Ghosts from the 1970s

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Hauntology

Ghosts of Futures Past

Merlin Coverley

Oldcastle Books 2020

Pb, 320pp, £12.99, ISBN 9780857304216

Divided into three sections – ‘Hauntings’, ‘Experiments with Time’ and ‘Ghosts of Futures Past’ – this new work by Merlin Coverley sees him embark on a mission to seek out the roots and growth of the cultural phenomenon that is known as hauntology. It is a walk that takes the author and reader down many diverse paths, foremost among them being Memory Lane.

Though it does explore the concept of hauntings and references numerous supernatural films and TV shows, this is not a book about ghosts in the traditional sense but a study of the concept of the cultural mode known as hauntology.

The word hauntology was conceived in 1993 by the French political philosopher Jacques Derrida in his book Spectres of Marx as a portmanteau of ‘haunt’ and ‘ontology’ and relates to his concept that Marxism continues to “haunt Western society from beyond the grave”.

However, hauntology has expanded far beyond its original meaning to encompass a certain æsthetic in music, media and art, and beyond that a feeling.

Hauntology is a nebulous creature, difficult to define but always recognised when encountered, at least on an emotional level.

The wider concept of hauntology as an art and thoughtform owes a lot to the writings of cultural historian Mark Fisher and here Coverley joins the dots between the Derradaian and Fisherian views.

Coverley notes the cultural importance of the 1970s as a fixed point in hauntological time. Notably lying within the formative years of Generation X (or what Bob Fischer has accurately described as ‘The Haunted Generation’, which is evident in the work of Scarfolk and Scarred For Life for example), the 1970s