Czarownice, duchy i upiory. Nowoorleański dom przy ulicy Pierwszej

Barbara Szymczak-Maciejczyk’s chapter The Witches, ghosts, and specters: The New Orleans House at the First Street delves into the haunted house described in The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. The house is haunted by Lasher, a half-demon, halfghost, and the souls of the dead members of the Mayfair family. The author contends that it is the family’s history that has considerable influence on the perception of the house (both its exterior and interior). Every witch has left an indelible mark of her own personality and power, affecting the entire Mayfair family in each generation. Personal family belongings accumulated in the house draw flashbacks of the past, family legends and extended historical narratives of the Mayfair family by strangers, enabling a post-memory discourse. Most of the novel characters dream of renovating the residence. The house on First Street is renovated—symbolizing an exorcism. Many references to Christianity and demonology occur in The Witching Hour exemplified by the appearance of figures of saints, visits to church, setting of altars in the rooms of the witches, devotional articles and the theme of confessions breaking the power of the Mayfair house. The novel delves deeper into the occult by providing descriptions of the Candomblé religion and voodoo rituals. Attention was also drawn to Lasher, whose origin and nature are not thoroughly explained. However, he has a tremendous impact on many aspects of the family’s life. Lasher’s powers allow the reader to infer that haunting is not related to a specific location (as evidenced by even the lack of obstacles to the emergence of Lasher in different places of the world), but rather, with certain persons. Interesting is Lasher’s connection with an emerald necklace, inherited by successive generations of witches. For the Mayfair family, it is a sigil signifying that of the women were chosen as a beneficiary of the “great heritage”. In spite of the many failed attempts to expel spirits, Lasher makes the New Orleans House on First Street the focal point of their visitations.