The Spectral Imagination; or, Using the Past to Re-imagine the Future

Abstract This piece explores the phenomenon of ghosts in early modern England to highlight the strength of the premodern imagination as a tool for conceptualising the future. Ghosts can be viewed as an imaginative resource to fulfil social obligations or to express hopes and fears. There is a strong emotional element here. For people living in both the premodern and modern world, ghosts could (and can) be a way in which emotions became externally embodied, either in a sense of a presence, or in a more tangible form. As such, this piece explores the links between supernatural belief, strong emotions and the imagination of multiple futures.