Ghost-Seers, Detectives, and Spiritualists - Theories of Vision in Victorian Literature and Science

Informationen zum Autor Srdjan Smajic is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Furman. Klappentext This book is a 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. Zusammenfassung This book is a 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. Inhaltsverzeichnis 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 scopophobia: Poe's readerly flâneur; 7. Stains, smears, and visual language in The Moonstone; 8. Semiotics vs. encyclopedism: the case of Sherlock Holmes; Part III. Into the Invisible: Science, Spiritualism, and Occult Detection: 9. Detective fiction's uncanny; 10. Light, ether, and the invisible world; 11. Inner vision and occult detection: Le Fanu's Martin Hesselius; 12. Other dimensions, other worlds; 13. Psychic sleuths and soul doctors; Coda....

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Srdjan Smaji, Srdjan Smajic, Srdjan Smajić
• Verlag: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Taschenbuch
• Erschienen: 21.11.2013
• EAN: 9781107634589
• ISBN: 978-1-107-63458-9
• Seiten: 280
• Serien: Cambridge Studies in Nineteent; Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
• Themen: Belletristik > Lyrik, Dramatik; Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst, Musik > Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft > Englische Sprachwissenschaft / Literaturwissenschaft; Naturwissenschaften, Medizin, Informatik, Technik > Naturwissenschaften allgemein; English, SCIENCE / History, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 19th Century, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Literature & literary studies, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literature: history & criticism, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers