Spiritualism and Women's Writing From the Fin de Sicle to the Neo-Victorian [Hardcover]

Using a wide range of unexplored archival material, this book examines the 'spectral' influence of Victorian spiritualism and Psychical Research on women's writing, analyzing the ways in which modern writers have both subverted and mimicked nineteenth century sources in their evocation of the s?ance.List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Theatres in the Skull: The Society for Psychical Research and Actress Narratives Well-tuned Mediums: May Sinclair and Dorothy Richardson Phantasms of Florence Cook in Mich?le Roberts' In the Red Kitchen Natural and Spiritual Evolutions: A. S. Byatt's Angels and Insects The Other World Illuminated: Wiring Science, Text and Spirit in Victoria Glendinning's Electricity Queering the S?ance: Sarah Waters' Affinity Conclusion Bibliography Notes Index

'Spiritualism and Women's Writing is a thought-provoking book...Clearly, a huge amount of research has gone into this book. It is well written with lots of signposting, and offers some original and interesting readings. For me, it emphasizes how fluid history is, and how important the written word is in recording, and re-recording, these histories.' -Lucy Le-Guilcher, Women: a Cultural Review

TATIANA KONTOU is Associate Tutor in English at the University of Sussex, UK. She has previously published an article on Wilkie Collins and Spiritualist practice in Wilkie Collins: Interdisciplinary Essays (2007) and is the guest editor for a special issue of Women's Writing on 'Women and the Victorian Occult' (2008).