Ghost-Seers, Detectives, and Spiritualists: Theories of Vision in Victorian Literature and Science [Hardcover]

This book examines how nineteenth-century ghost and detective fiction writers engage with contemporary theories of vision.An original study of the narrative techniques which developed for two very popular forms of fiction in the nineteenth century  ghost stories and detective stories  and the surprising similarities between them in the context of contemporary theories of vision and sight.An original study of the narrative techniques which developed for two very popular forms of fiction in the nineteenth century  ghost stories and detective stories  and the surprising similarities between them in the context of contemporary theories of vision and sight.This is an original study of the narrative techniques that developed for two very popular forms of fiction in the nineteenth century  ghost stories and detective stories  and the surprising similarities between them in the context of contemporary theories of vision and sight. Srdjan Smaji argues that to understand how writers represented ghost-seers and detectives, the views of contemporary scientists, philosophers, and spiritualists with which these writers engage have to be taken into account: these views raise questions such as whether seeing really is believing, how much of what we see' is actually only inferred, and whether there may be other (intuitive or spiritual) ways of seeing that enable us to perceive objects and beings inaccessible to the bodily senses. This book will make a real contribution to the understanding of Victorian science in culture, and of the ways in which literature draws on all kinds of knowledge.Introduction; Part I. Outer Vision, Inner Vision: Ghost-Seeing and Ghost Stories: 1. Contextualizing the ghost story; 2. The rise of optical apparitions; 3. Inner vision and spiritual optics; 4. 'Betwixt ancient faith and modern incredulity'; Part II. Seeing is Reading: Vision, Language, and Detective Fiction: 5. Visual learning: sight and Victorian epistemology; 6. Scopophilia and scopophol3N