited by the ghosts of
all its pasts. Just as once the world was seen as uncanny, so now it appears
hauntological.5

However, generally speaking, a too vastly “expanded […] remit” of the

concept may become next to useless for readers and scholars alike. If it
applies to the majority, or perhaps even all, gothic narratives, how can it
possess any analytic and conceptual value? Therefore, the purpose of this
introduction is to provide an overview of possible variations of hauntology
and closely related phenomena, while moving steadily towards a more
strictly conceived understanding of Jacques Derrida’s notion of hauntol-
ogy, as presented in his work Specters of Marx.6 In addition, another con-
sideration that has to be dealt with in this introduction is that if we expand
the notion of the gothic, it seems that the number of narratives becomes
almost endless, and sooner or later we will end up so far from a genre defi-
nition that the term ‘gothic’ dissolves into meaninglessness. However, it
has been argued that the gothic genre was very broad already from the
outset. In Contesting the Gothic, James Watt argues that the whole idea of
the gothic as a generically structured category is by and large a modern
construction.

Though the genre of the Gothic romance clearly owes its name to the sub-
title of The Castle of Otranto’s second edition, ‘A Gothic Story’, the eleva-
tion of Walpole’s work to the status of an origin has served to grant an
illusory stability to a body of fiction which is distinctly heterogeneous. Face-­
value readings of the preface to Otranto’s second edition have encouraged
the idea that Walpole issued a manifesto for a new literary genre, the emer-
gence of which was coincident with a revival of imagination in an era that
privileged rationality. As I will argue, however, any categorization of the
Gothic as a continuous tradition, with a generic significance, is unable to do
justice to the diversity of the romances which are now accommodated under
the ‘Gothic’ label, and liable to overlook the often antagonistic relations
that existed between different works or writers.7

The heterogeneity that unfolds in the works pursued in this study is then
constituting more of a return to an ‘original’ heterogeneity rather than
showcasing an increasing deviance from an original prototype. In investi-
gating various aspects of the hauntological, however, it will inevitably
mean that some gothic tropes are more involved than others. The haunto-
logical phenomenon undeniably also verges on other huge fields within
4 J. WRETHED

the humanities, which have been in focus recently and are still vibrant,
such as for instance memory studies and trauma theory.8 The purpose of
the investigations below is mainly to outline how the diversity of haunto-
logical phenomena may appear in works that are more or less falling within
the category of gothic fiction. The somewhat elastic conceptualisation of
hauntology is utilised more as an asset than a shortcoming.9 The selection
of works is deliberately done in order to cover a larger historical period
with few representative works, partly with the aim to display the versatility
of the concept that obviously goes hand in hand with the flexibility of the
gothic. Sometimes the analyses may perhaps say more about hauntology
than about the works themselves, but that is also part of the intention with
the overall setup of the investigation.
As can be seen above—in the epigraphic display of two major dictionary
definitions of the verb ‘haunt’, as the root in ‘hauntology’—the definitions
taken together clearly make up an invitation to limitrophic (border-­
transgressing) dynamics. The more concrete side of the hauntological
Janus face has got to do with ‘real’ phenomena, such as memories or dis-
eases, while the other side deals with phenomena that more pertain to
fiction and imagination, “disembodied spirits”. The similarities in the ways
of phenomenalisation give rise to slidings and glidings on an ontological
plane, which carries with it hauntological effects. A chimera is both a natu-
ral science phenomenon and a figure of imagination. The questions quickly
pile up. Is it worse or better to be haunted by nightmares than by diseases?
Is it better or worse to be haunted by a stalker or by traumatic experiences?
When does a feeling correspond to a real object in the world of objects
and when is a feeling just true to itself as an appearance, a certain mood, a
plague of unpleasant affective visitations?10 I shall outline a few general
hauntological aspects below and then gradually move towards more subtle
distinctions and more philosophically elaborate thinking. At the end of
these introductory pages, I will outline the different chapters, in order to
give the reader a foreshadowing of what is to be expected. The general
phenomena are suitable as backdrops to many of the narratives dealt with.
Most often, hauntology is so taken for granted that the reader perhaps
does not even notice exactly how these forces are there and how they
operate.
 1 INTRODUCTION: “AVAUNT! AND QUIT MY SIGHT! LET THE EARTH HIDE… 5

Loss
The sense of loss can be seen as a very broad understanding of one type of
haunting. Obviously, this type could refer to either a very specific one, in
terms of the loss of a person, or of a more general version that verges on
existential, religious or mythical dimensions. Even more variation is pos-
sible, since these two types of concrete and more abstract levels may actu-
ally operate in parallel. To illustrate what this may look like, we can turn to
the phenomenon of the missing person that definitely traverses the genres
of crime fiction, horror fiction and the gothic. For instance in Margaret
Atwood’s novel Surfacing (1972), the protagonist’s father has gone miss-
ing in the wilderness, somewhere in the vicinity of the family summer-
house.11 When the protagonist goes to the house together with her friends,
she has the semi-hidden agenda of wanting to search for the father’s body
and to find the answer to what might have happened to him. This whole
order of things metamorphoses into a quest for the father in a broader
sense and also a search for the protagonist’s own lost self that haunts her
and the whole narrative. This sense of loss may even overlap with a vaster
Christian experience of the loss of innocence, the theologically central loss
of paradise, which governs several different structures of feeling within
literature more generally (nostalgia, retromania, pastiche, etc.). In addi-
tion, we have the whole kit and caboodle of the psychoanalytic framework,
probably foremost represented by the ‘lack’ as a founding principle in the
philosophy of Jacques Lacan and in his legions of psychoanalytic disciples.
Accompanying the sense of loss is evidently a general feeling of unknow-
ing. This affective mood can appear on the small scale as well as the larger
scale. For instance, the unnamed protagonist in Surfacing truly does not
know what has befallen her father. She knows somewhere deep inside what
has happened to her own self earlier in her life, but these difficult experi-
ences have been blocked and are caught in a vortex of affective returns.
Therefore, the protagonist is haunted in two ways, but these tend to
merge in her overall and arduous journey towards a higher level of aware-
ness. Focusing more strictly on the gothic genre, we may state that quite
often the unknowing has an even vaster superstructure, that is, an igno-
rance that will never really be converted into knowing. To be sure, this
feature indicates the ultimate gothic rebellion against any overly rational
outlook on the world, which for instance could be derived from
Enlightenment ideals or the epistemological convictions and truisms
founding the natural sciences. It shall be a theme below how some
6 J. WRETHED

modern gothic variations of this topic are clad in more everyday and per-
haps psychologically realistic robes, as we will see for instance in Atwood’s
and Munro’s fiction. But first, a few more related hauntological phenom-
ena, before we zoom in on a stricter definition of hauntology derived
mainly from Derrida.

Guilt
The phenomenon of guilt is a common constituent of the gothic genre.
For instance, a large number of Poe’s short stories may be situated some-
where within the boundary areas between horror, crime and the gothic.
These narratives are not seldomly draped in the cold sweat of guilt.
Illustrative examples are Poe’s classic short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart”
and “The Black Cat”. The protagonists’ sense of guilt in these pieces is so
powerful that it conjures the overtones of there being something super-
natural at work. However, the narratives could also clearly be read as some
form of psychological realism, if the reader prefers that kind of perspective.
The ghostly dimensions of such a past that refuses to be laid to rest are
noticeable. As is well known from earlier phases of history, murder victims
were sometimes nailed to the ground in order to prevent them from walk-
ing again (one example is Bockstensmannen, The Bocksten Man—a mur-
der victim from 1340–1370 that was found well preserved in a bog in
1936—who had three wooden poles pierced through his body, one of
them through his heart, which was of course the stake made of oak, the
best wood).12 This practice is also what gives the background to much of
the impaling paraphernalia in vampire narratives. The phenomenological
or anthropological aspect of the phenomenon is obviously to ritualise and
thereby make manifest the strong urge to concretely harness, and poten-
tially and hopefully even eliminate the inevitable feeling of guilt (one
almost hears the sinister snicker of a mocking gothic figure at the thought
of succeeding with such an undertaking). The belief in the agency and
power of the undead can also be seen in Macbeth that provides us with an
early gothic example through the ghost of Banquo: “Avaunt! and quit my
sight! let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is
cold; / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes, / Which thou dost glare
with”.13 The ghost is always more powerful than the ‘real thing’.
As becomes evident, the sense of guilt may have very concrete and
commonsensically valid reasons in the cases of murder, which is something
that invites causal thinking. However, guilt can also be instilled in
 1 INTRODUCTION: “AVAUNT! AND QUIT MY SIGHT! LET THE EARTH HIDE… 7

individuals through cultural practice. Branches of Christianity have guilt as

a central force that is emphasised to varying degree. The towering shadow
of original sin seemingly produces more sin. The gothic sensitivity to such
affective patterns is discernible in for instance Charles Maturin’s Melmoth
the Wanderer. The monastery that one of the narrators was locked into
tries so hard to avoid sinning that the institution itself becomes a dark
torture chamber and prison of the soul, clearly light-years (or dark-years
actually) away from praising the God of light, redemption and love. To be
haunted by guilt may then become a burden that characters in various
ways try to cast off. For instance, in Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the pro-
tagonist’s crime is revealed by the overwhelming power of his own guilt.
He becomes so paranoid that his imagined aural perception—indicating
that the visiting policemen really know the truth about his crime—becomes
so intense that it reifies, seemingly completely as an autonomous affective
force. The underlying power is of course semi-conscious guilt overcoming
the self-confident braggart: “[A]nything was better than this agony!
Anything was more tolerable than this derision!”14

The Uncanny
Coverley suggests that hauntology has replaced the uncanny as the domi-
nant structure of feeling. Still, many aspects of haunting seem to overlap
with the uncanny. We shall just briefly consider the connection of hauntol-
ogy and the uncanny. If we focus as much as possible on Freud’s original
essay “The Uncanny” (1919), we can say that the conceptual overlap with
hauntology is significant. In the essay, Freud—seemingly suddenly over-
come with some form of intellectual desperation or frenzy—presents a
plethora of dictionary definitions in the very beginning of the essay. Thus,
Freud tries to pin down the phenomenon semantically, which contributes
pointedly to the uncanniness of the essay itself that many scholars have
commented on.15 The pinning down of the conceptual spectre proves to
be very difficult—a not very surprising realisation if we would ask
Derrida—but there is a key to hauntology in one of Freud’s attempts at
defining the concept more clearly:

