
Altered States
Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-Transformation in Victorian Spiritualism
Marlene Tromp(Author)
State University of New York Press
Published on 13. July 2006
Book
Hardback
260 pages
978-0-7914-6739-8 (ISBN)
Description
Considers the role of Spiritualism in Victorian culture.
Altered States examines the rise of Spiritualism-the religion of seances, 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 seance 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 seance 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.
Altered States examines the rise of Spiritualism-the religion of seances, 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 seance 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 seance 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.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
472 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-6739-8 (9780791467398)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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Additional editions

E-Book
02/2012
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€36.49
Available for download
Person
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.
Content
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'Esperance, Social Justice, and the Reconfiguration of Mediumship
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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'Esperance, Social Justice, and the Reconfiguration of Mediumship
Notes
Bibliography
Index