GRAPPLING WITH GHOSTS:

Spectres and the Supernatural in Literature, Culture, and Film

Friday 9 June 2023, 10.30 a.m. – 3.15 p.m.

Moore Annexe Lecture Theatre,

Royal Holloway, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX

(building 1 on the campus plan, downloadable here)

Ghosts, monsters, and the supernatural have long held a complex fascination for people and societies, troubling the relation between truth and fiction, living and dead, familiar and unfamiliar. The Departments of Classics and Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Royal Holloway invite any interested students to a themed taster day exploring the different ways that writers, thinkers, and filmmakers have engaged with the supernatural. After four sessions exploring case studies from the classical and modern worlds, we will end with an informal discussion outlining the various degree courses we offer in (and across) our two departments and answer any questions you might have about university life. No prior study of classical culture or any languages other than English is required!

10.30 a.m.

Registration and welcome

10.35-11.05 a.m.

‘The Monstrous Supernatural in Seneca’s Tragedy’: Liz Gloyn, Reader in Latin Language & Literature

Seneca’s tragic plays feature a wealth of supernatural and ghostly presences. In this talk, we’ll look at two monsters who play important roles in the plays – Cerberus, captured by Hercules and dragged up to the surface world in Hercules Furens, and the furious bull from the sea who tramples Hippolytus to death in Phaedra. Although these monsters are only reported in messenger speeches, and don’t actually appear on stage, they play an important role in the plays, drawing out important thematic concerns that Seneca wishes to highlight. We’ll explore how the presence of these two monsters acts to destabilise the border between the supernatural and our ordinary world, and what that means for how the Romans understood the world.

11.05-11.35 a.m.

‘Ghostly Hallucinations: Staging Spectres in the Age of Reason’: Joe Harris, Professor of Early Modern French and Comparative Literature

The end of Jean Racine’s tragedy Andromaque (1667) is one of the most powerful and haunting in all French theatre, although it’s easy to miss this when merely reading the play. Having indirectly caused the death of the king Pyrrhus and the suicide of his beloved Hermione, the Greek hero Orestes is beset with hallucinations – of darkness, blood, the monstrous Furies, and the ghosts of his two inadvertent victims, clamouring for revenge. In this session we’ll read his crazed final monologue, unlocking the secrets of Racine’s spectral stagecraft and exploring how the scene collapses the boundaries between death and life, reality and dream, solitude and company, modern psychology and classical myth.

11.35-12.10 Refreshments

12.10-12.45

‘Lucian and the teahouse of horror’: Nick Lowe, Reader in Classics

Why do we enjoy spooky stories? Should we? How can rational, educated people surrender knowingly and willingly to the spell of the supernatural? These are some of the questions asked in the oldest surviving critical anthology of horror, the great second-century Greek satirist Lucian's Philopseudes or ‘The Lover of Lies’ – in which a hard-nosed sceptic vents about his failed attempts to heckle the tellers of nine (literally) hair-raising tales of wizards, ghosts, apparitions, demons, exorcisms, and visions of hell. As well as an encyclopedia of popular beliefs in the ancient world about the occult, Lucian's dialogue explores the spell such stories cast over us, and why they pose a challenge to rationalist thinking that can't be simply reasoned away. In this session we’ll look at highlights from Lucian's dialogue, including the massively influential final story of the sorcerer's apprentice and the first out-of-control AI, and at what Lucian has to say about the enduring fascination of such stories.

12.45-2.00 p.m. Lunch break

You can bring a packed lunch, or purchase sandwiches and drinks from a variety of venues across the campus. Student ambassadors will be on hand to show you around our impressive campus.

1.15-2.00 p.m. Mini Campus Tour with Student Ambassadors (optional)

2.00-2.30 p.m.

‘“An emotion suspended in time”: Ghosts, Horror and the Spanish Civil War Dead in Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001)’: Sarah Wright, Professor of Hispanic Studies

“What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber”. These are the opening lines of Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s 2001 film, The Devil’s Backbone [El Espinoza del diablo], a blend of thriller, horror and ghost story, which is set in an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. This interactive session will use film clips and storyboarding and will focus on the child ghost, Santi, as a symbol not only of the Spanish Civil War dead, but in terms of the way the figure feeds into current debates in Spain about the best way to remember the past, known as the Spanish ‘memory-wars’.

2.30-3.15 p.m.

Studying Classical Culture, Modern Languages, Translation Studies, Comparative Literature and Culture, or Liberal Arts at Royal Holloway: a Q&A session

This session explains how studying any of our degree programmes in Classics or Languages, Literatures and Cultures differs from studying at school/college. It also explores the wealth of career opportunities for those with humanities degrees and gives you an opportunity to ask questions of the event organisers Richard Hawley (richard.hawley@rhul.ac.uk) and Joe Harris (joseph.harris@rhul.ac.uk) and the student ambassadors, for example about application procedures, degree course content, and student experience.

This event is designed for those who might wish to study with us rather than, for example, parents or guardians, for whom the College Open Days are more appropriate.