âIf you donât come to me, Iâll come to youâ: Primal Injury and Revenge in the Ghost Stories of M.R. James

Terry Scarborough

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âIf you donât come to me, Iâll come to youâ: Primal Injury and Revenge in the Ghost Stories of M.R. James

äºBest Served Cold: Studies on Revenge

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Terry Scarborough

Terry Scarborough
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Page Range:: 31â38

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848880436_005

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Recent scholarship attempting to elucidate the nature of revenge has identified recurring patterns in cycles of vengeance and questioned their connections to justice. Notably, Jennifer L. Culbert identifies a perpetual cycle of reprisal, which in its retaliatory nature suggests an incessant chain of vengeful acts rooted in primal injury. Many attempts have been made to trace this cycle to primitive cultures, and even to animals, through surveying cultural attempts to disrupt this chain through blood sacrifice and other ritual practices. Culbert demonstrates through her diction the very essence of revenge as unknown, haunting and fearful through reference to a âspecterâ to be âexorcized.â Such attempts to understand and master revenge then naturally suggest the ghost, specifically the ghost story, as a means to mediate fear of revenge as a haunting reminder of and reaction to past injustice and primal injury. Following contemporary theories connecting revenge and justice, this paper will examine revenge as reflected in the ghost stories of Montague Rhodes James. The analysis will span recent and Victorian analyses of revenge to reveal Jamesâs fascination with primal vengeance and reprisal as reflected in the ghost story. I will examine Jamesâs fixation on antiquarianism, specifically the Gothic trope of the found manuscript and archeology, to reveal an intricate commentary on the primal nature of anxieties surrounding revenge. Positing that the ghost or specter functions for James as an archetypal reflection of the human fear of vengeance and its resultant violence, I will address the common claim that Jamesâs ghosts are vengeful, and explain the nature and function of this drive.

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Best Served Cold: Studies on Revenge

ISBN:: 9781848880436

åºçç¤¾:: Brill

å°å·åºçæ¥æ:: 29 Apr 2010

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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âIf you donât come to me, Iâll come to youâ: Primal Injury and Revenge in the Ghost Stories of M.R. James

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Best Served Cold: Studies on Revenge

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âIf you donât come to me, Iâll come to youâ: Primal Injury and Revenge in the Ghost Stories of M.R. James

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