Hunting ghosts: on spectacles of spectrality and the trophy animal

Hunting ghosts: on spectacles of spectrality and the trophy animal reveals how trophy hunting in the Spanish Pyrenees creates 'spectacles' that detach animals, like the extinct bucardo (Pyrenean ibex), from their ecological contexts. The study uses Jacques Derrida’s concept of spectrality and Guy Debord’s theory of the spectacle to analyze how taxidermy and photography transform ghostly figures into symbols of human mastery over landscapes. It argues that the absence of the bucardo, already elusive by the 19th century, was marked through trophies, which inferred its presence while removing it from temporal realities. A typology of spectral sensing—mourning, marking, and working—is proposed to frame how ghosts are culturally interpreted. The research highlights the material implications of hunting on extinction narratives and the role of visual technologies in shaping these spectacles.

Searle, A. (2021). Hunting ghosts: on spectacles of spectrality and the trophy animal. Cultural Geographies, 28(3), 513–530. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474020987250