Haunted Soundscapes Symposium

The creak on the stair. The whisper on the wind. The melody in the dark. Ghostly sounds have been an integral part of horror and gothic fiction since its inception. In recent years ideas of Hauntology have emerged and gained popularity, particularly in the area of music. In a recent edition on ‘Spectral Sounds’ for the British Library Tales of the Weird series, editor Manon Burz-Labrande noted the uncanniness inherent in the “ambiguity of the aural” - if seeing is believing, that which is heard but unseen has a particular capacity for terror.[1]

This symposium seeks to explore the eerie nature of sound, or its absence, through an interdisciplinary exploration of haunted soundscapes in literature, film, music, and more.

We invite scholars, researchers, artists, and practitioners from diverse disciplines—including literature, history, creative writing, media studies, musicology, philosophy, and more—to contribute to a vibrant discussion of sound, music, horror, and hauntology.

[1] Manon Burz-Labrande, ed., Spectral Sounds: Unquiet Tales of Acoustic Weird (London: British Library, 2022), 8.

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