Contemporary Ghost Stories: Cyberspace in Fiction for Children and Young Adults

Abstract

This essay identifies a genre of popular fiction for children and young adults, prevalent in the 1990s and continuing into the early twenty-first century, that incorporates computers and the internet, e-mails and chat rooms, into its plots. However, along with a focus on technology, this fiction frequently features the supernatural. So, too, ghosts have been recurring images in popular culture surrounding past emergent communications technologies. I argue that the figure of the ghost in these novels about cyberspace dramatizes the tension between the liberating possibilities of disembodiment and the desire for embodied relationships. Despite the presence of dystopian elements, this fiction remains optimistic overall about the potential of technology to connect individuals in positive ways and to create communities modeled on tolerance and inclusion.

Explorando perspectivas, negociando contextos mediados por computadoras e interactuando con tecnología en espacios de aprendizaje lingüística y culturalmente diversos

“…In addition, there is a common belief that the use of technology can enhance learning, productivity, and performance, which is linked to success on a global scale (Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, 2011;Davies, 2011;Evans, 2005;International Society for Technology in Education, 2007;U.S Department of Education, 2010). However, there are also those who challenge this consensus and debate whether technology improves learning (Mayall & Robinson, 2009;Mims, Polly, Shepherd, & Inan, 2006), enhances curriculum (Brandt, 2001;Wehrli, 2009), or if potential benefits outweigh concerns (Harris, 2005;Tobin, 2000).…”

Haunting experiences: ghosts in contemporary folklore

“…The creative energy exerted by Edison and Marconi on their projects has been continually mirrored through the years in both folklore and artistic works exploring the use of technology for otherworldly communication. In 1899, John Kendrick Bangs wrote The Enchanted Typewriter, a story about a man who discovers that through the medium of his typewriter he can communicate with famous dead people (Bangs [1899(Bangs [ ] 2003Harris 2005). His book presages numerous similar computer accounts such as Margret J. Anderson's The Ghost Inside the Monitor, a story about a ghost that lives inside a young girl's computer that ultimately fi nds a resting place inside a fl oppy disk installed in a computer in her old home (1990).…”