The SPECTRAL project (SPECtres in TRAnslation and Literature) stems from the idea that literary texts shape social anxieties and malaises through thematic and formal spectral elements that haunt our fictions. Using Derrida’s hauntology as a starting point, we take the philosopher’s invitation to speak to the spectres of our literary traditions and cultures, as he urged us to do in Specters of Marx (translated by Peggy Kamuff):

It is necessary to speak of the ghost, indeed to the ghost and with it, from the moment that no ethics, no politics, whether revolutionary or not, seems possible and thinkable and just that does not recognize in its principle the respect for those others who are no longer or for those others who are not yet there, presently living, whether they are already dead or not yet born (p. xvii)

The general aim of the project is to address the study of literary texts (and other aesthetic artifacts) from Anglophone and Spanish-speaking cultures to deepen our understanding of present-day societies, with their wounds and scars; to help generate frameworks for dialogue that are more respectful of otherness and to understand the function and evolution of the spectral in contemporary fictions. In turn, the project seeks to explore alternative paths within hauntological thought that move away from nostalgic approaches and understand the spectral as a political and, at times, revolutionary element, as a way of problematising the past and giving voice to unruly memories in order to chart other futures. Along these lines, we seek to look toward alternative futures pointed to by the ghost and to recover the dimension of justice presented by Derridean thought, thinking the ghost as an “activating force of actions”, as Sandra Gasparini formulated it.

Our approach is carried out with an interdisciplinary perspective that integrates literary, philosophical, and translation studies, the latter being a key element in the circulation and resignification of these fictions, and as a spectral space par excellence. Within this interdisciplinary framework, we explore the ghostly element that runs through not only cultural artifacts with supernatural elements —in non-mimetic genres—, but also mimetic writings haunted by spectral elements, as well as their translations. Studying the poetics of spectrality with this dual perspective allow us to think about other political and affective modalities through which to engage with the present, the past, and the future.

The project is framed within the “spectral turn” in the humanities, as Blanco and Peeren noted more than a decade ago. Since its beginnings, with thinkers such as Derrida, Abraham, Torok, Fisher, or Castle, spectrological thought has haunted not only philosophical, but also literary, musical, cinematographic, sociological, anthropological domains, etc. With SPECTRAL, we seek to contribute to this tradition and expand it toward translation, contemporary and comparative literature, and literary theory itself. Within this framework, we will see how the ghost haunts fields such as queer spectralities, historical memory studies, intergenerational trauma, eco-spectrality, intertextuality, subversive rewritings and their negotiations of the canon, linguistic variety, or retranslations.

The project is part of the activities of the MAD research group (Alternative Frameworks of Discourse): Literature, Translation and Thought.