Ghostly Communion

by John Kucich

In this exceptional book, John J. Kucich reveals through his readings of literary and historical accounts how spiritualism helped shape the terms by which Native American, European, and African cultures interacted in America from the earliest days of contact through the present. Beginning his study with a provocative juxtaposition of the Pueblo Indian Revolt and the Salem Witchcraft trials of the seventeenth century, Kucich examines how both events forged "contact zones" - spaces of intense cultural conflict and negotiation - mediated by spiritualism. Kucich then chronicles how a diverse group of writers used spiritualism to reshape a range of such contact zones. This study, which brings canonical writers into conversation with lesser-known writers, is relevant to the resurgent interest in religious studies and American cultural studies in general.