In terms of characterizing ethnographic places, and really space/place more generally, Gordon’s conceptualization of haunting actually shifts the way we think about temporality in a given space. Haunting, for Gordon, is simultaneously in the past, present, and future.. And isn’t linear, but is really repetitive. Gordon’s work thinks about repetitions and she talks about how ghosts tend to return to familiar places. I think shifting the way we think about time in relation to space could really open up possibilities for us to think about ethnographic sites. Thinking in relation with McKittrick’s Demonic Grounds, I also think this shift in temporality allows us to operate at various scales simultaneously. “To write a history of the present requires stretching toward the horizon of what cannot be seen with ordinary clarity yet.. To imagine beyond the limits of what's already understandable is our best hope for retaining what ideology critique traditionally offers while transforming its limitations into what was called utopian possibility” (195) Above is one of my favorite quotes from Gordon and I think this notion of stretching beyond the horizon to really theorize a present is a great way to think about our ethnographic sites. How do we think toward the future? How do we think beyond a give space and even time? How does haunting disrupt knowledge production generally and what does that disruption do for our thinking of place/space?
Analytic (Question)
Everyone can view this content
On