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Alright, what Gordon and Tuck both say is that ghosts aren't just dead people; they can be living people who were simply ignored or silenced, such as George Floyd and his family. When society attempts to cover up its bloody history, it doesn't actually work. The real truth isn't just gone; it's still there. It's buried alive, then the truth turns into ghosts that hunt the narrative/present. The oppressed citizens get placed in this cage, trapped in a one-note story, only seen as broken or upset victims instead of being seen as a whole with all their complexity and depth.

The two readings differ in how they explain hauntings. You see, in "Her Shape and His Hand," it says hauntings happen in the smallest parts of history. These ghosts aren't active; they anger, however, reminding us of our past wrongs and how we've been blinded by lies, and the truth has been hidden. On the other hand, Tuck and Rees's A glossary of hauntings describes hauntings as a more present and prominent thing. Both stories showed that ghosts are the voices of people and histories that were pushed aside, or other times they will simply just leave quietly, showing the cracks in the true history.To be honest, ghosts aren't just about the past; they form the person we are right now. (x Guillory)

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In all honesty, it feels like the author sees "ghosts" as people or ideals that were unfinished. This is based on the fact that many things were kept hidden or were erased from historical factors, but they yet "haunt" the current timeline. This goes thru the idea that "hauntings" aren't supersticiones or something to be spooked about, but rather its how powerful left out information can really stick around and be effective, like a ghost who hasn't received the perfect justice. Comparing this chapter to other books/topics of "ghost", Gordon treats this idea more seriously than others, because she is seeing this through a historical and cultural lens. Now, my perspective on "ghosts" has now changed since I can symbolizes them as people, events, or certain truths that have kept away throughout history but obviously weren't completely erased. This has made me realize that learning about things that are invisible is just as important as things that are visible to us in this current age.

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Reading Gordon’s Her Shape and Her Hand and Tuck and Ree’s Glossary of Haunting really changed how I think about ghosts and haunting. Before, I mostly thought of haunting as something scary or supernatural, but both texts showed me that it’s really about how history stays alive in the present. Gordon helped me see haunting as part of social life, where forgotten or silenced people like enslaved women remembered only through the names of their owners still leave traces that demand recognition. Her examples made me realize how much power decides whose lives are remembered and whose are erased.

Tuck and Ree expanded this by showing how haunting is carried through memory, stories, and emotions. Their focus on Indigenous dispossession showed me that haunting isn’t just about the past but about ongoing trauma that affects communities today. I connected with the way they used terms like justice and revenge, because it made me think about how stories and culture keep these ghosts alive as guides rather than just shadows.

Together, these readings made me realize that haunting is not something to fear but something to pay attention to. It asks me to look closer at histories I might not notice and to listen to the “ghosts” that are reminders of injustice. I came away understanding that haunting isn’t just about the dead, it’s about how we live with what has been silenced.

- Jordan Stiefel

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There are different iterations of the word hauntings, such as “having qualities (such as sadness or beauty) that linger in the memory: not easily forgotten,” and one that most people may recognize, “visitation or inhabitation by a ghost.” Both readings have me thinking of hauntings in a different context than I’m used to, but I found them fascinating. In the book, Ghostly Matters by Avery Gordon, she uses the word hauntings to explain “a very particular way of knowing what has happened or is happening” and how it’s a “constituent element of modern social life.” Additionally, referring to ghosts as social figures is a clever way to tie in social and political constructs. This also aligns with the reading "A Glossary of a Haunting" by Eve Tuck and C. Ree. In this reading, They describe haunting as “is neither premod-

ern superstition nor individual psychosis; it is a generalizable social phenome-non of great import” and how its “the cost of subjugation.”

I’ll be honest, the readings were a little difficult for me to understand at first, but after careful thinking, I eventually got the gist. Both readings use haunting as a framework to understand social life. I noticed the readings both also mention that haunting reveal what is hidden, repressed, or erased by a higher power/dominant figure. But where they differ in this context is that Avery Gordon discusses sociological discourse but Tuck and Ree center around settler colonialism. The readings really helped me to understand how a haunting can actually apply to political views and how ghosts can represent people who have been wronged and lost to history due to a higher power simply not wanting them there.

