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Description of  Altered States : Sex, Nation, Drugs, and Self-transformation in Victorian Spiritualism

Considers the role of Spiritualism in Victorian culture. Altered States examines the rise of Spiritualismthe religion of seances, mediums, and ghostly encountersin the Victorian period and the role it played in undermining both traditional female roles and the rhetoric of imperialism. Focusing on a particular kind of seance eventthe full-form materializationand the bodies of the young, female mediums who performed it, Marlene Tromp argues that in the altered state of the seance new ways of understanding identity and relationships became possible. This not only demonstrably shaped the thinking of the Spiritualists, but also the popular consciousness of the period. In diaries, letters, newspaper accounts, scientific reports, and popular fiction, Tromp uncovers evidence that the radical views presented in the faith permeated and influenced mainstream Victorian thought. Tromp makes a good case for the wide-ranging import of Victorian Spiritualism as she sees Spiritualism, it provides a fulcrum for fraught Victorian ideologies of sexuality, imperialism, intoxicants, and gender roles. Like our own ghosts, those of the Victorians nestle at the heart of their cultures phobias and hopes, and Tromps enlightening study unveils their devious power. Nina Auerbach, author of Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress Tromp asks why Spiritualism mattered and what effects it produced, and she answers these questions on the basis of primary research and careful attention to the Victorian cultural web. She showcases what in so many places are very exciting, very well articulated, and very new ideas with significant bearing on Victorian cultural studies as a whole. Martha Stoddard Holmes, author of Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture This is an excellent study that expands our understanding of the importance of Spiritualism in the Victorian period. Gail Turley Houston, author of From Dickens to Dracula: Gothic, Economics, and Victorian Fiction