Ordinary Affects and Spectrality in Three Works: Carole Giangrande’s Midsummer, Brenda Missen’s Tell Anna She’s Safe, and Andrea Thompson’s Over Our Heads

Abstract

Abstract Scholars such as Kathleen Stewart and Lauren Berlant have pointed out that neoliberalism stresses the social benefits of individual precariousness for the sake of profit and fosters a sense of personal crisis. In the three contemporary novels I examine, such feelings of crisis permeate the characters’ lives. I build on the concepts of the unexpected and spectrality to analyze Carole Giangrande’s Midsummer (2014), Brenda Missen’s Tell Anna She’s Safe (2011), and Andrea Thompson’s Over Our Heads (2014). These three novels share similar themes: in each, as the result of an unexpected event, specters from the past interact with the present – thereby forcing the central characters to question their beliefs, rethink their ideas about what constitutes a good life, and start a journey of personal discovery.