Ghosts Were People Too

Banquo! Lady Macbeth! Shakesqueer! The Monster's Body Is a Cultural Body! Charles Manson! Playboy! Join us for Macbeth, Part 2, in which we explore changing beliefs about ghosts from the ancient world to Shakespeare's England and discuss how audiences, past and present, might understand Banquo's ghost. From there, we turn to Lady Macbeth's fractured experience of guilt and time before considering the many ways filmmakers have reimagined the play to reflect the anxieties of their own historical moments.

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Read Quest's article! “Revenge of the Monster Queer: The Cosmic Horror and Eldritch Liberation of Drag" in The Monstrous Utopian, ed. Michael Chemers and Analola Santana, Routledge

Bibliography:

• Didion, Joan. The White Album. Simon & Schuster, 1979.
• Freebury-Jones, Darren, and Rachel Aanstad. “Did Shakespeare's Audiences Believe in Ghosts?” Shakespeare and Friends. YouTube, 18 Jan. 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br4N4RA0j_s. Accessed 28 July 2026.
• Love, Heather. “Macbeth: Milk.” Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by Madhavi Menon, Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 201–208. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1134f1s.26. Accessed 28 July 2026.
• Puhvel, Martin. “The Perplexing Ghost of Banquo: Ambiguity and Its Roots.” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, vol. 94, no. 3, 1993, pp. 287–302.
• Williams, Deanne. “Mick Jagger Macbeth.” Macbeth and Its Afterlife, edited by Peter Holland, Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 145–160.

Films:

• Macbeth. Directed by Orson Welles, Republic Pictures, 1948.
• Macbeth. Directed by Roman Polanski, Columbia Pictures, 1971.
• Macbeth. Directed by Justin Kurzel, StudioCanal, 2015.
• The Tragedy of Macbeth. Directed by Joel Coen, A24 and Apple Original Films, 2021.

Is this a dagger, an inanimate ghost, or something more Freudian? In this, the first of a two-part episode, Annabelle and Quest venture onto the blasted heath to explore the apparitions and queer hauntings of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. We talk about Quest’s work on a recent production of the play at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and break down concepts regarding gender, kingship, violence, and the disruption of natural order.

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[email protected]

Read Quest's article! “Revenge of the Monster Queer: The Cosmic Horror and Eldritch Liberation of Drag" in The Monstrous Utopian, ed. Michael Chemers and Analola Santana, Routledge

Bibliography

• Bersani, Leo. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” In Is the Rectum a Grave?: And Other Essays. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
• Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” In Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Updated edition with a new preface by the author. Princeton University Press, 2015.
• Jones, Gwilym. “Macbeth: supernatural storms, equivocal earthquakes” In Shakespeare’s Storms. Manchester University Press, 2015.
• Love, Heather. “Macbeth: Milk.” In Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by Madhavi Menon. Duke University Press, 2011.
• Menon, Madhavi. “Queer Shakes.” In Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by Madhavi Menon. Duke University Press, 2011.
• Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. Columbia University Press, 1985.
• Varnado, Christine. “Getting Used, and Liking It: Erotic Instrumentality and the Go-Between.” In The Shapes of Fancy: Reading for Queer Desire in Early Modern Literature. University of Minnesota Press, 2020.

In this Halloween special, Quest and Annabelle talk about the poetics, play, and "dangers" of the Ouija board.

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Bibliography:“‘The Medium is the Message in the Spacious Present’: Channeling, Television, and the New Age” by Hugh Urban, in Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling, ed. Cathy Gutierrez

“​​Parlor Games: Play and Social Life in the Haunted House” in Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian Spiritualism and the Rise of Modern Media Culture by Simone Natale

“Wars and Ouija: Spiritualism in the Twentieth Century” in Calling the Spirits by Lisa Morton

“An Aesthetic History of the Ouija Board’ by Jesse Ryan Erickson, in Printing History

“James Merrill, Sylvia Plath, and the Poetics of Ouija” by Helen Sword in American Literature, vol. 66, no. 3, 1994 https://doi.org/10.2307/2927604

In this, the first of our series on Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, Annabelle and Quest climb into the attic to uncover its ghostly brides, gothic backstory, and Disney’s spooky-funny balance. From the Beating Heart Bride to Constance Hatchaway, we ask what this haunted attic reveals about our fears, our histories, and our love of ghosts.