To many people the acme of the uncanny is represented by anything to do

with death, dead bodies, revenants, spirits and ghosts. Indeed, we have
heard that in some modern languages the German phrase ein unheimliches
Haus [‘an uncanny house’] can be rendered only by the periphrasis ‘a
8 J. WRETHED

haunted house’. We might in fact have begun our investigation with this
example of the uncanny—perhaps the most potent—but we did not do so
because here the uncanny is too much mixed up with the gruesome and
partly overlaid by it.16

Even though the similarity between the concepts ‘uncanny’ and ‘haunt-
ing’ is that they share the uncertainty of the validity of boundaries and
borders, there is also a central difference between them. For instance,
Freud mainly pursues temporality in terms of the return. The ‘time is out
of joint’ aspect does not seem to be as central as it is in Derrida’s definition
of hauntology, which will be outlined below. Moreover, Freud explicitly
contends that the more clear-cut ghostly figures that we find in literature
are not necessarily uncanny per se: “The souls in Dante’s Inferno or the
ghostly apparitions in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Macbeth or Julius Caesar
may be dark and terrifying, but at bottom they are no more uncanny than,
say, the serene world of Homer’s gods”.17 Thus, this state of affairs accen-
tuates that the hauntological dimension that we will gradually hone in on
has got to do more with temporality and limitrophy, but that does not
mean that phenomena within this hauntology cannot be uncanny. In fact,
a great deal of the gothic aspects in everyday gothic or domestic gothic
can be seen as uncanny, especially in the way that they highlight borderline
indeterminacies (limitrophic phenomena). What can be said as a more
clear-cut distinction in relation to Freud is that a consequence of the
Derridean hauntology is that also the future is involved, especially in Mark
Fisher’s emphasis on the mourning of lost futures.
Having a special focus on Victorian hauntings, Julian Wolfreys also
draws attention to the close connection between the uncanny and hauntol-
ogy, especially in the stock item of the haunted house, which of course
then needs to thematise domestic spaces and architectural phenomena.

The act of haunting is effective because it displaces us in those places we feel

most secure, most notably in our homes, in the domestic scene. Indeed,
haunting is nothing other than the destabilization of the domestic scene, as
that place where we feel most at home with ourselves […] The haunted
house is a stock structural and narrative figure, whether one thinks of Henry
James’ The Turn of the Screw, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, or
Stephen King’s (and Stanley Kubrick’s) The Shining, to take some obvious
examples. As Jacques Derrida puts it […] ‘haunting implies places, a habita-
tion, and always a haunted house’. Indeed, […] the Freudian uncanny relies
on the literal meaning and the slippage of, and within, the German unheim-
 1 INTRODUCTION: “AVAUNT! AND QUIT MY SIGHT! LET THE EARTH HIDE… 9

lich, meaning literally ‘unhomely’. For Freud that which is unhomely

emerges in the homely. Haunting cannot take place without the possibility
of its internal eruption and interruption within and as a condition of a famil-
iar, everyday place and space.18

This argument shows the overlapping of the concepts in this study, but it
also reveals the parts that do not overlap. The hauntology pursued here
will sometimes make itself manifest in the typical milieus referred to above,
but at other times there will be less or no emphasis on houses and homes.
Instead, the focus may shift to temporality and life choices, roads taken
and roads not taken haunting the characters, displaying hauntology as a
general force that is very hard, if not impossible, to avoid. Strictly speak-
ing, Freudian—and in extension other psychoanalytic—versions of the
uncanny and hauntology are understandably very much concerned with
how the past determines the life of a subject in the present. Such struc-
tures will also be part of what follows below, but there will in addition be
other aspects of hauntology that are analysed. In the broadest possible
terms, the focus will be on limitrophic phenomena that disturb any attempt
at mapping out some kind of stable and intelligible ontology.
Another important connection between hauntology and the uncanny
introduces the next section below. It is of course impossible to avoid the
deconstructive aspects of hauntology, since after all, it is a Derridean con-
cept, which really does not invent gothic hauntology, but it concentrates
the attention to how literary texts—or perhaps even all texts—seem to
work in relation to semantic ghosts and temporality as related to struc-
tures or fluxes of meaning. Nicholas Royle neatly sums this up:

Another name for uncanny overflow might be deconstruction.

