Haunted Landscapes: Nature, Supernature and the Environment

Heholt, Ruth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6963-6427 (2014) Haunted Landscapes: Nature, Supernature and the Environment. [Conference]

Abstract / Summary

Keynote Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton (Bristol University)
On March 8th 2014 Falmouth University and ASLE UKI held a one day symposium on the subject of ‘haunted landscapes’. There was a related art exhibition. From places and spaces haunted by spectres, memory or history to conceptions of landscape as palimpsest, holy wells and ancient sites, literature, art and film have always explored concepts of the supernatural and the landscape and environment. Landscapes can be haunted by echoes and memories of colonization, violence done and irrevocable acts committed. Places may be marked indelibly by the past and by the people who populated and shaped the environment in many different ways. Layers of memory and action can be embedded in the landscape alongside the layering of history in stone. Encounters with the landscape reverberate through the ages and through the rocks, trees, hills and streams that are still present today. Ghosts can shade the atmosphere of a place and some things never leave. The environment bears witness to the super-natural and that which seems paranormal may eventually become a natural part of the environment.

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