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Richardson, Judith. "Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley," History of American Civilization, Harvard University, February 2001.
Over the past two centuries, the Hudson River Valley has gained a reputation as an exceptionally haunted place. World-famous authors, including Washington Irving and Henry James, have described the region as peculiarly amenable to spectral encounters, while regional guidebooks, histories, and folklore abound with claims of rampant ghostliness, even into the present day. The multitude of hauntings in this region challenges the conventional wisdom-common to both popular and historical examinations of ghostlore-that ghosts typically represent assertions of the past, or are creatures of tradition. Far from being a bastion of stability and rootedness, the Hudson Valley has been the site of constant change, restless movement and social and ethnic discord from the beginning of colonial settlement into the present. The case of the Hudson Valley demonstrates an alternate form of haunting-a particularly American form-that draws on wider bases of culture and psychology, but is fundamentally predicated on social disjunction and historical uncertainty. No mere echo of the past, the haunting of the Hudson Valley reveals the invocation and shaping of ghosts to serve the present needs of those they haunt. “Possessions” is an interdisciplinary study of the causes, types, and consequences of haunting in the Hudson Valley, a study which uncovers the complex relationship between ghosts and restless regional development. Exploring stories and images from a wide variety of sources-tales by major American authors, regional writings, ephemeral local folklore-“Possessions” interweaves detailed historical investigations and close readings, panoramic overviews and focused case studies, to demonstrate how the ghosts of the Hudson Valley emanate from and participate in perennial struggles to determine whose place this really is.
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