Deconstruction makes the most apparently familiar texts strange, it renders
the most apparently unequivocal and self-assured statements uncertain.
With a persistence or consistency that can itself seem uncanny, it shows how
difference operates at the heart of identity, how the strange and even
unthinkable is a necessary condition of what is conventional, familiar and
taken-for-granted. Deconstruction involves explorations of the surprising,
indeed incalculable effects of all kinds of virus and parasite, foreign body,
supplement, borders and margins, spectrality and haunting.19

All of these aspects will appear in various ways in the actual readings and
analyses that follow in the chapters of this study.
10 J. WRETHED

Derridean Hauntology
In order to narrow down the scope of the vast domain of hauntology, we
shall take the backwards path to Derrida’s original ideas in Specters of
Marx. As many scholars have remarked, the actual concept does not seem
to be very prominent in Derrida’s work. He only explicitly uses the term
three times. However, it subsequently proved to be very prolific in the
academic sphere, and it has been widely spread and used also within gothic
studies during the late twentieth and the early part of the twenty-first cen-
tury, and in addition, it is still prominent within literary and cultural stud-
ies. It must first of all be made clear that Derrida conceptualises in very
close contact with temporality. The polemical starting point is Francis
Fukuyama’s notorious 1989 article “The End of History” that was
expanded into a book in 1992.20 Fukuyama’s basic contention is that with
the collapse of the Eastern bloc of the Cold War, communism was ended
or dead, leaving space only for Western liberal capitalism. Expressed in a
simplified and concise form, Derrida’s take is that something that had not
fully arrived—and was always already haunting Europe—could not die.
According to Derrida, this is a general principle of spectrality.

If there is something like spectrality, there are reasons to doubt [the] reas-
suring order of presents and, especially, the border between the present, the
actual or present reality of the present, and everything that can be opposed
to it: absence, non-presence, non-effectivity, inactuality, virtuality, or even
the simulacrum in general, and so forth. There is first of all the doubtful
contemporaneity of the present to itself. Before knowing whether one can
differentiate between the specter of the past and the specter of the future, of
the past present and the future present, one must ask oneself whether the
spectrality effect does not consist in undoing this opposition, or even this
dialectic, between actual, effective presence and its other.21

There are two major consequences of such a re-conceptualisation of

‘ontology’. One cannot kill a ghost and attempts to do so rather conjure
than eliminate. The second starting point that Derrida establishes is Marx’s
statement in Das Kapital that communism is a ghost that already haunts
Europe and that Derrida links to Shakespeare’s Hamlet with its pertinent
exclamation “The time is out of ioynt […]” (Act I, sc. v). This provides an
inlet to thinking about time that cannot eradicate spectrality. Presence is
not stable in the first place; therefore, the spectre cannot be nailed down,
it cannot die. That is the essence of spectrality and hauntology, if we
Another random document with
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leading to the attic are placed above those of the first story, with a
door at the foot.... Attic.—The estimate provides for a floor in this,
and for casing the four pair of windows, but it is otherwise left
unfinished. Four or more bedrooms may be made in this story if
desired.... Construction.—The materials are indicated in the
estimate. The foundation-walls show 2 feet above the ground. The
timber is framed and raised in the most thorough manner. The
beams are placed 2 feet apart from centers, and bridged with one
row of “cross-bridging” in each span. Observe that the main posts
are 25 feet long; this includes the whole hight from bottom of sills to
top plates, and allows for four feet of inside breastwork from the attic
floor to foot of main rafters. The main roof is set at an angle of 45°.
The “open-worked” barges in the pediment (fig. 81), are of 1¼-inch-
plank, 16 inches wide, pierced in simple figure, and require only one
set of patterns for the four gables. The piazza-rafters show in their
ceilings. Perforated pediments in each side allow the escape of
heated air from under the roofs. The columns are “boxed” 7 inches
square, and chamfered. The spandrels are scroll-sawed from 3-inch
timber. The two full stories are hard finished on two coats of brown
mortar and seasoned lath. All doors are panelled, and all architraves
in the main house are double moulded; in the wing single moulded.
All sashes are 1½ inch thick, and glazed with second quality French
glass. The parlor and living-room have marble mantles; the
chambers have marble shelves resting on stucco trusses. The main
stairs have an 8-inch octagon newel, a 2¼ × 4¼ moulded hand-rail,
and 2-inch fluted balusters, all of black walnut, as also are the
saddles to each room. All knobs, roses, and escutcheons are of
white porcelain. All wood usually painted has two coats of best paint,
in shades to suit the owner’s taste.
Estimate of Cost:

137 yards excavation, complete, at 20c. per yard. $27.40

52 perches stone-work, at $2.75 per perch. 143.00
6,000 brick, furnished and laid, at $12 per M. 72.00
44 ft. blue-stone, at 30c. per ft. 13.20
623 yards plastering, complete, at 28c. per yard. 174.44
7,126 ft. timber, at $15 per M. 106.89
1 sill, 4 × 8 in. 205 ft. long.
10 posts, 4 × 8 in. 25 ft. long.
2 girders, 4 × 8 in. 25 ft. long.
1 tie, 4 × 6 in. 124 ft. long.
1 plate, 4 × 6 in. 205 ft. long.
1 piazza, 3 × 5 in. 332 ft. long.
90 beams, 3 × 8 in. 15 ft. long.
15 beams, 3 × 8 in. 17 ft. long.
4 valleys, 3 × 8 in. 23 ft. long.
40 rafters, 3 × 5 in. 20 ft. long.
1 piazza, 3 × 8 in. 370 ft. long.
500 wall-strips, at 11c. each. 55.00
360 siding, at 28c. each. 100.80
Materials in cornices, corner-boards, etc. 40.00
360 shingling-lath, at 6c. each. 21.60
65 bunches shingles, at $1.50 each. 97.50
134 hemlock boards, at 16c. each. 21.44
15 squares tin roofing, gutters, and leaders, at 7c.
per ft. 105.00
360 flooring, at 28c. each, $100.80; stairs, complete,
$90. 190.80
Piazzas, except roofing, complete. 150.00
8 cellar windows, $48; 30 windows, $300. 348.00
28 doors, complete, at $10, $280; closet finish, $20. 300.00
Mantles and shelves, $75; nails, $20. 95.00
Painting, complete, $150; cartage, $35. 185.00
Pump, sink, and range, $60; incidentals, $42.93. 102.93
Carpenter’s labor, not included above. 250.00
Total cost, complete. $2,600.00

