Talking with Ghosts
Spectrality in John Huston’s 'The Dead'
Keywords:
Hauntology, spectrality, John Huston, James Joyce, Irish Cinema, Jacques DerridaAbstract
This article examines spectrality and hauntology in John Huston’s The Dead, arguing that he adapts James Joyce’s story through a sustained aesthetics of haunting. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s theory of hauntology, alongside theories of the spectral gaze and the acousmêtre, the article explores how camerawork, sound, shadow, and temporal disruption centralise the absent figure of Michael Furey within the film’s mise en scène. It argues that Huston mobilises spectral aesthetics not only to foreground memory and mourning, but also to expose class inequality, colonial histories, and hidden structures of labour, ultimately positioning haunting as an ethical and political mode of cinematic seeing.
References
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FILMOGRAPHY
Ghost Stories for Christmas. 1971–present. BBC.
The Dead. 1987. Directed by John Huston.
