TY - GEN T1 - Invisible hosts : performing the nineteenth-century spirit medium's autobiography A1 - Lowry, Elizabeth Schleber, 1972- LA - English PP - Albany PB - State University of New York Press YR - 2017 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_dda_ocn988864670 AB - Finalist for the 2017 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Religion categoryInvisible Hosts explores how the central tenets of Spiritualism influenced ways in which women conceived of their bodies and their civic responsibilities, arguing that Spiritualist ideologies helped to lay the foundation for the social and political advances made by women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As public figures, female spirit mediums of the Victorian era were often accused of unfeminine (and therefore transgressive) behavior. A rhetorical analysis of nineteenth-century spirit mediums' autobiographies reveals how these women convinced readers of their authenticity both as respectable women and as psychics. The author argues that these women's autobiographies reflect an attempt to emulate feminine virtues even as their interpretation and performance of these virtues helped to transform prevailing gender stereotypes. She demonstrates that the social performance central to the production of women's autobiography is uniquely complicated by Spiritualist ideology. Such complications reveal new information about how women represented themselves, gained agency, and renegotiated nineteenth-century gender roles. OP - 157 CN - BF1275.W65 L69 2017 SN - 9781438466019 SN - 1438466013 SN - 9781438465999 KW - Women and spiritualism : United States : History : 19th century. KW - Women mediums : United States : History : 19th century. KW - Sex role : United States : History : 19th century. KW - Autobiography. KW - Femmes et spiritisme : États-Unis : Histoire : 19e siècle. KW - Femmes médiums : États-Unis : Histoire : 19e siècle. KW - Rôle selon le sexe : États-Unis : Histoire : 19e siècle. KW - Autobiographie. KW - autobiography (genre) KW - BODY, MIND & SPIRIT : Parapsychology : General. KW - Autobiography KW - Sex role KW - Women and spiritualism KW - Women mediums KW - United States KW - 1800-1899 KW - History ER -