The following detailed estimate of the cost of windows and doors,

“complete,” are given in explanation as to what is included in the
foregoing and other lists, viz.:
First-class Windows, complete.—For a 2-7 × 6-2 window, with
panelled back, and full double trim, viz.:
22 ft. running lumber in frame, at 4c. $0.88
4 pulleys. .14
28 lbs. iron weights, at 2½c. .70
Sash cord, 8c.; screws, 3c. .11
22 ft. of 8-inch trim, at 8c. 1.76
Panelled back materials. .48
Sash, glazed, counter-checked, and hung. 2.80
Blinds, with fastenings. 1.80
Materials in outside cap. .64
Nails, 8c.; labor, $4. 4.08
Total. $13.39

Second-class Windows, complete.—For a 2-7 × 5-2 window, with

plain single moulded trim, viz.:
20 running ft. of lumber in frame, at 4c. $0.80
4 pulleys, at 40c. per dozen. .14
26 lbs. sash-weights, at 2½c. .65
Sash-cord. .08
Screws. .03
16 ft. of 5-inch trim, at 5c. .80
Sash, glazed, counter-checked, and hung. 2.16
Blinds, with fastenings. 1.56
Nosing, apron, and drip. .30
Nails, 6c.; labor, $2.50. 2.56
Total. $9.08

Where there are an equal number of each class, I should put their
cost at $11.23 each, and where the second class preponderates, as
is usually the case, the average price is reduced accordingly:

First-class Doors, complete.—Double-faced, 2-8 × 7 ft., full

trimmed:
Door, 4-panelled, at factory. $2.50
20 ft. running trim, 8 in., at 21c. 4.20
Saddle. .15
Buts and screws. .16
Locks and knobs. .50
22 running ft. base, at 9c. 1.98
Nails, 6c.; labor, $3. 3.06
Total. $12.55

Second-class Doors, complete.—Single-faced, 2-6 × 6-8, single

trim:
Door, 4-panelled, at factory. $1.90
18 ft. running trim, at 15c. 2.70
Saddle. .15
Buts and screws. .15
Locks and knobs. .35
22 running ft. base, at 7c. 1.54
Nails, 5c.; labor, $2. 2.05
Total. $8.84

It will be noticed that the item for Base is included in above

estimate for doors. The figures (22 feet) are an average per door,
deduced from careful calculations, and are introduced here for the
purpose of aiding any one in readily making up an estimate for a
whole building.
Fig. 81.—elevation of front of house.

Fig. 82.—plan of cellar.

 Fig. 83.—plan of first floor.

Fig. 84.—plan of second floor.

 DESIGN XXI.
A FARM-HOUSE COSTING $2,600.

