A01=Sarah A. Willburn
Astral Travel
Author_Sarah A. Willburn
Bronze Buddha
Category=DSBF
Category=JBSF1
Category=QR
Chemical Rays
Civic Polity
daniel
Daniel Deronda
Daniel's Body
Daniel’s Body
deronda
Drawing Room Table
Drawn Back
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
extra
Extra Spheres
florence
Florence Marryat
gender and mysticism
Gwendolen Harleth
jane
marryat
mary
mediumship studies
Miss Showers
Moabite Stone
Mystical Accounts
Mystical Practices
Nineteenth Century Literature
nineteenth-century subjectivity
Noncanonical Social Organization
possessive
Possessive Individualism
public sphere theory
Real Girl
spheres
Spirit Photograph
Spirit Photography
Spirit Possession
spiritualist
trance narrative analysis
Victorian mystical writings research
Victorian spiritualism
Victorian Tables
Watkinson Library
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9780754655404
- Weight: 430g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 2006
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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In her absorbing study of nineteenth-century mystical writings, Sarah Willburn formulates a new conception of individualism that offers a fresh look at Victorian subjectivity. Drawing upon extensive archival work in the British Library, Willburn analyzes séance accounts, novels about mediumship, and metaphysical treatises to make important connections between contemporary writings on mysticism and fictional works. Willburn presents the theories of compelling characters such as Newton Crosland and Lois Waisbrooker and provides exciting new readings of well-known texts by Charlotte Brontë, Eliot, Martineau, and Corelli. An understanding of the Victorian fascination with mysticism, Willburn argues, leads to a better appreciation of cultural constructions of the citizen in England and of the public sphere. She introduces two key concepts against the backdrop of popular mysticism: "possessed individualism," a model for Victorian individualism based on spiritual possession, and "extra spheres," which complicate the traditional binary opposition of public and private. Together, these formulations urge us to rethink our views of Victorian political economy and gender as they pertain to mystical and religious practices.
Sarah A. Willburn is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, USA.
