The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures

Despite the much vaunted a€?end of religiona€? and the growth of secularism, people are engaging like never before in their own a€?spiritualities of lifea€?. Across the West, paranormal belief is on the rise. The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures brings together the work of international scholars across the social sciences and humanities to question how and why people are seeking meaning in the realm of the paranormal, a heretofore subjugated knowledge. With contributions from the UK and other European countries, the USA, Australia and Canada, this ground-breaking book attends to the paranormal as a position from which to critique dominant forms of knowledge production and spirituality. A rich exploration of everyday life practices, textual engagements and discourses relating to the paranormal, as well as the mediation, technology and art of paranormal activity, this book explores themes such as subcultures and mainstreaming, as well as epistemological, methodological, and phenomenological questions, and the role of the paranormal in social change. The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures constitutes an essential resource for those interested in the academic study of cultural engagements with paranormality; it will appeal to scholars of cultural and media studies, popular culture, sociology, cultural geography, literature, film and music.

Olu Jenzen is Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Design and Media at the University of Brighton, UK. Sally R. Munt is Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. She is author of Queer Attachments, editor of Cultural Studies and the Working Class and co-author of Queer Spiritual Spaces.