Spectrality in the works of Christoph Ransmayr

Hader, Zachary Scott

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Description

Title

Spectrality in the works of Christoph Ransmayr

Author(s)

Hader, Zachary Scott

Issue Date

2025-04-17

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Johnson, Laurie R

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Johnson, Laurie R

Committee Member(s)

• Niekerk, Carl H
• Pinkert, Anke
• Hunt, Anna

Department of Study

Germanic Languages & Lit

Discipline

German

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Spectrality
• Christoph Ransmayr
• specters
• ghosts
• haunting
• memory studies
• trauma studies

Abstract

My dissertation examines novels by contemporary Austrian author Christoph Ransmayr (1954– ) to demonstrate that the literary-cultural figure of the “specter” is more multifaceted than previously thought, and is still helpful for understanding the ways in which the past and future are mediated in the present, perhaps especially in a hypermedial, information-flooded era. My readings are informed by the “spectral turn” in critical theory, which began with the publication of Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx (1992). Scholars in myriad fields have since used a concept of spectrality based at least loosely on Derrida’s work to better understand textual relationships between past, present, and future; see e.g., Julian Wolfreys, Meera Atikinson, and Grace M. Cho. I modify current generalized notions of spectrality and argue that there are at least three types of specters in literature: 1. the ghost, i.e., the living embodiment of a dead person/thing; 2. the meta-specter, who appears through mediated means, e.g. through writing; 3. the mytho-specter, who exists in myth or in other narrations of collective cultural memory. These spectral types all appear in Christoph Ransmayr’s novels and help us better understand his postmodern negotiation of the relation between pasts and presents. Scholars of the specter should find these distinctions useful as it can provide a way for them to distinguish between various types of specters as well as show the ways in which they may be similar. My reading of Atlas of an Anxious Man (2012) demonstrates how specters enable a better understanding of the text’s relationship with history, mourning, and myth. Turning to The Flying Mountain (2006), I examine linguistic spectrality and its relation to present re-representations of past trauma. I then examine Ransmayr’s historical fiction, including The Dog King (1997), to show how the specter influences and is influenced by history. Finally, I examine his latest novel, The Lockmaster (2021), to illuminate the relation between spectrality and the Gothic. These readings all aim to further the understanding not just of the cultural figure of the specter, but also of Ransmayr’s works. Scholars of Ransmayr as well as of spectrality should find this project useful in showing the various ways in which Ransmayr utilizes the figure of the specter and the ways in which messages are passed throughout differing temporalities in his works.

Graduation Semester

2025-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129402

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Zachary Hader

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