Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism

Considers the role of Spiritualism in Victorian culture.

Altered States examines the rise of Spiritualism-the religion of séances, mediums, and ghostly encounters-in the Victorian period and the role it played in undermining both traditional female roles and the rhetoric of imperialism. Focusing on a particular kind of séance event-the full-form materialization-and the bodies of the young, female mediums who performed it, Marlene Tromp argues that in the altered state of the séance new ways of understanding identity and relationships became possible. This not only demonstrably shaped the thinking of the Spiritualists, but also the popular consciousness of the period. In diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, scientific reports, and popular fiction, Tromp uncovers evidence that the radical views presented in the faith permeated and influenced mainstream Victorian thought.

1100304220
Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism

Considers the role of Spiritualism in Victorian culture.

Altered States examines the rise of Spiritualism-the religion of séances, mediums, and ghostly encounters-in the Victorian period and the role it played in undermining both traditional female roles and the rhetoric of imperialism. Focusing on a particular kind of séance event-the full-form materialization-and the bodies of the young, female mediums who performed it, Marlene Tromp argues that in the altered state of the séance new ways of understanding identity and relationships became possible. This not only demonstrably shaped the thinking of the Spiritualists, but also the popular consciousness of the period. In diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, scientific reports, and popular fiction, Tromp uncovers evidence that the radical views presented in the faith permeated and influenced mainstream Victorian thought.

34.95 In Stock
Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism

Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism

by Marlene Tromp
Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism

Altered States: Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism

by Marlene Tromp

eBook

$34.95 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Considers the role of Spiritualism in Victorian culture.

Altered States examines the rise of Spiritualism-the religion of séances, mediums, and ghostly encounters-in the Victorian period and the role it played in undermining both traditional female roles and the rhetoric of imperialism. Focusing on a particular kind of séance event-the full-form materialization-and the bodies of the young, female mediums who performed it, Marlene Tromp argues that in the altered state of the séance new ways of understanding identity and relationships became possible. This not only demonstrably shaped the thinking of the Spiritualists, but also the popular consciousness of the period. In diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, scientific reports, and popular fiction, Tromp uncovers evidence that the radical views presented in the faith permeated and influenced mainstream Victorian thought.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780791481936
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Publication date: 02/01/2012
Series: SUNY series, Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 260
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Marlene Tromp is Associate Professor of English at Denison University. She is the coeditor (with Pamela K. Gilbert and Aeron Haynie) of Beyond Sensation: Mary Elizabeth Braddon in Context, also published by SUNY Press, and the author of The Private Rod: Marital Violence, Sensation, and the Law in Victorian Britain.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments


Introduction: Performing Readings


Part I: Spirit Made Flesh


1. Spirited Sexuality: Sex, Marriage, and Victorian Spiritualism


2. Wedding Stories/Ghost Stories


Part II: Ghosts of Home


3. Ghostly Erotics and Imperialism in the Victorian Drawing Room


4. Economics, Race, and the Specter of Class


5. Drunk with Power: Stories of Ghostly Others


Part II: Transforming the Self


6. Under the Influence: The Fox Sisters and Pernicious Spirits


7. Haunted by Doubts: Elizabeth d'Espérance, Social Justice, and the Reconfiguration of Mediumship


Notes
Bibliography
Index

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews