Contact Admin. Skip to main content. You're using an out-of-date version of Internet Explorer. Log In Sign Up. Ghosts of Place and Spirits of War: It reconstructs an enchanted world, one where ghosts and spirits were not tied down to simple Catholic or Protestant tropes but were more multifaceted than previous studies have shown. Stressing continuities between the medieval period and what followed, it shows how ghosts continued to embody anxieties of place, experience and morality.
Emphasising the importance of place within legend telling and ghost stories, it recreates a landscape of memory whose bounds, both physical and moral, were patrolled by spirits. It shows how Protestants, like Catholics before them, had attempted to appropriate and impose order upon these spirits, places and experiences. It shows how Protestantism not only competed with Catholic teachings on spirits but also confronted more atavistic models of spirit belief with varying degrees of success.
A key current throughout the thesis is whereas theologians argued an overarching theory of the supernatural, popular belief, on the other hand, was held in bundle form. Therefore, it justifies a closer look at how spirits operated in certain environments and experiences. This thesis complements existing English studies on spirits and introduces a German ghostlore largely unknown to the British reader.
By a deep reading of contemporary ghost stories, set in the place and describing the experience of haunting, we can see the relevance these tales embodied in the moralities they contained, the bounds they set and the proofs they encapsulated.
I would like to thank my supervisor, Ronald Hutton, for reading my work and his help throughout. Their archive is magnificent, and it is a perfect place to get immersed in the history of early modern Germany. The accommodation they offer visiting scholars is also highly recommended, and cheap, and thus perfect for a long stay. The librarians and visiting researchers were extremely helpful and approachable.
