A geography of ghosts: the spectral landscapes of Mary Butts

David Matless

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Spatial and Cultural Studies Historical Geography and Geographical Thought Gothic Literature and Media Analysis

Abstract

The paper considers the writings of Mary Butts (1890—1937) to explore a geography of ghosts. After examining earlier geographical engagements with the spectral and magical, and outlining the terms of recent scholarly debate concerning spectrality, the paper introduces Butts' life and work, focussing on her ghostly writings in stories, novels, journals, autobiography and an essay on the supernatural in fiction. Butts' discussion of magic and place, and her accounts of the landscapes of Dorset and west Cornwall, demonstrate a version of spectral landscape conveying enchantment, secret meaning and a culturally select geography. The paper concludes by considering Butts in relation to current discussions of spectral geography.

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References

2006Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century 2002The contemporary London Gothic and the limits of the 'spectral turn'2007The spectral geographies of W.G. Sebald

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2014Sounding ruins: reflections on the production of an ‘audio drift’2016Geographies of media and communication I 2013Crossing Surfaces in Search of the Holy: Landscape and Liminality in Contemporary Christian Pilgrimage 2016Historical geography II 2014Mortal questions 2023Death, Ghosts, and Spiritual Tourism: Conceptualizing a Dark Spiritual Experience Spectrum for the Paranormal Market 2023Ghost Criminology: A Framework for the Discipline’s Spectral Turn 2024The spectral geographies of slavery: tourism and the hauntings of dissonant colonial heritage

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