Horror, ghost, and black female authorship

Abstract

This article proposes a social and aesthetic approach to the relationship between horror cinema and raciality, focusing specifically on Black women directors. To this end, it mobilizes the notion of the ghost as an operative concept capable of generating readings along two axes: (1) the process of invisibilization of Black women in the authorship of horror films; and (2) the poetics developed by Black women directors in the figuration of ghosts within film form. The research formulates the concept of the ghost as a social phenomenon, drawing on the insights opened by Avery Gordon (2008). This perspective implies recognizing that the violence of erasure produces consequences in the processes of [re]turn of what was once silenced and rendered invisible. Throughout our inquiry, we are guided by the following questions: how does the presence of Black women filmmakers emerge within contemporary cinematic construction from what had previously been a ghostly existence? How might the ghostly be understood in its capacity to diagnose historical symptoms within social formation? This article is part of an effort to further complexify the concept of the ghost, allowing us, in conclusion, to advance analytical remarks on two films that are particularly compelling in the contemporary landscape: the feature film Atlantique (2019), directed by Mati Diop, and the short film Pattaki (2019), directed by Everlane Moraes.