The Spirit of a Thought in a Fictional World

Summoning Ghosts to the Stage

Abstract

Works of art are inherently spectral in that they are fictional representations of life and reality,
particularly theatre, which brings a nonexistent world to life by creating layers of performance
between audience and actors, and even the characters of the play. Through a close reading of
both the text and performance of Henrik Ibsen’s tragedy Ghosts, this paper explores the relationship between theatre and hauntings, unpacking the layers of spectrality of stage props and
the employment of silence onstage.