Haunted Bohemia. The early modern Czech ghosts

Abstract

Haunted Bohemia. The early modern Czech ghosts My presentation deals with one of the specifics of the cultural history of the Czech lands in the Early Modern period – i. e. with the general perception of the afterlife (approximately between 1500 and 1800) and revenant issues. A revenant is originally a human being, who, after his or her death, for various reasons returns to the light of the living world, inhabits both material (such as revived corpses, vampires, fexts) and immaterial entities in nature (spirits, white ladies, the wild hunt). The aim of my presentation is to present some examples of Czech ghosts, and, specifically, to try to create a comprehensive view of the 'revenant issue' in Bohemian lands, in which the dichotomy of the official opinion on the one hand and popular perception of the situation of the after-life fate of the soul and the body on the other hand, differs.