Spirits and spirituality in Victorian fiction
By: Jen Cadwallader
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2016
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781137559920
Subjects: LITERARY CRITICISM / European / General; History and criticism; Literature and society; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; English Ghost stories; Ghosts in literature; LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Supernatural; English fiction; Supernatural in literature; English Psychological fiction; History
Description: "Spirits and Spirituality in Victorian Fiction argues that supernatural encounters in nineteenth-century fiction show Victorians trying to achieve greater spiritual agency by adapting scientific theories to traditional Christianity.  The increasing presence of ghosts across the nineteenth century - in fiction, newspaper accounts, séances, and magic shows - thus highlights a significant countercurrent to the general decline of faith during the period.  Through examining  ghost encounters in the fiction of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Rhoda Broughton, E. Nesbit, Rudyard Kipling, and others, this book demonstrates how the supernatural served as a site where a range of stances toward spirituality could be tested: from ambivalence toward both scientific and religious epistemologies to fascinating instances of spiritual evolution.  Not only do fictional ghosts suggest that belief persisted despite an intellectual climate that often associated spirituality with credulity, but they also "--

"Spirits and Spirituality in Victorian Fiction argues that supernatural encounters in nineteenth-century fiction show Victorians trying to achieve greater spiritual agency by adapting scientific theories to traditional Christianity. The increasing presence of ghosts across the nineteenth century - in fiction, newspaper accounts, séances, and magic shows - thus highlights a significant countercurrent to the general decline of faith during the period"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: Introduction: Framing the Ghost Story; title: 1. Physiology, Pharmacology, and the Ghost Stories of J. S. Le Fanu; title: 2. Dickens's Ghosts and the Christmas Spirit; title: 3. The Anatomy of Desire: Madness, Mesmerism, and the Specters of Female Sexuality; title: 4. Mourning the Dead and the Rise of the New Faith; title: Coda: Cecilia De Noël and the Triumph of Experience.