These plans were designed for a convenient and comfortable

Farm-house in the American style, comprehending the most
economical and practical methods of construction. The size and
shape of such houses should be made to conform to the
requirements of those who are to occupy them. Unlike the villager,
the farmer has ample road front, and his house should be so
arranged as to secure the most pleasant outlook from the living
rooms. For many important reasons a farmer’s house should be set
back from the highway at least 75 feet, 200 feet is much better.
Everyone appreciates a nice lawn in front of a country home, through
which inviting approaches lead from the road entrances bordered
with flowers, and where space is allowed for shade trees and
shrubbery. The width of country roads when first projected is usually
limited to 50 feet. There is no certainty, however, that an increased
width or the straightening of a roadway will not be demanded at any
time and such contingencies should be provided for. Other
considerations require but a moment’s thought to convince anyone
of the desirableness of an ample front lawn.... Exterior, (fig. 85.)—
Farm houses usually stand disconnected and apart from other
buildings, and should have outlines that will best adapt them to the
conditions that are otherwise manifest in the location. This plan is
intended for an eastern frontage, where it would face the morning
sun, when the principal and broader portions of the building, at the
right, would be doubly valuable as a shield to ward off the northern
winds from the parts of the house most used by the occupants. (By
reversing the plan it would be equally adapted to the opposite, or
easterly side of a road.) It is intended that the body of the house
shall be set at least two feet above the ground; this gives opportunity
for good-sized cellar-windows, that will admit light, and afford good
openings for cellar ventilation, and also secure the frame-work of the
building against moisture from the ground. Such moisture, if allowed,
will cause decay of the sills and other principal timbers, and is sure
to percolate upward into the house, filling it with unwholesome
vapors. The variety of the general outlines as shown in the elevation
are calculated to impart a cheerful and lively appearance always
desirable in a country home, and very pleasant to the passer-by. The
ridged roofs, with their spreading gables and ample projections, are
features of frankness in which there is no attempt at concealment or
imitation. The bay-windows, wide entrance, and spacious piazza, are
each expressive of liberality and refinement. The extreme simplicity
of the details, and methods of construction, devoid of all ostentatious
display, clearly express the purpose of the building, and commend it
to the consideration of all who are interested in rural house
building.... Foundation, (fig. 86.)—In most locations stone are
abundant; our estimate comprehends the building of the foundation-
walls of rough, broken stone, laid in coarse mortar, and neatly
pointed where exposed to sight. Any man who is at all familiar with
the most ordinary stone-work, such as building “wall” fences, could
build these foundations acceptably; they should be laid up 18 inches
thick, and flush with the outside of the frame-work of the building.
Our plan shows a cellar under the central part of the building only,
which should be 7 feet deep; this cellar will be found sufficiently
spacious for the uses of most families, but may be enlarged if
desirable. One of the “wise sayings” we heard in youth was, “always
build your cellar under the whole house.” Unless there are ample
cellars under the barns, the house-cellar is never too large. In this
case, it will be but little extra cost and labor to take out the earth, and
carry the foundations down. The walls provided would do most of
this, and then we have ample cellars for all wants, and have room to
partition off fruit and vegetable rooms, the former of which need to
be much cooler than the latter, if one would keep fruit well. The side-
walls of the area are built of the same materials as the cellar-walls,
with the stone steps inserted while building. The foundations shown
on the plan where no cellar is required, are built of the same
materials, laid in trenches, which have been excavated 18 inches
wide, and 2 feet deep. The chimney foundations should be started
and laid up with the other walls. A very effectual ventilation may be
provided from the cellar by arranging an opening that shall lead to
the left-hand flue of the kitchen chimney; this flue will be warmed by
contact with the range when in use, and a strong draft will be made,
which will exhaust the damp, foul odors so common in deep cellars.
It will be observed that the cellar is protected from the extreme
changes of outward temperature by the walls and spaces at each
side, and by the partial coverings in front and rear.... First Story,
(fig. 87.)—This story is divided into three large and three small
rooms, and hall. By this plan, the kitchen is intended as the living-
room of the family, and is so arranged as to be the most convenient
and pleasant room in the house; has large windows front and rear,
which will admit an abundance of light, and afford an outlook each
way. A large range is placed in the fire-place, with a water-back
connecting with the boiler in the laundry. The clock and lamp-shelf is
placed on the opposite side of the room from the fire-place: should
never be over it. Adjoining the kitchen, and connected with it, is a
pantry, containing shelving, drawers, and a wash-tray, with cold and
hot water. The Laundry, or work-room, is arranged to connect directly
with the kitchen and pantry, and leads to the rear outside door. This
room is fitted up so that the principal kitchen-work may be done in it,
with great facility, and with few steps, and contains a closet, sink,
pump, wash-tubs, tank, and boiler. The hight of the ceiling in this
room is 10 feet in the clear. The Tank (not shown in the drawings), is
situated close up to the ceiling, above the pantry door, is 8 feet long,
3 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. The boiler is of copper, 40-gallon
capacity, and is placed directly in the rear of the kitchen chimney.
The sink and wash-tubs are shown on the plan, and are to be
provided with cold and hot water. The force-pump is placed next to
the sink, under the tank—by this method but little plumbing is
required, and a very perfect and satisfactory arrangement is
secured. The boiler keeps the temperature of this room sufficiently
warm to prevent damage to the pipes from frost. The Bedroom also
adjoins the kitchen, and has a closet for clothing, and two windows.
The principal Hall, included in the central building, is entered through
large double doors from the front piazza, and connects through
doors with the parlor, kitchen, and back passage, and contains the
principal stairs, which are of easy “platform” construction. The Parlor
has a large bay-window, marble mantle, and adjoins the library
through large sliding-doors. The Library has a marble mantle, and
closet, and connects with the back passage at the rear of the
principal stairs. The Front Piazza has its ends sheltered by the
projections at each side, and is arranged to require but two columns.
If desirable at any time, a part of this piazza can be enclosed with
sash at very little expense, which would provide a very convenient
conservatory for plants and flowers. The rear “shed” is provided with
a roof and columns, but has no wooden floor. It is intended that the
grounds around the rear of the central building shall be graded well
up, say within a foot of the rear door-sills, so as to require but a
single step, or large flat stone, to each door. The outside cellar doors
would be made to lay even with the final grade, and hung to the
coping-stones of the area-walls, and the remaining space paved or
flagged with stone. When once properly done, the finish of this
character will last a lifetime without trouble, while wood-work could
never be satisfactory, and would often require renewal. Whenever
the cellar doors are opened, they are hooked up against the
columns, where they form a railing, or guard, to prevent the usual
danger of an open hatchway.... The Second Story (fig. 88), has a
hall, four large and three small chambers, with four closets, and
stairway leading to the attic. Each of the large Chambers has two
windows, and a ventilating register in the flue of the chimney
adjoining. All these rooms have full hight ceilings, and are not so
close to the roof as to be affected by their absorbed heat of summer,
but have complete square ceilings, with large air-spaces between
them and the roofs. The Attic of the principal building is completely
floored, and has windows in each gable or pediment, and may be
used for storage, drying clothes in stormy weather, and for many
other purposes.... Construction.—The estimate appended
indicates the kind and quantity of materials used, which will be found
to be such as are now most generally adopted for buildings of this
character. The work is very simple, and may be executed by the
simplest methods. Information concerning the application and uses
of the “felting” may be found in Design XI. We have before
suggested that “there are circumstances that would justify the
building of one part of a house first.” Should it be desirable, the
central portion of this house could be built first, and would be found
quite sufficient as the dwelling house of a small family, and the
remainder added afterwards as required.... Estimate.—The
following estimate has been carefully compiled, and may be relied on
for quantities, etc. Prices vary in different localities, but the figures
here given form a good basis of calculation:

