Ghostly Landscapes: Film, Photography, and the Aesthetics of Haunting in Contemporary Spanish Culture

How do we see what is lost? Analyzing the aesthetics of haunting and the relationship between ideology and the visual landscape, Patricia Keller revisits twentieth-century Spanish history through the camera’s lens. 

Join us for a Chats in the Stacks talk about her new book, Ghostly Landscapes (University of Toronto Press, January 19, 2016), to hear about the documentaries, films, and photographs that reveal the hidden realities confronted by the Spanish people during their transition to democracy.

The traumatic losses of the Spanish Civil War and their systematic denial and burial during the fascist dictatorship have constituted fertile territory for the expressions of loss, uncanny return, and untimeliness that characterize the aesthetic presence of the ghost. Through images, we discover how haunting serves to mourn loss and redefine space and history.

Keller is assistant professor of Spanish Literature, in the Department of Romance Studies at Cornell.

This event is hosted by Olin Library.

Refreshments served.