Victorian literary mesmerism / edited by Martin Willis and Catherine Wynne.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Willis, Martin.

Wynne, Catherine, 1971-

Series:

Costerus ; new ser., v.160.

Costerus, 0165-9618 ; new ser., v.160

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mesmerism--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Mesmerism.

Mesmerism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Rodopi, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Victorian Literary Mesmerism examines the engagement between literature and mesmerism in Victorian writing. Drawing on recent trends in interdisciplinary literary scholarship the essays collected here investigate the complex connections between scientific mesmerism, its manifestations in the Victorian social and cultural world, and the literary imagination. Here, for the first time, the varied themes and contexts shaped by mesmeric practices are brought together in one volume. Mesmerism's influence on phrenology, medicine and mental health; its interaction with the occult and with communication technologies; the effects of mesmeric principles on gender and sexuality, as well as on criminal behaviour, are all set within the context of literary texts that interrogate and critique mesmerism's influence on the Victorians. This volume will be of interest, therefore, to scholars of Victorian literature and the history of science, as well as to those interested in cultural history with a focus on gender, sexuality, and sciences of the mind.

Contents:

Martin WILLIS and Catherine WYNNE: Introduction

Ilana KURSHAN: Mind Reading: Literature in the Discourse of Early Victorian Phrenology and Mesmerism

Gavin BUDGE: Mesmerism and Medicine in Bulwer-Lytton's Novels of the Occult

Anthony ENNS: Mesmerism and the Electric Age: From Poe to Edison

Louise HENSON: Mesmeric Delusions: Mind and Mental Training in Elizabeth Gaskell's Writings

Tiffany DONNELLY: Mesmerism, Clairvoyance and Literary Culture in Mid-Century Australia

Angelic RODGERS: Jim Crows, Veiled Ladies and True Womanhood: Mesmerism in The House of the Seven Gables

Martin WILLIS: George Eliot's The Lifted Vei l and the Cultural Politics of Clairvoyance

Sharrona PEARL: Dazed and Abused: Gender and Mesmerism in Wilkie Collins

Alisha SIEBERS: Marie Corelli's Magnetic Revitalizing Power

Mary Elizabeth LEIGHTON: Under the Influence: Crime and Hypnotic Fictions of the Fin de Siècle

Catherine WYNNE: Arthur Conan Doyle's Domestic Desires: Mesmerism, Mediumship and Femmes Fatales

Notes on Contributors

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-265) and index.

ISBN:

94-012-0301-6

1-4294-6807-6

OCLC:

714567342

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789401203012 DOI