Introduction: Afterlives in objects

In this introduction to our edited volume, Material Afterlives, we specify the interventions andarguments of our collection as a whole. To begin, we reflect on the recent proliferation of“afterlives” as a concept and metaphor within the social sciences and humanities, a developmentthat we describe as the “new hauntology.” As we argue, this new hauntology favors thesubjective rather than objective aspects of afterlives and consequently neglects questions ofmateriality. The overarching goal of Material Afterlives is to remedy this neglect. Followingthis, we examine the contributions and limitations of the concepts of ruin/ruination andwaste to the investigation of material afterlives. While the concepts of ruin and waste presupposea decrease in value in the face of time and change of function, material afterlives, by contrast,accentuate the proliferation of enhanced and unanticipated material values. We thenenumerate the implications of our consideration of material afterlives for Memory Studiesbroadly, with particular emphasis on how material afterlives unsettle the orienting role oftrauma in the discipline. Finally, we briefly outline the five specific contributions that constituteour volume.