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Date: 20 February 2002 00:00 -0500
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Subject: VICTORIA Digest - 18 Feb 2002 to 19 Feb 2002 (#2002-51)
There are 15 messages totalling 383 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Animal Magnetism (7)
2. Animal magnetism
3. Great Expectations
4. 1891 Census on CDs
5. gender theory--query (2)
6. Introduction
7. Victorian Cities (2)
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 09:01:41 GMT
From: Martin Willis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Animal Magnetism
Andy
Animal magnetism was one of the alternative names for
mesmerism: a technique of trance-induced healing (often but not
always incorporating electrical shocks in some way). Franz Anton
Mesmer is acknowledged as the founder of this medical treatment
in the late 18 century. It became an important form of knowledge
in the early to mid 19c in Britain (see Alison Winter's excellent
study Mesmerized) before being assimilated into the more
conservative traditions of the medical fraternity as hypnotism by
the time Hardy was at his peak (look up James Braid for more on
this).
Best wishes,
Martin Willis
Dept. of English
UC Worcester
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 09:09:38 -0000
From: Chris Willis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Animal magnetism
Hi!
The expression "Animal Magnetism" was (I think) coined by Mesmer in the late
18C to describe his hypnotism techniques.
All the best
Chris
================================================================
Chris Willis - London Guildhall University
[log in to unmask]
http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk/
"Poverty, paranoia and the puzzled sense that everyone's getting rich and
famous except you are the common fare of authors and have been ever since
William Caxton drew up his first contract." (Philip Pullman, 2000).
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 09:30:25 -0000
From: Paul Lewis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Animal Magnetism
You can read Wilkie Collins account of animal magnetism experiments written
in early 1852 on my website.
www.wilkiecollins.com
go to menu
5 e-texts
non-fiction
8 Magnetic Evenings at Home
A limited edition print of these pieces is available from the Wilkie Collins
Society. A publication list and order form is also on the website, on the
menu page.
Paul
Paul Lewis
web www.paullewis.co.uk
tel 07836 217311
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 01:31:59 -0800
From: Jack Kolb <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Animal Magnetism
>Does anybody know the origins of the expression "animal magnetism"? I'm
>reading Hardy's _Jude_, and I find in Vol I.VI.p41 Hardy using the term
>"magnetism" to describe Jude's early reaction to and impression of
Arabella; >this is the same scene with the pig's "parts," and I'm wondering
if Hardy is >playing on a trope or delivering a "first instance of."
Given his >fascination with things animal and pre-destined (ie. magnetic),
it wouldn't >at all surprise me to learn that he coined the expression.
Thoughts? >
>Andy Belyea
>[log in to unmask]
From the OED2:
1784 H. Walpole Let. in Academy (1882) 25 Feb. 139/1 *Animal Magnetism
has not yet made much impression here. 1786 Lounger (1787) III. 286 The
Animal Magnetism of the illustrious Dr. Mesmer. 1860 J. C. Jeaffreson Bk.
ab. Doctors II. 38 Animal magnetism, under the name of mesmerism, has been
made familiar of late years to the ears of English people.
1792 Looker-On No. 20, 15 May 155 A great number of *animal magnetists
were among this crowd of philosophers. 1809 Coleridge Friend (1818) I. 91,
I must have forgotten the Animal Magnetists; the proselytes of Brothers,
and of Joanna Southcot
Jack Kolb
Dept. of English, UCLA
[log in to unmask]
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 11:16:28 -0000
From: Paul Barlow <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Animal Magnetism
I suppose the problem here is when the expression changed its meaning
fromMesmer's 'scientific' theory about bodily magnetic energy, which was
supposed to explain how hypnosis worked, to the more modern meaning of
something like 'sexual charisma'. It is interesting that the phrase, like
some other obsolete medical terms, continues in existence after the theory
itself is defunct, but with a significant change in meaning. Perhaps there
is an intermediate phase which is more like Goethe's 'elective affinities':
some sort of chemical connection between people, which supposedly explains
person attraction. The question is how Hardy's use of the word 'magnetism'
in the context of the novel fits into - or helps along - this movement in
meaning.
Paul Barlow
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 11:22:39 GMT
From: Martin Willis <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Animal Magnetism
Paul Barlow seems to me quite right in highlighting the problem of
animal magnetism's move from science to wider culture (or sexual
politics). It seems to me, from reading other authorities on the
subject, that mesmerism was always fraught with some suspicion
of transgressive sexual liaison, and perhaps, therefore, animal
magnetism had connotations beyond the scientific from at least
the early 19c. (See, again, Winter on Elliotson's treatment of
female mesmeric subjects in the 1830s)
Martin Willis
Dept. of English
UC Worcester
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 11:26:20 +0000
From: charlotte mitchell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Great Expectations
I'm updating a bibliography on Great Expectations, and I'd be very grateful
for list members' suggestions as to important articles or books published
since 1994. It is a short bibliography, so I have to pick about five. I've
got David Paroissien's Companion on my definite list already.
