Hauntology (aportmanteau ofhaunting andontology, alsospectral studies,spectralities, or thespectral turn) is a range of ideas referring to the return or persistence of elements from the social or culturalpast, as if to haunt the present. The term is aneologism first introduced by French philosopherJacques Derrida in his 1993 bookSpectres of Marx. It has since been invoked in fields such as visual arts, philosophy,electronic music,anthropology,criminology,[1] politics, fiction, andliterary criticism.[2]
WhileChristine Brooke-Rose had previously punned "dehauntological" (on "deontological") inAmalgamemnon (1984),[3] Derrida initially used "hauntology" for his idea of the atemporal nature ofMarxism and its tendency to "haunt Western society from beyond the grave".[4] It describes a situation of temporal andontological disjunction in whichpresence, especially socially and culturally, is replaced by adeferred non-origin.[2] The concept is derived fromdeconstruction, in which any attempt to locate the origin ofidentity or history must inevitably find itself dependent on analways-already existing set of linguistic conditions.[5] Despite being the central focus ofSpectres of Marx, the word hauntology appears only three times in the book, and there is little consistency in how other writers define the term.[6]
In the 2000s, the term wasapplied to musicians by theoristsSimon Reynolds andMark Fisher, who were said to explore ideas related to temporal disjunction,retrofuturism,cultural memory, and the persistence of the past. Hauntology has been used as a critical lens in various forms of media andtheory, including music, aesthetics,political theory, architecture,Africanfuturism,Afrofuturism,neo-futurism,metamodernism,[7]anthropology, andpsychoanalysis.[2][failed verification][8][page needed] Due to the difficulty in understanding the concept, there is little consistency in how other writers define the term.[6]
Hauntings andghost stories have existed for millennia, and reached a heydayin the West during the 19th century.[9] Incultural studies,Terry Castle (inThe Apparitional Lesbian) andAnthony Vidler (inThe Architectural Uncanny) predate Derrida.[10]
"Hauntology" originates from Derrida's discussion ofKarl Marx inSpectres of Marx, specifically Marx's proclamation that "aspectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of communism" inThe Communist Manifesto. Derrida calls on Shakespeare'sHamlet, particularly a phrase spoken by the titular character: "the time is out of joint".[5] The word functions as a deliberate near-homophone to "ontology" in Derrida's native French (cf."hantologie",[ɑ̃tɔlɔʒi] and"ontologie",[ɔ̃tɔlɔʒi]).[11]
Derrida's prior work ondeconstruction, on concepts oftrace anddifférance in particular, serves as the foundation of his formulation of hauntology,[2] fundamentally asserting that there is no temporal point of pure origin but only an "always-already absent present".[12] Derrida sees hauntology as not only more powerful than ontology, but that "it would harbor within itselfeschatology andteleology themselves".[13] His writing inSpectres is marked by a preoccupation with the "death" ofcommunism after the1991 fall of the Soviet Union, in particular after theorists such asFrancis Fukuyama asserted thatcapitalism had conclusively triumphed over other political-economic systems and reached the"end of history".[5]
Despite being the central focus ofSpectres of Marx, the word hauntology appears only three times in the book.[6] Peter Buse and Andrew Scott, discussing Derrida's notion of hauntology, explain:
Ghosts arrive from the past and appear in the present. However, the ghost cannot be properly said to belong to the past .... Does then the 'historical' person who is identified with the ghost properly belong to the present? Surely not, as the idea of a return from death fractures all traditional conceptions of temporality. The temporality to which the ghost is subject is thereforeparadoxical, at once they 'return' and make their apparitional debut [...] any attempt to isolate the origin of language will find its inaugural moment already dependent upon a system of linguistic differences that have been installed prior to the 'originary' moment (11).[5]
In the 2000s, the term was taken up by critics in reference to paradoxes found inpostmodernity, particularly contemporary culture's persistent recycling ofretro aesthetics and incapacity to escape old social forms.[5] Writers such asMark Fisher andSimon Reynolds used the term to describe amusical aesthetic preoccupied with this temporal disjunction and thenostalgia for "lost futures".[4] So-called "hauntological" musicians are described as exploring ideas related to temporal disjunction,retrofuturism,cultural memory, and the persistence of the past.[14][15][5]
Anthropology has seen a widespread usage of hauntology as amethodology acrossethnography,archaeology, andpsychological anthropology. In 2019Ethos, the journal of theSociety for Psychological Anthropology dedicated a full issue to hauntology, titledHauntology in Psychological Anthropology, and numerous books and journal articles have since appeared on the topic. In a book titledThe Hauntology of Everyday Life, psychological anthropologist Sadeq Rahimi asserts, "the very experience ofeveryday life is built around a process that we can call hauntogenic, and whose major by-product is a steady stream of ghosts."[16] In 2025, the journalAnthropological Theory Commons published a Special Collection on hauntology titled "Ghostly Lessons."
Justin Armstrong, building on Derrida, proposes a "spectralethnography" that "sees beyond the boundaries of actually spoken language and direct human contact to the interplay between space, place, objects, andtemporality".[17] Jeff Ferrell and Theo Kidynis, building on Armstrong, have developed further ideas of "ghost ethnography".[18] Mara Dicenta, building on Gordon and Derrida, proposes"haunting as anti-method," one "that refuses to manage repression through interpretation" and allows for follow ghosts of violence without seeking resolution.[19]
Anthropologists Martha and Bruce Lincoln make a distinction between primary hauntings, in which the haunted recognize the reality and autonomy of metaphysical entities in relatively uncritical, literal manner; and secondary hauntings, which identify "textual residues" history, or as tropes for "collective intrapsychic states" such astrauma and grief. As a case study, they use the example ofBa Chúc's secondary haunting, in which the state-controlled museums display the skulls of the dead and memorabilia, as opposed to traditional Vietnamese burial customs. This is contrasted withthe "primary haunting" of Ba Chúc, the paranormal activity said to occur at an execution site marked by a tree.[20]
Kit Bauserman notes that forliterary andcritical theorists, the ghost is "pure metaphor" and "a fictional vessel that co-opts their social agenda", whereas ethnographers and anthropologists "come the closest to engaging ghosts as beings".[21] Some scholars have argued that the "neat distinction quickly breaks down in ethnographic analysis" and that "it is far from clear that the presence of ghosts as metaphysical entities is primary."[22]
Far in a dehauntological campaign from zone to zone, zig-zagging north and south, east and west, the lovers will wander...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)