Abstract
Using the Enfield Poltergeist as its central case study, this chapter will focus on the performance of possession it featured in which an eleven-year-old girl appeared to speak with the voice of a dead old man. It will explore the renderings of possession which this performance resonated with (i.e. The Exorcist, 1973) and those it gave rise to (i.e. The Conjuring 2, 2016). The material considered connects the Enfield Poltergeist with the theatricality of nineteenth-century séances and tropes of Gothic literature. This work also intercedes with concepts such as Freud’s ‘Double’, Winnicott’s ‘transitional object’, Goffman’s ‘frames’ and Schechner’s ‘dark play’.
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Dean, R. (2018). Playing in the Dark: Possession and Performance. In: Jones, K., Poore, B., Dean, R. (eds) Contemporary Gothic Drama. Palgrave Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95359-2_11
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