Subversive Spirits by Robin Roberts charts a course through modern spheres of entertainment, tracking the elusive figure of the female ghost/spirit in literature, theatre, and film, and what she reflects back to us about the perceived roles of women and the feminine in our culture. This book only looks at US and UK entertainment. The first chapter looks at comedic ghosts. The next two chapters look at terrifying maternal ghosts, each specifically focusing on a geographic region. I particularly enjoyed these two selections. Then a chapter on female spirits and feminist history, followed by one looking at the mediated female ghost in the US and UK, and finally, a chapter on how female ghosts are treated currently via storytelling media. As this book only covers the UK and US, it barely scratches the surface of it's true value and potential. Of course, that would take a massive volume, or more likely several volumes. The role of female spirits in Asian entertainment and those cultural reflections, for example, are quite different! Several suggestions for books looking at female spirits from other cultural contexts are provided in the introduction though. I really enjoyed reading through it, and think it'd make a great addition to media history classes. I once took a class called ‘Frankenstein in Film and Literature.’ You could certainly make a class around female ghosts, or ghosts more generally, in film and lit.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and the University Press of Mississippi for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I wish that this book had been out when I did my Undergrad degree. It's well-written, and takes a feminist look at female ghosts in literature and film.
I like the choices that the author makes about her studied texts, and her arguments are clever and could easily be considered alongside authors like Julie Kristeva and Barbara Creed. It's not ground-breaking work, but it is well thought out.

However...it is definitely a text published for an academic reader. I suppose that is it's purpose, but it could have been interesting to see it footnoted instead of Harvard referenced. It could have been more accessible to a non-academic reader interested in horror.
Within the academic sphere I'd give it a 4, but as a general text, a 3.

A very interesting topic, a very well written and reasearched book that is also very entertaining.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Netgalley and University Press of Mississippi