ABSTRACT
The ghost is transculturated away from the individual, metaphysical, paranormal, and psychological towards material haunting and a concern with legacy and responsibility. Ivan Vladislavic seems to be advancing an argument for literature, and particularly the ghost story or story of haunting, through the episode of the dead letters. One outstanding instance of haunting that occurs outside of the borders of the ghost story is in the fiction of Vladislavic. Postcolonial transculturation of the sort tends to shift the centre of gravity away from Western culture, to globalize ghost stories and to make us rethink the ghost and haunting. Vladislavic’s relatively quiet and materialist oeuvre is interrupted by the creepy episode of the dead letters. “Dead Letters” suggests that light on the ghost story may be shed by instances of haunting in stories that appear to have little to do with the genre. The uncanny is particularly apparent in the mysterious episode of the “dead letters” in Double Negative.
