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
Evenings with the Spirits
12016-11-23T12:49:30-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3713plain2016-12-16T21:07:17-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3In the article “Evenings with the Spirits” (The Sixpenny Magazine, 1868) the journalist L.E. attends three séances to test the validity of spiritualism. In the section excerpted below L.E. describes a female medium and her chaperone, paying particular attention to the gender and class of each. While spiritualism and séances in particular did grant women different kinds of power and authority (as Berry and Houghton demonstrate), they could be monitored and hegemonically controlled by men. This excerpt does not disprove the argument put forward by so many feminist scholars that spiritualism was often an avenue to power for women; I included this excerpt merely to complicate this generalized and homogenous interpretation of a phenomena that has many unique instantiations.
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12016-12-14T13:09:10-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3Newspaper and Magazine AccountsMegan Bruening1Genreplain2016-12-14T13:09:10-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3