The Darkened Room

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A highly original study that examines the central role played by women as mediums, healers, and believers during the golden age of spiritualism in the late Victorian era, The Darkened Room is than a meditation on women mediums it s an exploration of the era s gender relations.The hugely popular spiritualist movement, which maintained that women were uniquely qualified to commune with spirits of the dead, offered female mediums a new independence, authority, and potential to undermine conventional class and gender relations in the home and in society.Using previously unexamined sources and an innovative approach, Alex Owen invokes the Victorian world of darkened s ance rooms, theatrical apparitions, and moving episodes of happiness lost and regained She charts the struggles between spiritualists and the medical and legal establishments over the issue of female mediumship, and provides new insights into the gendered dynamics of Victorian society. Free Download [ The Darkened Room ] author [ Alex Owen ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Alex Owen s first book The Darkened Room Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England Univ Chicago Press, 2004 examines the intersections between the rise of the Spiritualist movement and the roles played by women within it and the wider issue of the Woman Question from 1860 onwards Owen examines in some detail the religious background to Spiritualism, and the growth in both secular and Christian Spiritualist organisations and its relationship to Swedenborg Mesmerism Alex Owen s first book The Darkened Room Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England Univ Chicago Press, 2004 examines the intersections between the rise of the Spiritualist movement and the roles played by women within it and the wider issue of the Woman Question from 1860 onwards Owen examines in some detail the religious background to Spiritualism, and the growth in both secular and Christian Spiritualist organisations and its relationship to Swedenborg Mesmerism In examining the rise in the popularity of Spiritualism, she relates it to the growth of social reform movemements examples being the British National Association of Spiritualist s stated aims to be that of To cause the Rights of Women to be recognised in full and the medium Emma Harding Britten using her spirit inspired lectures to assert that women should be allowed to enter the professions.The relationship between suffrage other social reform movements and eso...What I like most about this book is that it is not just a very interesting account on how spiritualism worked to undermine the gender construction in the Victorian era, but that it also gives ample examples of t...Solid interesting reading, as the politics espoused are 25 years old but the history is great, and the points made about the movement as it affected and was affected by women, both positively and negatively, made for a great deal of interesting thoughts to chew on.Definitely one to dip into for research purposes.Overall a very fine book that comes at familiar material from a different analytical viewpoint Such dissatisfaction I have with it involves its multiple, and occasionally complex, attempts to make sense of spiritualism from a feminist perspective, some of which I foundsuccessful than others I read this hoping for some insight into the impulses that caused so many mid 19th Century female pioneers of equal rights ...So far, amazing I just need to devotetime to it.A must read if you re interested in the British and American Spiritualism movements.A seminal work on the relationship between mediumship and gender dynamics, Owen s quasi classic feels as relevant today as it did upon its first release.

The Darkened Room
  • English
  • 13 September 2017
  • Paperback
  • 344 pages
  • 0226642054
  • Alex Owen
  • The Darkened Room