65 yards excavation, at 20c. per yard. $13.00

882 ft. foundation, at 15c. per ft. 132.30
725 ft. foundation, at 10c. per ft. 72.50
6,000 bricks in chimneys, at $12 per M. 72.00
40 ft. stone steps and coping, at 30c. per ft. 12.00
900 yards lath and plastering, at 28c. per yard. 252.00
4,799 ft. of timber, at $15 per M. 72.00
Sills, 4 × 8 in. 218 ft. long.
1 girt, 4 × 8 in. 20 ft. long.
7 posts, 4 × 7 in. 22 ft. long.
2 posts, 4 × 7 in. 18 ft. long.
45 beams, 3 × 8 in. 16 ft. long.
22 beams, 3 × 8 in. 22 ft. long.
15 beams, 3 × 7 in. 9 ft. long.
4 valleys, 3 × 8 in. 20 ft. long.
Ties and plates, 4 × 6 in. 384 ft. long.
500 wall strips, 2 × 4 in. 13 ft. long, at 11c. each. 55.00
340 novelty siding boards, 9½ in., at 28c. each. 95.20
150 lbs. tarred felting, at 5c. per lb. 7.50
300 matched flooring boards, 9½ in. wide, at 28c.
each. 84.00
20 rough spruce plank, at 25c. each. 5.00
270 shingling-lath, at 6c. each. 16.20
48 bunches shingles, at $1.50 each. 72.00
75 hemlock boards, 10-inch, at 18c. each. 13.50
7 squares of tin roofing, at $9 per square. 63.00
Materials in cornices and outside casings. 60.00
33 narrow pine flooring for front piazza, at 25c. each. 8.25
67 narrow pine ceiling, at 25c. each. 16.75
1 bay-window, complete. 75.00
26 plain windows, complete, at $12 each. 312.00
4 cellar windows, complete, at $6 each. 24.00
30 doors, complete, at $10 each. 300.00
Stairs, complete, $70; 8 closets, fitted complete,
$40. 111.00
2 marble and 2 pine mantles. 50.00
Nails, $20; range, with elevated oven, $80. 100.00
Plumbing, $84; cartage, average 1 mile, $27.08. 111.08
Carpenter’s labor, not included above. 250.00
Painting. 120.00
Incidentals. 25.72
Total cost, complete. $2,600.00

Fig. 85.—front elevation of farm house.

 Fig. 86.—plan of cellar.

Fig. 87.—plan of first story.

Fig. 88.—plan of second story.
 DESIGN XXII.
A HOUSE COSTING $2,800.

