Social Disruptions through Spirited Disturbances: A Consideration of “Haunted History” in New York’s Burned-Over District

• In Event: Places and Performances as Cultural Objects

Abstract

Working from Derrida’s concept of “hauntology” as a liminal or paradoxical state between presence and absence - present and past, alive and dead – which allows for the consideration and exploration of the haunting traces of unresolved pasts of oppression in ghostly visions of the future, we can view the Dark Tourism of the Haunted History Trail of New York State, particularly within the historical context of the rebellious “Burned-Over District” as a counterculture-driven counternarrative that may disrupt the status quo of White, patriarchal discourses.

Author

• Christina M. Knopf, SUNY Cortland