Consuming visions
Subtitle: mass culture and the Lourdes shrine
By: Suzanne K. Kaufman.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Ithaca, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
Subjects: Christian shrines -- France -- Lourdes; Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- France -- Lourdes; Popular culture -- France -- Lourdes; Popular culture -- Religious aspects -- Christianity; Lourdes (France) -- Religious life and customs
Description: "Plastic Madonnas, packaged holy tours, and biblical theme parks can arouse discomfort, laughter, and even revulsion in religious believers and nonbelievers alike. Scholars, too, often see the intermingling of religion and commerce as a corruption of true spirituality. Suzanne K. Kaufman challenges these assumptions in her examination of the Lourdes pilgrimage in late nineteenth-century France." "Consuming Visions offers new ways to interpret material forms of worship, female piety, and modern commercial culture. Kaufman argues that the melding of traditional pilgrimage activities with a newly developing mass culture produced fresh expressions of popular faith. For the devout women of humble origins who flocked to the shrine, this intensely exciting commercialized worship offered unprecedented opportunities to connect with the sacred and express their faith in God."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-245) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : religious and modern : pilgrimage to Lourdes; title: Remaking Lourdes : Catholic pilgrimage as modern spectacle; title: Commercialized pilgrimage and religious debasement; title: Scientific sensationalism and the miracle cure; title: Female pilgrims and spiritual authority; title: Public wager : publicity and the truth of the cure; title: Epilogue : politics and mass culture : representing Lourdes in the twentieth century.