Breanna Cruz

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Avery Gordon’s Her Shape and His Hand and Eve Tuck and C. Ree’s A Glossary of Haunting explore the idea of ghosts and hauntings as echoes of past and present wrongs. Both texts balance real-life stories with fiction that illustrates the culturally pervasive nature of large-scale hauntings. They share a goal of changing the way we interact with these difficult and painful topics, and the authors seem to agree that seeking an empirical solution is not the correct approach.

In Her Shape and His Hand, Gordon defines haunting as “how that which appears to not be there is often a seething presence.” It is the tangible impact of an overwritten history. As an example, she tells the story of Patricia Williams’ great-grandmother, a slave owned by the lawyer Austin Miller. Already, this neatly demonstrates Gordon’s point: the owner, the dominant perspective, is given a name- a glimpse into the “complex personhood” the author explains, a picture of memories and connections and nuance often denied to those classed as “other”- while the enslaved woman is simply someone’s relative. Her Shape is the negative space of her existence, the ghost of a disregarded life, while His Hand is the power and impact Miller held over not only Williams’ great-grandmother, but her entire family. This is just one of many examples Gordon uses to depict the impact of power imbalances in hauntings and the postmodern approach we must take to understanding them.

Meanwhile, A Glossary of Haunting, which is written in the unique format of an appendix without a “host” text, has a lighter tone (once even suggesting that the author ate the host text) but takes the topic of hauntings no less seriously. Tuck and Ree posit that haunting is not a reason to seek a resolution of past and present wrongs, but rather the resolution itself, demanding recognition of these wrongs. In fact, attempting to clear away the history of violence, colonialism, and genocide is a disservice to these ghosts- arguing that it’s all in the past ignores the still-prevalent repercussions. The authors compare common plotlines in American horror with those of more contemporary Japanese horror. While the American films favor innocent protagonists using problem-solving to get rid of an undeserved haunting, the Japanese films acknowledge the injustices faced by the ghosts and the vicious cycle of trying to escape violence by passing it off to another. In the context of colonialism, this reflects the popular narrative of ghosts as trespassers rather than the other way around, and the unwillingness to recognize that “the settler hero has inherited the debts of his forefathers”.

- Kai Amen

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As an individual, I have always held onto the phrase "haunting the narrative" when thinking of ghosts and such. I have always been a literature enthusiast and enjoy books with themes of something or someone looming over the storyline. I have always thought that this sort of plot adds complexity and depth to a reading. Additionally, when I think of hauntings, I picture a ghost or paranormal entity with the intent to scare people. These types of ghosts and hauntings appear in the media in order to entertain and scare the audience. They have a basic amount of depth. The readings illustrated to me the important role that ghosts have in society... through a political and social standpoint. In every aspect of human life, there is the metaphor of a ghost or a haunting.

The reading by Gordon was able to expand my knowledge on the subject, as the author portrays ghosts as a representation of other impactful things, such as society and power. Gordon illustrates the prevalence of hauntings in social systems, where we are dominated by aspects of history that have been tweaked over time. Many times, a story is changed and we are left with the real truth hovering above our heads. There are parts of history that remain in question because we can never get the full story. In this way, history and ghosts are one in each other, leaving traces but not always quite being seen.

In the other text, Tuck and Ree identify these concepts as the unfairness and violence of life and history. In this sense, hauntings are more portrayed as something extremely negative, in which there are ideas of violence and revenge mentioned. When these ideas are left unresolved, a cause and effect relationship is born as they hang over society as a whole. Both of these texts prove the true impact of hauntings and ghosts, not just as entertainment in the media, but a force that pulls the strings in the world around us.

