Book ID: CBB001212914

Hysteria, Hypnotism, the Spirits, and Pornography: Fin-de-siècle Cultural Discourses in the Decadent Rachilde (2009)

unapi

Finn, Michael R. (Author)


University of Delaware Press


Publication Date: 2009
Physical Details: 285 pp.
Language: English

This book explores the life and fiction of the French decadent writer Rachilde (pen name of Marguerite Eymery), using her as a case study to examine the impact late nineteenth-century theories about female hysteria, medical hypnotism, mediums, and spiritualism had on the female creative psyche. Rachilde was especially vulnerable as she suffered hysterical attacks, witnessed a hypnotism craze in France, and was the only child in a family of table-tapping spiritualists. After a biographical first section, chapters examine how hysteria, hypnotism, and spiritualism penetrated the sociocultural fabric of France in the period between 1870-1900, and how Rachilde's novels represented, unconsciously absorbed, or at other times mocked those discourses. Because she was prosecuted for the 'obscenity' of her first major success, Monsieur Venus, this study also situates her writing comparatively within the production of other late-century pornographers. A final chapter analyzes how Rachilde's work confronts the disabling doctrines of her time and how, out of them, she constructs a unique and productive writing stance.

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Description Explores how Rachilde and her works were affected by late 19th-century theories about female hysteria, medical hypnotism, mediums, and spiritualism.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001212914/

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Authors & Contributors
Musumeci, Emilia
Rudnick, Lois P.
Heru, Alison M.
Weigl, Andreas
Tomso, Gregory
Steger, Florian
Concepts
Medicine and gender
Sexuality
Medicine
Human body
Hysteria
Medicine and literature
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
20th century, early
17th century
16th century
Places
France
Germany
Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
United States
Italy
Europe
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