Department of English at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń invites you to attend the international conference whose major theme "Haunted Cultures/ Haunting Cultures" explores the cultural significance of the figure of the spectre, spectrality, haunting and hauntology in their deconstructive and/or other more traditional contexts. Following Jacques Derrida's argument that "[t]here is then some spirit. Spirits. And one must reckon with them. One cannot not have to, one must not not be able to reckon with them… (Derrida, 2006, xx), we invite papers reflecting on the place of the spectral figure, spectral metaphors and conceptualisations in past and present cultures. In its deconstructive preoccupations, hauntology endeavours to account for the persistence of the unspeakable and unnamable in cultural practices and discourses. One of our aims is to encourage a debate on the relevance and legitimacy of these spectral presences and/or absences in the twenty first century technologically advanced cultures.

 Suggested topics may include but need not be limited to the following:

 ·         hauntology and deconstruction;

·         the spectral turn and ethics of hauntology;

·         (cultural) politics of haunting: preservation and/or production;

·         functions of spectres and hauntings;  the appearance of spectres in specific historical periods and the role they have played in forming (or de-forming) the dominant cultural practices, haunting past;

·         haunted nations, haunted lands: spectres of present and past conflicts ;

·         narratives concerning haunting (haunted places, spaces and individuals); haunting and possession in fiction across cultures;

·         mourning and melancholia: persistence of the past;

·         spectral identities: gendering spectres, colonial and postcolonial spectres, spectres and alterity;

·         new media spectralities;

·         hauntology and spectres in and of popular and digital cultures (e.g. music, photography, cinema, television, Internet, social media, digital games).

200-word abstracts with the title, the author's name and affiliation accompanied by a short biographical note should be sent to the following address: hauntedcultures@gmail.com.

Abstracts submission deadline:  20 March 2016

Notification of acceptance: 20 April 2016