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Bibliography:

Davison, Carol Margaret. “Southern Gothic: Haunted Houses.” The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic, edited by Susan Castillo Street and Charles L. Crow, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 57–74

Donovan-Condron, Kellie. “Twisted Sisters: The Monstrous Women of Southern Gothic.” The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic, edited by Susan Castillo Street and Charles L. Crow, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 369–83.

Giles, David. “The Thousandth Happy Haunt: Legends of Burial and Haunting at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.” Western Folklore, vol. 74, no. 3/4, 2015, pp. 297–316.

Martens, Todd. “First Look: Disneyland’s Original Haunted Mansion Returns with a Heartbreaking New Scene.” Los Angeles Times, 17 Jan. 2025.

Steiner, Michael. “Frontierland as Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Architectural Packaging of the Mythic West.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 48, no. 1, 1998, pp. 2–17.

Surrell, Jason. The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic. Disney Editions, 2009.

Tromp, Marlene. “‘Throwing the Wedding-Shoe’: Foundational Violence, Unhappy Couples, and Murderous Women.” Victorian Review, vol. 20, no. 2, 1994, pp. 36–54.

Truffin, Sherry R. “New Orleans as Gothic Capital.” The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic, edited by Susan Castillo Street and Charles L. Crow, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 151–65.

Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew. “Hidden Histories: The Many Ghosts of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.” Disney Gothic: Dark Shadows in the House of Mouse. Edinburgh University Press, 2019, pp. 29–46.

Dreams, collective trauma, stranger danger, groomer panic, queer death drive/queer evil, and media horror - it's all lurking below the surface in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

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[email protected]

Bibliography

Edelman, Lee. No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Duke University Press, 2004.

Kendrick, James. “Razors in the Dreamscape: Revisiting A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Slasher Film.” Cinema Journal, vol. 50, no. 1, Fall 2010, pp. 60-78.

Lieberman, Tucker. “The Trail of His Flames.” The American Reader, vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 2019.

Schildcrout, Jordan. Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater. University of Michigan Press, 2014.

Thomsen, Morten Feldtfos. “‘Evil Never Dies, Right?’ Monstrous Mediation in the A Nightmare on Elm Street Film Series.” Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, vol. 16, no. 1, 2024.

Part two of our Haunting of Hill House special!

In this episode we discuss Hill House as a character, the origins of the Victorian haunted house trope, and how... every room becomes a mouth!

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For our very special 13th episode, we present part one of a two-part series on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and its film adaptation The Haunting (1963). In part 1, we talk about the movie vs. the book, approaches to paranormal research, the Cult of True Womanhood, monstrous family systems, and Lesbians!

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Bibliography

“Walking Alone Together: Family Monsters in The Haunting of Hill House” by Richard Pascal

Interview: Laurence Jackson Hyman on his mother Shirley: ‘Her work is so relevant now…’ by Rachel Cooke. The Guardian.

“Opening Up” in Men, Women, and Chain Saws by Carol Clover

The Haunting of Hill House, Introduction by Laura Miller

“Walking Alone Together: Family Monsters in The Haunting of Hill House” by Richard Pascal in Studies in the Novel

Queer for Fear, Episode 4

Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” American Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 2, 1966, pp. 151–74. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2711179. Accessed 31 Aug. 2024.

Ballads and broadsides, sailors and skeletons, sisters and sampling, and... have you seen the ghost of John? Join us to talk about ghosts in folk music. We touch on some common themes and formats as well as academic approaches to analyzing and archiving folk tunes/lyrics. Come for the intertextuality, sociofunctionalism, politics, and anthropology-- stay for the boos.