-Alex Jang

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In the reading "The Shape of her Hand" the author addresses how "ghosts" from the past can heavily affect the society that we live in today. The Author, Avery F. Gordon, values the ghosts as they can help guide today's society and placement of these ghosts are crucial. Gordon emphasizes how ghosts should be more valued because it may show signs or messages that can help with the society we live in today. Gordon also addresses postmodernism, acknowledging that we are put in a larger context and are at different levels. Due to us being at different levels the conclusions we conclude are premature as ghosts continues to haunt our every day lives, interfering with with our ideas and objects. Although we haven't fully gone into postmodernism and post modernity, it does resolve the issue of exclusivity and invisibilities, bringing forward issues such as domination and power crisis into light. In general Gordon highlights how ghosts and our progress into postmodernism and postmodernity affects the way we host society today, effecting the hierarchies or power ladders that are in place. Gordon references many parts of history such as colonialism and slavery to strengthen her argument, questioning the factual v.s the fictive sides of them. To me ghosts have been just superstition with the knowledge that they may be related to ancestor and other historic figures but I never thought of it to affect so much of our reality today. Her text brought new ideas of appreciating ghosts and acknowledging their effects and impact on today's societies. In the reading Eve Tuck and C. Ree's Chapter 33 of "A Glossary of Haunting", their analysis on ghosts through films and history compares and contrast through cause and effects of hauntings. For example, the author referenced Dark water by Hideo Nakata, a Japanese horror film where the mother accepted the ghosts, causing her to assume role of mother for the ghosts in order to spare her daughter, but the daughter also suffers through the same fate. This shows that the things people do although may have been done with good intentions, may have haunting outcomes that are uncontrollable or unexpected. After reading both I feel like my ideas and opinions on ghosts and hauntings has been expanded to things I never thought of before and it was eye opening to see how many interpretations there were of one thing. Both texts address how ghosts can haunt the present and even the future, big or small. Gordon's text focused on a lot of historical refences such as postmodernism that showed how our societies today are being affected by what happened in the past; we are basically being haunted by what happened. Eve Tucker and C. Ree's text provides more evidence through fiction v.s facts, refencing more modern content like films but also grounds their evidence in history like colonialism.

-Justine Chen

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The readings, "Ghostly Matters" by Avery Gordon and "A Glossary of Haunting" by Tuck and Ree, both share similar ideas about ghosts and hauntings. Both readings share the idea of "hauntings" to be correlated more to social life than media may persuade you to believe. While initially, many people in society may mark hauntings, ghosts, and monsters in one category-fairytales and supernatural-both Gordon and Tuck and Ree present the idea that it bleeds into modern life more than what people believe. Tuck and Ree in "A Glossary of Hauntings" stresses the notion of revenge being fuel for many haunting notions but that the idea that revenge is all negative and must be resolved is false. Instead, they propose that the residual effects of that revenge is the true haunting. They explain how modern media, like the radio, turned mass genocide and colonization of the Native Americans into stories where the colonizers became the heroes which in turn frustrated the colonized. Throughout the reading, they reference other published works and breaks down the story into showing you a different side of the story. In the scenario they have brought forth, where monsters and ghosts are seemingly evil because of societies beliefs, I thought of the story of Frankenstein, where he was misjudged many times for the way he physically appeared and not how he reasonably acted. "Ghostly Matters" by Avery Gordon shared something similar. In this article, Gordon connected hauntings and ghosts to the notion of social and political aspects of life. Gordon explains that she "is simply not in a position to adjudicate the degree of continuity or discontinuity as such a grand scale" and is "inclined to consider most conclusions premature at this point", in regards to her opinion on postmodernism (Gordon 12). Gordon stressed the idea of being able to reconstruct your thinking of society and political ideas to understanding why things are the way they are. What made them become the way they are today, through the history of the land, people, etc. she wants you to reconsider why present day U.S. is what it is today.

