Trance speakers : femininity and authorship in spiritual seances, 1850-1930 / Claudie Massicotte.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Massicotte, Claudie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Seances.

Seances--Canada--History--20th century.

Seances--Canada--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (279 pages) : illustrations, tables

Place of Publication:

Montreal & Kingston, [Ontario] ; London, [England] ; Chicago, [Illinois] : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017.

Summary:

Few people know that Susanna Moodie participated in spiritual séances with her husband, Dunbar, and her sister, Catharine Parr Traill. Moodie, like many other women, found in her communications with the departed an important space to question her commitment to authorship and her understanding of femininity. Retracing the history of possession and mediumship among women following the emergence of spiritualism in mid-nineteenth-century Canada – and unearthing a vast collection of archival documents and photographs from séances – Claudie Massicotte pinpoints spiritualism as a site of conflict and gender struggle and redefines modern understandings of female agency. Trance Speakers offers a new feminist and psychoanalytical approach to the religious and creative practice of trance, arguing that by providing women with a voice for their conscious and unconscious desires, this phenomenon helped them resolve their inner struggles in a society that sought to confine their lives. Drawing attention to the fascinating history of spiritualism and its persistent appeal to women, Massicotte makes a strong case for moving this practice out of the margins of the past. A compelling new reading of spiritual possession as a response to conflicting interpretations of authorship, agency, and gender, Trance Speakers shines a much-needed light on women’s religious practices and on the history of spiritualist traditions and travels across North America and Europe.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on Female Mediumship

Historical Context: Séances and Mediumship in Canada

Framework: Interpreting Mediums’ Discourses as Unconscious Communications

Femininity and Authorship among Canadian and Transnational Mediums

Healing: Mediums and Medicine

Writing: Mediums and Literary Creativity

Speaking: Mediums in the Public Sphere

Performing: Mediums, Science, and the Speaking Body

Conclusion: The Legacies of Spiritual Communications

Afterward: The Afterlife of Canada’s Ghosts

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF cover (ebrary, viewed June 15, 2017).

ISBN:

9780773549944

0773549943

9780773549937

0773549935

OCLC:

987794744