Crynodeb
This dissertation explores the tradition of Western and Chinese ghost stores, contrasts them with contemporary ghost and horror literature, and analyses them from from the standpoint of geographic displacement. It takes the form of a novel, Inhospitable, and a critical commentary.In inhospitable, an American expatriate in her late thirties has come to Hong Kong in order to oversee renovations on a building her half-Chinese husband has recently inherited. There is a catch: a revenge-minded ghost has been eradiating her husband's family line one at a time for decades, and he is intended to be the ghost's final victim. Although she has encountered ghosts before, she is dealing with Chinese ghosts this time: different rules, rituals and customs apply.
Inhospitable, takes its inspiration from a number of disparate literary sources. It draws upon the 'classic' nineteenth-century ghost stories of M. R. James, E. F. Benson, and Henry James; upon the classical zhiguai Chinese ghost stories of Yuan Mei, Pu Songling, and Ji Yun; and upon contemporary fiction by Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Peter Straub. The accompanying critical commentary discusses these literary linkages as well as the research choices, the writing process, and the effect of Hong Kong's complex, shifting political situation upon the novel.
Although the English ghost story has been the subject of much scholarly attention, this dissertation uses M. R. James's attributes of the ghost story as a basis to compare and contrast Western ghost fiction against Chinese zhiguai. The analysis of the effect of expatriation and tourism on horror fiction is another original aspect of the work, positing a loss of agency as the common underlying theme of such stories. Finally, the novel itself is unique in contemporary literature in its inversion/subversion of the fictional trope of immigrants and ghosts from the old country.
| Dyddiad Dyfarnu | 2016 |
|---|---|
| Iaith wreiddiol | Saesneg |
| Sefydliad Dyfarnu |
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| Goruchwyliwr | Matthew Francis (Goruchwylydd) |