Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

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

  • Published:
Children's Literature in Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

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.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abley, Sean, Web Sight (So Weird). Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso adapt. New York: Disney, 2000

  • Dina Anastasio (1992) Ghostwriter: Courting Danger and Other Stories Bantam New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Margaret J. Anderson (1990) The Ghost Inside the Monitor Alfred P. Knopf New York

    Google Scholar 

  • M. T. Anderson (2002) Feed Candlewick Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce Balan (1997) Blackout in the Amazon (Cyber.kdz) Avon New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bangs, J. K., The Enchanted Typewriter. Boston: IndyPublish.com, 2003 (Original work published 1899)

  • Martha Bartter (1999) “Young adults, science fiction, and war” C. W. Sullivan SuffixIII (Eds) Young Adult Science Fiction Greenwood Westport CT 131–146

    Google Scholar 

  • David Buckingham (2000) After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up in the Age of Electronic Media Polity Press Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, Arthur C., Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984

  • Coleman, Michael, Cyber Feud (Internet Detectives). London: MacMillan, 1996. New York: Skylark, 1998

  • Coleman, Michael, Net Bandits (Internet Detectives). London: MacMillan, 1996. New York: Skylark, 1996

  • Coleman, Michael, Speed Surf (Internet Detectives). London: MacMillan, 1996. New York: Skylark, 1997

  • Coleman, Michael, System Crash (Internet Detectives). London: MacMillan, 1996. New York: Skylark, 1998

  • Steven Connor (2000) Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of Ventriloquism Oxford University Press Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, Susan, The Boggart. London: Puffin, 1993. New York: Aladdin, 1995

  • Jordan Cray (1998) Bad Intent (Danger. com) Aladdin New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan Cray (1997) Firestorm (Danger.com) Aladdin New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan Cray (1997) Gemini 7 (Danger.com) Aladdin New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan Cray (1998) Stalker (Danger. com) Aladdin New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Paula Danziger Ann M. Martin (2000) Snail Mail No More Scholastic New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Chris D’Lacey Linda Newbery (2000) From E to You Pocket Books New York

    Google Scholar 

  • M.[Sharon Mills] Sharon Draper (1999) Romiette and Julio Simon and Schuster New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Linda Ellerbee (2001) Girl Reporter Bytes Back (Get Real) Avon New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Alison Ferris (2003) “The disembodied spirit” Alison Ferris (Eds) The Disembodied Spirit., Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 2003 Brunswick, ME 32–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Tom Gunning (2003) “Haunting images: ghosts, photography, and the modern body” Alison Ferris (Eds) The Disembodied Spirit, Bowdoin College Museum of Art Brunswick, ME 8–19

    Google Scholar 

  • P. C. Gutjahr Benton, M. L. (2001) “Introduction: reading the invisible” Paul C. Gutjahr Megan L. Benton (Eds) Illuminating Letters: Typography and Literary interpretation University of Massachusetts Press Amherst 1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Todd Hafer Hafer, Jedd (2002) In the Chat Room with God Bethany House Minneapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Honey Elizabeth, Remote Man. Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2000. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002

  • Hooper, Mary, Amy. London: Bloomsbury, 2002. New York: Bloomsbury, 2002

  • Carolyn Keene (1997) Love On-Line (Nancy Drew on Campus) Pocket Books New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Manns, Nick, Operating Codes. Originally titled Control-Shift. England: Hodder, 2000. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2001

  • Carolyn Marvin (1988) When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century Oxford University Press New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Milne, Esther, “WriteSites: the email liaison as novel.” RealTime 38 (Aug/Sept. 2000), Accessed 28 February 2001. URL <http://www.rtimearts.com/~opencity/rt38/writesit.,html >

  • Lisa Nakamura (2002) Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet Routledge New York

    Google Scholar 

  • J. Oakes Margaret (2003) “Flying cars, floo powder, and flaming torches: the hi-tech, low-tech world of wizardry” Giselle␣Liza Anatol (Eds) Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays Praeger Westport 117–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies Okimoto Jean (1999) To JayKae: Life Stinx Tom Doherty Associates New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ted Pedersen Gilden Gliden (1996) Ghost on the Net (Cyhersurfers) Price Stem Sloan Los Angeles

    Google Scholar 

  • D. Peters John (1999) Speaking Into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication U. of Chicago Press Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Justine Rendal (1995) A Very Personal Computer HarperCollins New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard Rheingold (1993) The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier Addison-Wesley Reading, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Carol Smith (2000) Stranger Online (TodaysGirls.com) Tommy Nelson Nashville

    Google Scholar 

  • R. L. Stine (1999) It Came From the Internet (Goosebumps) Scholastic New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenny Sunden (2003) Material Virtualities: Approaching Online Textual Embodiment Peter Lang New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherry Turkle (1995) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet Simon and Schuster New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry Wellman Gulia Milena (1999) “Virtual communities as communities: net surfers don’t ride alone” Marc A. Smith Peter Kollock (Eds) Communities in Cyberspace Routledge London 167–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Doug Wilhelm (Eds) (1999) The Revealers Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Margaret Wertheim (1999) The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet W.W. Norton New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheryl Zach (1999) Secret Admirer (Dear Diary) Berkley Jam Books New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brandeis University, USA

    Marla Harris

Authors
  1. Marla Harris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Marla Harris is an independent scholar who holds a PhD from Brandeis University, and whose research interests include popular fiction and children’s literature. She has published in African American Review, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, and Topic: The Washington and Jefferson College Review.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Harris, M. Contemporary Ghost Stories: Cyberspace in Fiction for Children and Young Adults. Child Lit Educ 36, 111–128 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-005-3500-y

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-005-3500-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation