Abstract: A critical approach or theory called "spectral criticism" has gradually risen in the West in the past two decades. Blanchot's reading theory is considered as the origin of this theory. In Blanchot's view, the act of reding has a spectral nature, which attributes to the spectral nature of the text. The spectral nature of the text in turn determines the nature of the history embodied in the text. Shakespeare's Hamlet is identified as a typical spectral work, whose spectral nature appears both as specters in the play and in the spectral nature of the work itself. The origin of spectral literature can be traced back almost to the origin of Western literature, and the most typical target of spectral criticism is Gothic literature. Spectral criticism has so influenced criticism that all schools of criticism take on a spectral nature.

Key words: specter, criticism, spectral criticism