After reading these two works, I can definitively say that my eyes have been opened to thinking about the world in a different way, thinking about the mechanisms of society and trying to understand where the "evil" might be mislabeled in the stories. I think these two readings matched well together as they both talked about similar ideas relating more to society and history. I now also understand that the idea of being "haunted" still surrounds us today in everything we do as it is not necessarily a supernatural force you only think of when watching a show or reading a book, but it can also come from the history books in how people reacted from the past and the geenrations that have come after them.

-Kaitlyn Kang

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Hauntings to me were something supernatural, something that was out of my ( or our ) control but to Gorden, Tuck, and Ree, it's something that can be identified and understood. In the shape of her hand the text was primarily about power dynamics and how power is ‘invisible’ yet still very visible in society and in texts today. Examples such as the invisible man and the story about Patricia’s family background shows how power plays into the role of their lives. In Glossary of Haunting it was primarily based on wrongdoings of the past and how hauntings are the result of cause and effect. Examples from this were in the story Odysseus and ceiling tiles both cementing the idea that you can cover-up the past but the scars will still show throughout time.

In these two texts there are similar ideas that pop up like how the ‘haunts’ or ‘ghosts’ are invisible cloaks and or strings of power weaving throughout society and literature affecting and not excluding anyone. Although they each have their own way of expressing this central theme as Gorden primarily uses more physical examples like the story of the title of the book, “The shape of her hand” and the dynamics of power are shown by the raping of her great-great-grandmother while Tuck and Ree uses more abstract psychological examples such as the character ‘O’ who is a spirit that affects the ‘good and bad’ of the worlds problems.

These two texts has made me understand more how strings of power affect others and how the ‘haunting’ of such over-reach can be used to reference events in everyday life such as tariffs affecting not just the middle and lower class with higher prices but also the rich, who has to pay much more for the increase in their imported goods. Even though that power is a physical limiter, it affects worldwide and for people like me, a college person this effect is substantial and in the future may even make me have to think if I can afford something in the future, which is not only a physical limiter of what I can get, its a mental one too.

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In the first chapters readings, "Her Shape and His Hand" by Avery Gordon and "Glossary of Haunting" by Eve Tuck and C. Ree, we see the duality but mutual agreement that hauntings and the idea of being haunted aren't just supernatural phenomenon's or fantasys. The two readings seem to agree on the idea that haunting is a political and social construct. At first it seems overcomplicated, but the two authors do a great job simplifying it down. Gordon shows haunting as the past being reflected to the present. The oppressed people of the past that faced violence that stayed unresolved now channel their "energy" into the present through everyday "haunted" sightings. In Gordon's account, haunting holds out on recognition. Essentially meaning that any crimes, violence, or hate that has been buried is forced to be addressed.

However, in the second reading by Tuck and Ree, we see the idea shifting the focal point from haunting as something disruptive to our day to day life to something relatable. In the "Glossary of Haunting" haunting is shown as not only a reminder of buried injustices, similar to Gordon, but also as a specific presence that purely denies and fights against events that are attempted to be burried. The first chapter specifically seems to relate this to Native Americans and the pure violence they faced from colonials. Tuck and Ree show ghosts and explain them as witnesses or victims to violence, but also as survivors that keep the story going. All in all, these two readings share similar ideas and expand into different directions from each other, but build on the idea that haunting is something throughout time and evasive to violence or burrying.

-Summit Grewal

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In the ghostly affairs of Avery Gordon, it is perceived as a political and sociological fact that ghosts leave the incomplete work of history. In chapter 1, she explains how violence was suppressed - race, colonies, and repression - who do not disappear, but hunt, demand recognition, and prevention. Huantings is thus not only about the past, but also about how the current really shapes the present in relation to the past. For Gordon, there are ghost indications that something is, and their presence reminds us of being conscious of power systems that continue to build living realities.

On the other hand, Eve Tuck and C. The vocabulary of Ree's short story attaches ghosts with a more poetic and individual tone, describing how ghosts are experienced, interact, and are translated intermittently. Spread beyond structural forces, their vocabulary reveals how ghosts are represented through gestures, memories, and everyday life, especially in the context of indigenous existence and storytelling. The two books must be read together to deepen our understanding of persecution. Gordon reminds us of its collective and systemic aspects, while Tuck and Ree remind us of its personal and intimate aspects. Together, they demonstrate that haunting is once a way of staying with justice and history that is actually past.

