Giving up the Ghost : Spirits, Ghosts and Angels in Mainstream Comedy Films Book

	Preface	9
	Introduction	11
1	The Ghost in the Machine	17
	Silly Specters?	17
	Sadism in Narrative	20
	Misogyny and Sadism in Film Viewing	22
	Generic Context	25
	Fantasy and the Fantastic	26
	The Melodramatic Too-Late	29
2	The Masochistic Contract	31
	The Ghostly Contract	35
	(Mis)-Communication and the Verbal Contract	37
	Miscommunication in Ghost and Other Films	38
	Ghosts as Repetition and Delay in the Narrative Contract	45
	Spectating Specters in the Masochistic Scenario	48
3	Accessing the Feminine/Maternal	54
	Masochistic Fantasy	54
	Corpus Delicti	56
	Emotion	60
	Female Space/Haunted Houses	68
	Music	71
	Birth and Rebirth	75
4	Marvelous Spirits: Seeing and Speaking	78
	Invisibility as a Primal Fantasy	78
	Disembodied Voice and the Problem of Language	84
	Neoformalism	91
	Space, Bodies, and Voices	93
	The Fantastic versus the Marvelous	97
	Paranoia and (Film) Projection	100
5	Gender Switching	103
	Romance	103
	Gender Switching and Sexual Sameness	107
	Melancholy	111
	Gender Switching and the Body	113
6	Giving Up the Ghost	124
	Angels and Destiny in the Masochistic Fantasy	124
	Cosmic Destiny Meets Comic Destiny	131
7	Speculating about Specters	136
	Hollywood Haunted	136
	Divine Inspiration	139
	Romance and Sex	151
	Crises as Catalysts	152
	Race and Gender	153
	Rereading Hollywood	157
	Conclusion	161
	Notes	165
	Bibliography	191
	Index	199