Haunting Modernisms

This book is about haunting in modernist literature. Offering an extended and textually-sensitive reading of modernist spectrality that has yet to be undertaken by scholars of either haunting or modernism, it provides a fresh reconceptualization of modernist haunting by synthesizing recent critical work in the fields of haunting studies, Gothic modernisms, and mourning modernisms. The chapters read the form and function of the ghostly as it appears in the work of a constellation of important modernist contributors, including T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Elizabeth Bowen, Wyndham Lewis, Richard Aldington, and Ford Madox Ford. It is of particular significance to scholars and students in a wide range of fields of study, including modernism, literary theory, and the Gothic.    

“Haunting Modernisms attempts to bridge the gap between Gothic and Modernist definitions of what it means to haunt and be haunted. … Each chapter sows the seeds of discussions yet to come, creating a rich and complex study that draws together both theoretical and historical approaches.” (Lucy Hall, Fantastika Journal, Vol. 3 (4), January, 2019)​

Matt Foley has particular research interests in modernism, the Gothic, the ghost story and literary acoustics. From 2015-2017, he held a Lectureship at the University of Stirling, UK, where he taught on a range of courses in modern and contemporary literature. He is currently writing on a diverse range of topics, including the acoustics of Gothic literature and the fiction of Michel Faber and Patrick McGrath. Haunting Modernisms is his first monograph.