History as Spectre: A Hauntological Reading of Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between hauntology and psychological realism in the context of the novel The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters through the theoretical lens of Jacques Derrida’s hauntology. Instead of affirming the existence of the ghost in the novel, this article will show that the haunting in the novel is actually a form of psychological and historical realism. The strange occurrences in the mansion took as symbols of the class anxiety and social decline in post-war Britain. Furthermore, this article will show that the ambiguity between madness and historical memory in the novel actually creates a space in which the past continuously invades the present. The horror and ambiguity in the novel will be revealed as the effect of the past on the present, rather than the effect of the ghost. This article will prove that the past, as history, is actually the main source of haunting in the novel, which directs the flow of the narrative and the psychological states of the characters.