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Sonic Spectres: Word Ghosts in Madeleine Thien's Dogs at the Perimeter and the digital map project, 'Fictional Montreal/Montreal fictif'

Morgan

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Abstract

This article analyses various ghosts and their connections with the unsaid and said in relation to Madeleine Thien’s Dogs at the Perimeter (2011) and the digital map project, ‘Fictional Montreal/Montréal fictif’ (Morgan and Lichti, 2016-17). Drawing on Derrida’s work on spectres, it suggests that Thien’s novel offers both negative and positive hauntings, by drawing attention to the far-reaching effects of the Cambodian genocide. It goes on to reflect on absence and presence, voice and body in relation to the digital map, which features recordings of authors reading extracts of their fiction set in Montreal. Arguing that ‘Fictional Montreal/Montréal fictif’ performs an interplay between material and imaginary geographies, the article proposes that the map offers the possibility of new conceptualisations of Montreal. In so doing, it argues that both it and Dogs at the Perimeter embrace the potentially utopian aspect of spectrality identified by Derrida. This is due to their encouraging readers to think about our collective responsibilities to each other in a world characterised by mobility and migration.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 4, 2018
Publication Date Nov 14, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal The London Journal of Canadian Studies
Print ISSN 2397-0928
Publisher UCL Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Pages 40-57
DOI https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.ljcs.2018v33.004
Keywords ghosts, sound, map, Madeleine Thien, Montreal
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.ljcs.2018v33.004

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