- Ranya Mali

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In our first reading for this week, we are able to see how Gordon connects epistemology and social conditions, which highlights the challenges of diagnosing modern societal changes. Throughout the text it contrasts the notions of postmodernism, emphasizing the visibility of commodities and the complexities of power dynamics. Within the reading she uses the novel White Noise as an example, it helps to illustrate themes of consumerism, and the haunting presence of historical and social issues. She shows how hauntings and history can be intertwined as hauntings embody the unresolved traumas of the past, which can influence social conditions and identities. Therefore, engaging with these hauntings allows for a better understanding of history and its effects on contemporary life. Gordon makes the importance of this very evident, as it also emphasizes the need for new methods of analysis that account for the interplay between visibility and invisibility in social life. In our second reading, we read a glossary of haunting, exploring themes of justice, wronging, and the complexities of haunting in relation to settler colonialism and horror films. In the glossary they gave and contrasted American horror narratives with Japanese horror films that acknowledge deeper injustices and focus on mercy rather than resolution. They try to emphasize the ongoing impact of colonization, the nature of haunting as a reminder of past wrongs, and the importance of recognizing desire and complexity in narratives about marginalized communities.

Both of these texts do a great job on touching between history and hauntings. They both address how history and hauntings can be intertwined, but they bring out these ideas in different ways. Gordon focuses on the concept of haunting as a sociological phenomenon, exploring how historical trauma and unresolved social injustices can manifest in the present. In contrast, Tuck and Ree focus more on a definitional and analytical approach to various terms and concepts associated with haunting, often dissecting the different forms of hauntings. They bring out terms such as settler colonialism, haunting of data, and just offer a structured vocab for engaging with the complex ideas. The key difference that they have between them is how their articles/text are formatted or presented. Where Gordon’s more narrative and exploring the impact of hauntings, Tuck and Ree are more systematic, and definitional unpacking of its various angles.

I would say that it expanded my thinking by giving me more info on how hauntings are not just literal “ghosts”, but how they can be events that haunt us. It helped me understand how even the land that we live on can be haunted, due to the many historical events that have occurred and how that can affect us as a society. These were never things I thought about, or really tried to dive into before, so it truly helped me think more critically on the topic of hauntings. I was also able to expand my thinking or knowledge of hauntings through the many examples that we had in Tuck and Ree’s article because I had never heard some of these words, nor the examples they gave, so they truly helped to expand my previous thinking. I am not one who would watch horror films or even really know of the stories they told, therefore being able to learn about this in Tuck and Ree’s glossary expanded my thinking and gave me a better foundation to what potentially will be coming up this quarter.

- Kimberly Castellanos

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On the surface Shape of Her Hand by Avery Gordon as well as Glossary of Hauntings by authors Tuck and Ree, seem to be introducing the topic of ghosts, particularly hauntings, and their implications in our postmodern world. The way in which the two works go about discussing the topics are distinctly different and serve as a gateway into their minds. The way I see it, both readings are the embodiment of two forces which compliment yet oppose one another, think light and dark, sun and moon, Yin and Yang. The two publications assist in grasping the concepts we will continue discussing as the quarter progresses.

Shape of Her Hand serves as the prologue of the story it is telling, an establishment of what is to come. The author makes it apparent that although they may be knowledgeable in the societal connotations of hauntings, they certainly aren't an expert and they're as curious as you, the reader. They choose to write the chapter from a nonfiction perspective when wanting to catch us up with everything they know up to this point. It's only when they begin to have no answers that their voice is heard and the reader is made aware that they serve not as an answer but a mere interpretation. Glossary of Hauntings on the other hand takes an abstract approach by converting the prologue into the epilogue of sorts with the glossary providing prior meaning to what will be questioned. The authors take a much more intimate approach in deciding to write the majority of the text in the first person. They seem rather standoffish, noting that they themselves don't trust us, the reader, with the contents that they're willing to share with us. Tuck and Lee construct a web of sorts that tie together hauntings with fictional and historical events to give new meaning to what it means to be haunted.

