In its most basic form a haunting is nothing more than a repetition, though often in an inappropriate context that provokes fear or other negative emotion. What struck me most in the first three episodes of Ulysses with attention to my obsession, haunting, was the repetition of certain sensory details and artifacts related to Stephen’s mother’s death. The “odour of wetted ashes” which seems to come from her corpse’s mouth is repeated twice in the first episode and again in the second. In the third episode, the mother is referred to as “a ghostwoman with ashes on her breath.” Also repeated are the odour of wax and rosewood and the ghostcandle that illuminates her face. (Smell seems to be especially important here which is appropriate since it is thought to be, developmentally, the oldest sense humans have and uniquely powerful in triggering memories.) These repetitions of vivid sensory detail tend to interrupt the narrative in an unorthodox way, though clearly other topics share this role. There are a lot of other things to say on the topic of haunting especially in relation to the text’s references to Hamlet, which I think are bound up with some Oedipal stuff. I’m going to wait to psychoanalyze until we get deeper into the text though.