Keeping in Touch: An Anthology of the Victorian SeanceMain MenuIntroductionFurther ReadingI - Spiritualism and Its BelieversII - Ambivalent SkepticsIII - Scoffers and FraudsIV - The Private SeanceV - The Public SeanceWork CitedMegan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3
Confessions of a Medium: A Clown and a Slave Boy
12016-11-23T12:45:01-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3714plain2016-12-16T21:06:29-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3In this excerpt of Confessions of a Medium readers are introduced to two explicitly racialzed and classed characters: Joey, the spirit of an American slave boy, and the anonymous “clown” or rustic who speaks to the mediums in one session. Joey makes frequent “appearances” throughout the text and it is curious but probably not insignificant that the narrator’s fraudulent friends use a pathetic black figure to inspire sympathy and curiosity in their white, middle/upper-class audience. The séance with the clown reveals how class did matter in spiritualism, though modern readers might suspect that class did not carry over into the afterlife.
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12016-11-23T13:09:14-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3IV - The Private SeanceMegan Bruening2plain2016-11-23T13:17:38-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3
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12016-12-14T12:55:50-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3Anonymous: Confessions of a MediumMegan Bruening1Authorplain2016-12-14T12:55:50-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3