Hauntology and Cognition: Questions of Knowledge, Pasts and Futures

Abstract

Abstract. This article presents the major aspects of hauntology, highlighting the impact of spectrality studies on contemporary redefinitions of knowledge and cognition. Referring predominantly to Jacques Derrida's Spectres de Marx (1993), we discuss the ways in which the spectral turn has led to a "cognitive crisis" of sorts by radically questioning the existing procedures of knowing and re-configuring the prevalent conceptualization of time and history. Approaching the spectre as a conceptual site of difference and otherness, we comment on the ethical dimensions of spectrality studies and the questions of (in)visibility, representation of as well as responsibility for the Other, the marginalised or the silenced. We also stress the contribution of the psychoanalytic concepts explaining psychological reactions to loss-the metapsychic phantom and the intrapsychic crypt-to the development of trauma and memory studies. In all of these concerns, we are primarily interested in outlining the transformative potential of the figure of the spectre and its influence on methods of study in contemporary scholarship.

Naming and framing victims: Identity, ‘usable’ victimhood, and the spectral turn in transitional justice

“…However, as the ‘spectral turn’ in TJ literature has increasingly shown, such spectral figures invariably return to ‘haunt’ and ‘unsettle’ the post-conflict present, whether through keeping past injustices alive, demanding acknowledgement, or broadening our victimological worldview (Hite and Jara, 2020; Lawther, 2021; Willems, 2021). When confronted with these spectral figures, transitioning societies are forced to either ‘welcome’ or ‘reject’ them (Lorek-Jezinska and Wieckowska, 2017). Although various constituencies initially opted to ‘reject’ McCabe in favour of more ‘usable’ victims because of his complex identity, whenever it became possible to map McCabe onto post-conflict claims-making these same constituencies decided to ‘welcome’ him into their collective memory.…”

“…The re-emergence of problematic figures and/or events to complexify dominant narratives has led transitional justice (TJ) literature to take a recent 'spectral turn'. Granted, demands for justice, truth, and accountability that pervade TJ are, by their very nature, inherently attached to spectral figures that 'unsettle' the post-conflict present (Lawther, 2021), yet the 'spectral turn' is born of a more general scepticism with master narratives and a desire to critically examine representation, invisibility and silence (Lorek-Jezinska and Wieckowska, 2017). Studies on the blind spots in official discourses produced by truth commissions (Bevernage, 2012), the subaltern voices and experiences expressed through grassroots arts and theatre (Bell, 2014), and the hidden horrors lurking in the archives (Harris, 2021) all converge on the common theme of something or someone returning to 'haunt' dominant post-conflict narratives.…”