Conflict and Difference in Nineteenth-Century Literature

Conflict and Difference in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Author: D. Birch
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2010-05-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0230277217

How should we understand Victorian conflict? The Victorians were divided between multiple views of the political, religious and social issues that motivated their changing aspirations. Such debates are a fundamental aspect of the literature of the period and these essays propose new ways of understanding their significance.

The Victorian Supernatural

The Victorian Supernatural
Author: Nicola Bown
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2004-02-05
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780521810159

Publisher Description

Supernatural Entertainments

Supernatural Entertainments
Author: Simone Natale
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2016-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0271077395

In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.