Index
Childhood encounters with ghosts, both real and fictional, set the scene for this essay by offering a personal history of spooks and ghostly tales.
We go to Story for many reasons, including walking in the shoes of others, the desire for pure sensation, a need for escapism, plus the navigation of life’s problems both personal and social. This section looks at each of these areas in turn and considers their specific role in our experience of the ghost tale.
This chapter asks what is meant by a ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’. It then goes on to explore the wide range of supernatural entities which can be found in what were once called ‘weird tales’ but which are now more generally referred to under the umbrella title of ‘ghost stories’.
This chapter begins with a look at popular ghost plots, such as revenge, abduction, and unfinished business, and then goes on to consider the structuring of a ghost plot, from the catalyst event and the problem arising, to the task undertaken and the surprise twist ending.
This section offers a biographical guide to the wide variety of spectres in supernatural stories, including the ‘time-slip ghost’, the ‘imprint ghost’, the ‘doppelganger ghost’, the ‘omen ghost’, the ‘possessing ghost’, the ‘psychological ghost’, the ‘suicide ghost’, the ‘guilt ghost’, the ‘shadow ghost’, the ‘child ghost’ and even what you might call the ‘explainable ghost’.
This section considers the types of people, such as homosexual men, the bereaved, and women of nervous disposition, who have traditionally been thought of as especially tuned in to the seeing of ghosts and supernatural entities. There is also a look at how dogs, cats and horses are sometimes used in spooky stories as being creatures who are particularly sensitive to ghosts.
This chapter explores the question of whether in a story it’s better to show and reveal your ghost or just suggest its presence. Following on from this there’s a look at how corporeal a ghost can be, with manifestations in tales ranging from the physically real and walking corpses, to translucent spectres and mere shadows.
This section considers the time setting of a ghost story, looking at the advantages and disadvantages of setting a tale in the distant past or the contemporary present.
The Gothic tradition had it that hauntings primarily took place in abbeys and castles. However, over the years more domesticated settings became the norm. This chapter then examines this development in the ghost story and when and why it occurred.
The ‘white sheet ghost’ is a bit of cliché but the idea comes from the winding cloth that corpses were often buried in. But folklore changes over the years and this chapter looks at the whole range of outfits and accoutrements that ghosts have been seen to have about them, with a particular reference to the age-old tradition of heavy chains.
All genres have their particular story tropes and this chapter considers a few from the ghost tale tradition, including an early warning or interdiction, the assertion that the tale is true and factual, plus an indication that the main character is recovering from some sort of illness or needs quiet convalescence.
This chapter looks at the role of dreams not only in stories but also in their creation.
It takes more than ghosts to create a ghost plot and so this section considers the role of the occultist and the sceptic who are often key participants in ghost tales. This chapter also considers how moths are sometimes used in stories as omens of death.
There’s more that one way to present or tell a ghost tale and this section considers literary forms such as diaries, letters, journals, plus structural framing devices, stories-with-stories and multi-perspective narratives.
A common criticism of ghost stories is that they aren’t about anything. This chapter challenges that view by analysing some of the themes found in ghost narratives, including grief and loneliness, the abuse of power, changing social and cultural attitudes, sexual desire, colonialism, and the human psychosis of guilt.
A personal reflection on my interest in ghost stories and the possible subconscious needs behind my desire to write supernatural fiction.
A brief look at the life and work of the Edwardian writer M.R. James who is regarded by many as The Master of the Ghost Tale.
In the Victorian era ghost stories were universally read and even in the Edwardian period, though they changed in nature, ghost tales continued to be regularly published in magazines and collections. However, over the last century there has been a slow decline in their numbers, and so this chapter asks both where have all the ghost stories gone and what was it in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which made spook tales so popular.
In the twentieth century cinema and television took the baton from the literary ghost tale and continue to run with it to this very day, with popular supernatural series on Netflix and box office hits in movie theatres. The section then celebrates the ghost story in the visual medium, with examples from Doctor Who, The Twilight Zone and recent cinema successes.