Dr Charlotte Mitchell
Department of English
University College London
London
WC1E 6BT
Telephone: 020 7679 2000 ext 3146/ 020 7679 3146
Facsimile: 020 7916 2054
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 11:15:25 -0600
From: Diana Strander <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Animal Magnetism
I have begun looking at Hardy in relation to Schopenhauer and the Buddhist
influence on both of them. Hardy's description of Arabella's "animal
magnetism" relates to Schopenhauer's concept of predestination, a term Andy
Belyea mentioned, as well as of the "will," which dictates our instinctive
and insatiable drives. Jude wishes to renounce the will, but in the case of
Arabella obviously fails. He also fails with Sue, but her repressed
sexuality and spiritual nature do seem promising: "Jude left in the
afternoon, hopelessly unhappy. But he has seen her and sat with her. Such
intercourse as that would have to content him for the remainder of his life.
The lesson of renunciation it was necessary and proper that he, as a parish
priest, should learn." In the novel is an expressed anguish that the world
should be dictated not by a god but by magnetic, mesmeric animal impulses,
underlining Hardy's resistance to losing the God of his childhood. For Jude,
only death is the answer, releasing the power of the will, an idea
Schopenhauer (and Buddha) supported...
Diana Ostrander
[log in to unmask]
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 10:14:04 -0700
From: Jeff Franklin <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Animal Magnetism
A suggestion: In Gaskell's Cranford, Senor Brunoni (sp?) might be an
exemplar of how and why the phrase in its "scientific" connotation
transmuted to the more popular connotation of sexual drawing power.
Best,
Jeff Franklin
Jeffrey Franklin
808 S. Vine Street
Denver, CO 80209
720-570-2923
Dr. J. Jeffrey Franklin
Department of English
Campus Box 175
P. O. Box 173364
University of Colorado at Denver
Denver, CO 80217-3364
303-556-4026
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 12:37:09 -0500
From: Bart & Jane Hansen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 1891 Census on CDs
Here is a reference for the newly released 1891 UK census -
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Genealogy_Supplies/London.htm
Bart Hansen
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 09:38:22 -0800
From: "Margot K. Louis" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: gender theory--query
One of my graduate students has asked me what books would constitute the
best introduction to gender theory for a novice; this would be background
for her research on Michael Field. Any leads would be gratefully
appreciated.
Margot K. Louis
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 14:14:19 -0500
From: "Nora K. Hoover" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Introduction
Hello, I'm a doctoral candidate with Florida State University and I've =
been lurking on this list for several months. Finally I've a question =
to ask. I'm writing my dissertation on the British military expedition =
to Abyssinia in 1867-68 and I've located all the male war correspondents =
who participated, but my research has failed to turn up any female war =
correspondents. The only female correspondent I've found is Lady =
Florence Caroline Dixie who sent dispatches to the Morning Post during =
the Zulu War and the Boer War which is slightly later than my period. =
I'd be grateful to hear from anyone who might have some knowledge or =
ideas on where to look.
Nora Hoover
[log in to unmask]
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 19:04:38 -0500
From: Angela Burke <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Victorian Cities
Hello-
I am working on the relationship between the city and the physical (human)
body in Elizabeth Gaskell's _Mary Barton_. I am busily looking through the
2 vols. of _The Victorian City_ and, of course, have read Engels.
Are there any more theoretical writings (Victorian or otherwise) on the ties
between urban space and its effects on people's health, sexuality, etc?
Thanks in advance,
Angela Burke
University of Connecticut
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Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 20:07:43 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: gender theory--query
Quoting "Margot K. Louis" <[log in to unmask]>:
Judith Butler's Gender Trouble comes to mind-- there are also
a few good collections that introduce some of the more difficult
theories. Rosemarie Tong's Feminist Thought is a great intro
(focusing, of course, on the feminist side of things). The
Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and the Politics of Literary
Criticism (ed. Catherine Belsey) is also a good intro. I think
Toril Moi also wrote or edited a good collection for a novice.
Best of luck,
Cecile Kandl
Assistant Professor of English
Avila College
> One of my graduate students has asked me what books would constitute the
> best introduction to gender theory for a novice; this would be
> background
> for her research on Michael Field. Any leads would be gratefully
> appreciated.
>
>
> Margot K. Louis
> [log in to unmask]
>
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Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 02:05:50 +0000
From: Shif <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Victorian Cities
Angela Burke wrote:
> Are there any more theoretical writings (Victorian or otherwise) on the
ties > between urban space and its effects on people's health, sexuality,
etc?
I am fairly certain you will find Anthony S Wohl's 'Endangered lives: public
health in Victorian Britain' (Methuen, 1983) helpful and eminently
readable. You might also find Joachim Schlor's 'Nights in the big city:
Paris; Berlin; London, 1840-1930' (Reaktion, 1998) of some interest.
Malcolm
--
Malcolm Shifrin
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End of VICTORIA Digest - 18 Feb 2002 to 19 Feb 2002 (#2002-51)
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