Want to sing along? Make contact:

Make contact:

@ghostswerepeopletoo

[email protected]

Bibliography

• "Shall I Sing You a Ghost Story: The Nature and Purpose of Ghost Songs in Maritime Communities of Northern New England and Atlantic Canada" by Richard A. Blake (2019). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports.
• “Ghosts of Voices: Hauntology and Folk Music” by Eamon Byers. Folk Horror Revival: Harvest Hymns. Volume I- Twisted Roots, Volume 1
• "Folk Songs as Socio-Historical Documents" by John Greenway. Western Folklore, vol. 19, no. 1, 1960, pp. 1–9. JSTOR.
• “The English, Scottish, and American Versions of the ‘Twa Sisters’” by Archer Taylor, in The Journal of American Folklore
• “‘The Twa Sisters’—Going Which Way?” by Harbison Parker, in The Journal of American Folklore
• “Magical Corpses: Ballads, Intertextuality, and the Discovery of Murder” by David Atkinson, in Journal of Folklore Research
• “Comparativism and the Functional Contexts of Myths and Rituals”, from Mythography by William Doty
• “Maieutic, Creative Myth: Conveying Values and Systems of Interpreting Reality (Definition, part 2)”, from Mythography by William Doty
• "'Have You Seen The Ghost Of John” is a kids’ song that actually chills'" by Mariah Eakin. AV Club.
• "“Ghost of John”: Appalachia’s Most Ghoulish Lullaby" by Musette. Medium.

Songs

• Alan Mills (The Ghostly Sailors)-Accordion https://youtu.be/CpysXQtf1Y0?si=tbeb8EzPfeSZUpeJ
• Houlihan (The Ghostly Sailors)-Acapella https://youtu.be/k7wbShaiZGg?si=83P6fIghjOiH-_qh
• Have You Seen the Ghost of John (Children Singing) https://youtu.be/6F9mcvX9pXE?si=zoSRCe_c2IM9kCs7
• “Binnorie (The Twa Sisters)” as sung by Custer LaRue ://youtu.be/rLBBg4MjO6o
• The Geography by Belbury Poly
• https://youtu.be/vv4tsUg7MLQ

Baltimore-based artist Angela Deane paints sheet ghosts onto found photos. You might know Deane's work from the cover of Phoebe Bridgers' Stranger in the Alps (2017) or perhaps you've seen her ghosties elsewhere in the great digital regions beyond.

This is part 2! Go check out part 1 (episode 10) We dare you. Here, we talk about nostalgia theory, leisure photography, and kitsch. Enjoy!

Make contact:

@ghostswerepeopletoo

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Bibliography

https://angeladeane.com/home.html

The Hours Have Lost Their Clock by Grafton Tanner

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz

Scarbrough, Elizabeth. “Unimagined Beauty.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 72, no. 4, 2014, pp. 445–49. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43282368. 

Kitson, Jennifer, and Kevin McHugh. “Historic Enchantments – Materializing Nostalgia.” Cultural Geographies, vol. 22, no. 3, 2015, pp. 487–508. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26168663.

Goodwin, Sarah Webster. “Domesticity and Uncanny Kitsch in ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and Frankenstein.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 10, no. 1, 1991, pp. 93–108. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/463954. 

“Chapter 5: Chansonetta Stanley Emmons’s Nostalgic Views” from At the Edge of Sight: Photography and the Unseen by Shawn Michelle Smith

Baltimore-based artist Angela Deane paints sheet ghosts onto found photos. You might know Deane's work from the cover of Phoebe Bridgers' Stranger in the Alps (2017) or perhaps you've seen her ghosties elsewhere in the great digital regions beyond.

In this, part one of a two-part episode, we talk briefly about nostalgia (more on that in part 2), and then dig into Deane's artist statement. What does it mean to capture a moment in time? Photography as an art form plays with notions of presence and absence. How does spirit photography manage equations of presence and absence? How does Angela Deane play with these concepts in her Ghost Paintings?

Then, we revisit theories and histories regarding spirit photography (see Episodes 1 & 2 for more) to contextualize the impact of Deane's contemporary take on image doctoring.

Note: Annabelle now knows how to pronounce "Prarie Schooner" thanks to a two-second Google search. Whoops. Peace and Love.

Make contact:

@ghostswerepeopletoo

[email protected]

Bibliography

https://angeladeane.com/home.html

Photography and Spirit by John Harvey, “Chapter 3: Art”

At the Edge of Sight: Photography and the Unseen by Shawn Michelle Smith, “Chapter 5: Chansonetta Stanley Emmons’s Nostalgic Views”

MORGAN, JAMES. “NOSTALGIA.” Prairie Schooner, vol. 8, no. 3, 1934, pp. 153–153. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40622498.