Kristina S. Gibby is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities at Utah Valley University.

In the literary traditions of two disparate writers, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, Gabby examines the introduction of ghosts as a tool to connect protagonists' historical past to a defining identity of the present. This compact, compelling study of four women writers spans time and space, cultural identity and affinity, and throughout Gibby provides invaluable insights on the ineradicable historical traumas of women across cultural/physical borders. Examining the metaphor of ghosts in the fiction of the Erna Brober (Jamaican), Zoé Valdés (Cuban), Sandra Cisneros (Mexican American), and Maryse Condé (Guadeloupian), the author links the traumas of the past—slavery, dehumanization—to a search for self-identification rooted in the historical present. The ancestral female ghosts recover and embolden female voices, transcending time. This reclamation rejects the historical marginalization that failed to recognize the wholeness of the protagonists’ femininity and self-worth. Whether literal or figurative, the representation of ghosts links traumas that “collaps(e) the boundaries of space and time to restore what was lost, forgotten, and broken.” The global images that haunt the female protagonists link painful memory to restorative present. Adding to comparative literature in general and to the literature of women writers across the Americas, the book is expertly researched and detailed in its examination of the novels. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Phantom Ache: Ghosts, Fiction, and Alternative HistoriesChapter One: Ghosts in New World LiteratureChapter Two: “Anthropology of the Dead”: Ghosts, Subaltern Knowledge, and Alternative History in LouisianaChapter Three: Haunting and Affect: Ghosts and Nostalgia in Te di la vida entera and CarameloChapter Four: Haunting, History, and Imagination in VictoireConclusionBibliography About the Author

Kristina S. Gibby is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities at Utah Valley University.

In the literary traditions of two disparate writers, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, Gabby examines the introduction of ghosts as a tool to connect protagonists' historical past to a defining identity of the present. This compact, compelling study of four women writers spans time and space, cultural identity and affinity, and throughout Gibby provides invaluable insights on the ineradicable historical traumas of women across cultural/physical borders. Examining the metaphor of ghosts in the fiction of the Erna Brober (Jamaican), Zoé Valdés (Cuban), Sandra Cisneros (Mexican American), and Maryse Condé (Guadeloupian), the author links the traumas of the past—slavery, dehumanization—to a search for self-identification rooted in the historical present. The ancestral female ghosts recover and embolden female voices, transcending time. This reclamation rejects the historical marginalization that failed to recognize the wholeness of the protagonists’ femininity and self-worth. Whether literal or figurative, the representation of ghosts links traumas that “collaps(e) the boundaries of space and time to restore what was lost, forgotten, and broken.” The global images that haunt the female protagonists link painful memory to restorative present. Adding to comparative literature in general and to the literature of women writers across the Americas, the book is expertly researched and detailed in its examination of the novels. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Phantom Ache: Ghosts, Fiction, and Alternative HistoriesChapter One: Ghosts in New World LiteratureChapter Two: “Anthropology of the Dead”: Ghosts, Subaltern Knowledge, and Alternative History in LouisianaChapter Three: Haunting and Affect: Ghosts and Nostalgia in Te di la vida entera and CarameloChapter Four: Haunting, History, and Imagination in VictoireConclusionBibliography About the Author

Kristina S. Gibby is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Humanities at Utah Valley University.

In the literary traditions of two disparate writers, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, Gabby examines the introduction of ghosts as a tool to connect protagonists' historical past to a defining identity of the present. This compact, compelling study of four women writers spans time and space, cultural identity and affinity, and throughout Gibby provides invaluable insights on the ineradicable historical traumas of women across cultural/physical borders. Examining the metaphor of ghosts in the fiction of the Erna Brober (Jamaican), Zoé Valdés (Cuban), Sandra Cisneros (Mexican American), and Maryse Condé (Guadeloupian), the author links the traumas of the past—slavery, dehumanization—to a search for self-identification rooted in the historical present. The ancestral female ghosts recover and embolden female voices, transcending time. This reclamation rejects the historical marginalization that failed to recognize the wholeness of the protagonists’ femininity and self-worth. Whether literal or figurative, the representation of ghosts links traumas that “collaps(e) the boundaries of space and time to restore what was lost, forgotten, and broken.” The global images that haunt the female protagonists link painful memory to restorative present. Adding to comparative literature in general and to the literature of women writers across the Americas, the book is expertly researched and detailed in its examination of the novels. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Phantom Ache: Ghosts, Fiction, and Alternative HistoriesChapter One: Ghosts in New World LiteratureChapter Two: “Anthropology of the Dead”: Ghosts, Subaltern Knowledge, and Alternative History in LouisianaChapter Three: Haunting and Affect: Ghosts and Nostalgia in Te di la vida entera and CarameloChapter Four: Haunting, History, and Imagination in VictoireConclusionBibliography About the Author