Ghosts of futures past : spiritualism and the cultural politics of nineteenth-century America / Molly McGarry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGarry, Molly.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spiritualism--United States--History--19th century.

Spiritualism.

Religion and culture--United States--History--19th century.

Religion and culture.

United States--Religion--19th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (285 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ghosts of Futures Past guides readers through the uncanny world of nineteenth-century American spiritualism. More than an occult parlor game, this was a new religion, which channeled the voices of the dead, linked present with past, and conjured new worldly and otherworldly futures. Tracing the persistence of magic in an emergent culture of secularism, Molly McGarry brings a once marginalized practice to the center of American cultural history. Spiritualism provided an alchemical combination of science and magic that called into question the very categories of male and female, material and immaterial, self and other, living and dead. Dissolving the boundaries between them opened Spiritualist practitioners to other voices and, in turn, allowed them to imagine new social worlds and forge diverse political affinities.

Contents:

Mourning, media, and the cultural politics of conjuring the dead

Indian guides : haunted subjects and the politics of vanishing

Spectral sexualities : free love, moral panic, and the making of U.S. obscenity law

Mediomania : the spirit of science in a culture of belief and doubt

Secular subjects : a queer genealogy of untimely sexualities.

Notes:

"Simpson, imprint in humanities"--P. facing t.p.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612359309

9781282359307

1282359304

9780520934061

0520934067

OCLC:

609850104