Sites that haunt (affects and the non-sites of memory)

Sites of mass violence and genocide are described as unheimlich and trigger strong affective reactions of fear, disgust or shame whose reasons remain unclear. The article analyses possible catalysts of those powerful affective responses. The first hypothesis is grounded in abundance of ghost stories in literary or artistic reactions to the sites of death. The second one brings forward the problem of the presence of dead bodies: human remains have never been properly neutralized by the rituals. Finally, the “effect of an affect” of the non-sites of memory is understood as the ability of bodies to be moved by other bodies where the affected ones are those who trespass the premises of the uncanny site