Aiken in the Alley to present a lecture on ghost stories of the 19th century with Professor Julie Wise

Oct. 21—USC Aiken's community series, Aiken in the Alley, is getting ready to present its spookiest lecture of the season: a study of the ghosts in 19th century Victorian literature presented by associate English professor Julie Wise.

"Victorian Literary Hauntings and Hauntologies" will begin at 11 a.m. at the university's location in The Alley, 141 Newberry St. S.W.

"These are the authors who brought us Frankenstein's monster, vampire stories like Dracula and other great spooky ghost stories which the Victorians actually shared at Christmas time," said Wise about writers of the 19th century. "But for us, they can be fun to revisit at Halloween."

Wise will be discussing the ghosts from two stories — Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and Elizabeth Gaskell's The Old Nurse's Story. Both are centered around ghosts that are "troubled by the past and haunting the present."

One reason these stories are good to revisit, according to Wise, is "because they can lead us to some other questions about what they represent, looking at how both Dickens and Gaskell were really using their ghosts to call out the injustices that they saw in the 19th-century world."

Wise believes it's important to look to stories from the past in order to build a better future.

"We can value the creative work that's come before us, but then use it to imagine new kinds of worlds," she said. "I think that really comes from studying the arts and humanities, and literature in general."

Series schedule

—Oct. 26: "Victorian Literary Hauntings and Hauntologies" with Associate Professor of English, Julie Wise

—Nov. 9: 'Poetry in The Alley' with Broken Ink, USCA's Literary and Visual Arts Magazine

—Nov. 16: "Aiken's Nineteenth-Century Man of Genius, Poet and Inventor James Matthews Legare" with Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Carolina Trustee Professor, Tom Mack

—Dec. 7: "Spinning and Revolutions: Demonstrations of Historical Spinning Techniques" with Associate Professor of History, Elizabeth Georgian