This plan of a suburban, or a country house, has all the

advantages of the square form—providing convenient, commodious
interior apartments, and has a simple, expressive outside dress, that
compares favorably with more pretentious, expensive dwellings....
Exterior, (fig. 89.)—The outlines of the main building are rounded
and compact, indicating completeness and solidity. The front tower-
like projection is a central and distinctive feature, around which the
other parts are symmetrically balanced. The Porch and roofed
balconies are simple and neat. The main roof, a new modification of
the “Mansard roof,” is a conspicuous part, giving an expression of
strength and unity to the design. The main cornice has full
projections, with neat solid trusses, and is separated into sections by
the chamber windows, giving relief from the monotony and
depressing effects usual in all continuous horizontal lines. All the
second story windows of the main building have projecting hoods
appropriately interlaced with the principal roof work, securing
pleasant shadows to those parts, and imparting a marked finish and
variety. The dormer windows are triangular, and are placed
immediately above those of the lower stories, prolonging the vertical
lines of openings, to which they form a fitting termination.... First
Story, (fig. 90.)—Hight of ceiling, 10 feet. The usual front hall is
dispensed with, and the stairway is placed where it is more
convenient and accessible, and is not a conductor of cold drafts
through the house. Many think it necessary to have stairways share
with the parlors the most valuable and conspicuous position; they
should more frequently be placed in some subordinate relation,
without seeming to control the general arrangement. The entrance
from the front porch is through double doors to the vestibule, and
thence to either the parlor or family-room. Side doors lead to the
pleasant and shady front balconies. The Parlor and Family-room are
of equal size, and may be used as one spacious apartment by
opening the sliding doors. The Dining-room is pleasantly situated,
and opens into the family-room, rear entrance, and hallway. It has
one large bay-window, and two plain ones, an open fire-place, and a
dish or china closet, c. The Kitchen is isolated, relieving other rooms
of its noise and odors, is convenient to the dining-room, cellar-
stairway, and rear entrance, through the rear lobby, and has an open
fire-place, closet, and large pantry, range, boiler, sink, wash-tubs,
and the necessary pipes for water. The hall is central, accessible
from the parlor, dining-room, and rear entrance, and is thoroughly
lighted and ventilated by the window at the head of the stairs....
Second Story, (fig. 91.)—Hight of ceiling, 8 feet. This story
contains a hall, four good-sized chambers, with closets, and two
windows to each. The Bath-room has bath-tub and seat. A
Conservatory connects through sash doors with the two front
chambers.... Attic, (fig. 92.)—Hight of ceiling, 8 feet. The stairs to
this are placed immediately above those to the second story, are
ceiled in, with a door at the bottom. The rear portion is finished on a
line with the two chimneys, into two bedrooms and a hall. The front
portion is floored, but otherwise left unfinished as an open garret,
valuable as a play-room for the children, a clothes drying-room, and
many other purposes.... Construction.—The Foundation, of hard
brick and good mortar, is shown by the Cellar plan, (fig. 93.)—It
shows four feet above the grade in front, and, if desirable, may show
one-half that hight in the rear. There is usually sufficient earth taken
from the cellar excavations to give such desirable grade as shall turn
off all water from the immediate grounds and walks. The chimneys
are also of hard brick, are independent of the foundations, and are
carried up perfectly plumb to the roof, where they are finished with
neat bases and caps. The central position of these chimneys is proof
against cold-air openings at their sides, and insures saving the heat
radiated from them. It is impossible to prevent cracks from appearing
along the sides of chimneys in frame buildings, and when these
cracks communicate directly with the outside covering, they often
admit much cold air.—The principal frame is 20 ft. high, substantially
constructed, as indicated by the upright section (fig. 94). The main
plates are in line with the beams of the attic story, and the roof-
purlins are 8 feet above them. The side-rafters are 12 feet long, fitted
and spiked to the purlins and plates, with their lower ends extending
2½ feet down from the latter in a continuous line. Rough brackets
connecting the rafters with the upright frame-work, forming the
foundations or frame of the principal cornice. By this method of
extending the rafters downward instead of upward, the desirable
hight and proportion of roof are obtained. The exposed surfaces that
require siding are reduced from the usual hight of 22½ feet to 16
feet, and the cornices are more substantial and less complex. The
siding, roof-boarding, slating, and trimming are done in the usual
manner. The gutters are laid in with the slate, as described in Design
V. The hoods and dormer windows have slate coverings, interlaced
with the principal roof, with joinings and flashings of sheet-lead. The
following estimate provides for the thorough completion of the
building in an appropriate and substantial manner.—Estimate:

82 yards excavation, at 20c. per yard. $16.40

16,000 brick, furnished and laid, at $12 per M. 192.00
44 ft. stone steps, coping, etc., at 30c. per ft. 13.20
750 yards plastering, at 28c. per yard. 210.00
3,497 ft. timber, at $15 per M. 52.45
1 sill, 4 × 8 in. 116 ft. long.
1 girt, 4 × 8 in. 30 ft. long.
11 posts, 4 × 7 in. 19 ft. long.
1 tie, 4 × 6 in. 146 ft. long.
1 plate, 4 × 6 in. 138 ft. long.
1 perline, 3 × 7 in. 96 ft. long.
48 beams, 2 × 8 in. 14 ft. long.
24 beams, 2 × 8 in. 18 ft. long.
27 beams, 2 × 8 in. 15 ft. long.
1 stoop, 3 × 7 in. 70 ft. long.
30 rafters, 3 × 4 in. 13 ft., at 16c. each. 4.80
380 wall-strips, at 11c. each. 41.80
200 siding, 10-inch, at 26c. each. 52.00
Materials in cornices and corner-boards. 50.00
261 hemlock roof-boards, at 16c. each. 41.76
 19 squares of slating, at $9 per square. 171.00
8 squares of tinning (IC. charcoal) at $7 per
square. 56.00
250 ft. gutters and leaders, at 8c. per ft. 20.00
300 flooring, 9 × 1¼ in., at 26c. each. 78.00
200 lbs. felting, at 3c. per lb. 6.00
3 stairs, complete. 75.00
Porch, balconies, and stoops, complete. 160.00
6 cellar windows, $36; 1 bay window, complete,
$60. 96.00
12 plain windows, $144; 9 hooded windows,
complete, $135. 279.00
8 dormer windows, complete, at $8 each. 64.00
32 doors, at $9.50 each, $304; 7 closets, complete,
$14. 318.00
3 marble mantles, $60; 3 marble shelves,
complete, $18. 78.00
Range and plumbing, complete. 188.09
Well, from bath-room to roof, complete. 15.00
Gas-pipes for 18 lights, complete. 40.00
Bells and speaking-tubes, complete. 20.00
Finish of part of attic, complete. 60.00
Nails, $24; cartage, average 1 mile, $25. 49.00
Carpenter’s labor, not included above. 150.00
Painting, 2 coats, complete. 150.00
Incidentals. 52.50
Total cost, complete. $2,800.00
Fig. 89.—front elevation.
Fig. 90.—plan of first floor.