I feel that by reading both texts consecutively my understanding of ghosts and hauntings as a whole has shifted. I won't sit here and act like all my thoughts and prayers have been answered because of course they haven't, this is but the intro of what is to come. Unlike before I now have a sense that this topic is something we can grasp and interpret in more than one way. Although it is unlikely we will ever come to a conclusive explanation for the supernatural, we can gather our knowledge from our history and experiences to come up with a meaning of our own which may satisfy our own curiosity and image of life and death.

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In the weekly readings, Avery F. Gordon, Eve Tuck, and C. Ree reflects on the basic nature of ghosts as a method of reflection on past abuses different groups have suffered throughout history through the works Her Shape and His Hand and A Glossary of Hauntings respectively. Both works settle on the idea that ghosts can be both living and dead people, and are a result of truths attempted to be hidden by overarching societal structures. As white, colonial opinions are pushed to the forefront, those they exploit are often forced into narratives of pain and anger, making them into ghosts of who they formerly were. People are reduced into figures that can only be interpreted by the trauma that they underwent. I previously had only thought of ghosts as echoes of the past, but both pieces made me realize that living people could also be turned into ghosts through societal norms and historical violence. Additionally, both readings touch on how societal structures are often taken for granted and assumed to be reality, when there is much more complexity surrounding how those structures were enacted.

The readings differ, however, in how they define hauntings and their purposes. Gordon’s Her Shape and His Hand defines hauntings as simply the existence of ghosts within narratives defined by their colonizers. Hauntings, according to the novel, are people’s wrong doings still having affects into the modern day, creating ghosts out of the living and dead. It also emphasizes, rather than ghosts themselves, focuses on how ghosts are often haunting historical narratives, and can be found in their cracks. While many try to pose history as straightforward and completely sensical, the reading encourages readers to think deeply about how the truth is built on the subjective point-of-views of multiple individuals. On the other hand, A Glossary of Hauntings depicts hauntings as more of a proactive activity by ghosts. Hauntings are a way for ghosts to exact revenge on those who did them wrong, not necessarily in an extremely explicit way, but in small vengeances and inconveniences. Tuck and Ree’s work demands that the audience see ghosts as more than just figures who haunt narratives, but as people who have been stripped of their ability to express more than just pain. These dualing perspectives forced me to consider how ghosts can both be active in their own haunting, but can also be limited to the spaces they haunt.

Casey Frasco

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Both Avery F. Gordon's Chapter 1 of "Her Shape and Her Hand" and Eve Tuck and C. Ree's Chapter 33 of "A Glossary of Haunting" explore how hauntings can mean more than just literal ghosts and scary stories. They both emphasize the presence of unresolved historical injustices and social trauma while showing how they affect current lives. Gordon talks more about how historical events and power dynamics shape lives. She uses slavery as an example, saying that it shapes social hierarchies. She argues that haunting is a way that silenced events along with their effects are shown. Tuck and Ree use a glossary to look at haunting through terms like justice and revenge. They highlight how unresolved or silenced traumas can have an effect through generations, like the dispossession of Indigenous people. Both readings argue that hauntings are socially and historically real because they influence experiences even if they are not visible.

Gordon's approach focuses on society, by stating how hauntings help show us invisible forces and powers. Tuck and Ree focus more on stories and culture showing how reflecting on those stories can help people confront and resolve their past traumas. Gordon uses ghosts as a tool to help people understand social life whereas Tuck and Ree use them as guides for reflection. Together the readings helped me see that ghosts are active figures from history than interact with people to help raise awareness and bring about resolution. I realize now that haunting is ongoing, and it challenges me to look closer at histories that are most of the time ignored or erased.