ABSTRACT

British women’s supernatural tales written during the nineteenth century challenged the ideals of Victorian femininity and restrictive gendered roles such as wife and domestic servant. The female medium, through her power of communicating with spirits and establishing authority during séances, also transgressed femininity through her freely expressed behavior in front of sitters and skeptics. The real-life female medium, I argue, inspired the ghost stories of Victorian women writers such asRhoda Broughton and Mary E. Braddon. In this paper, I contend that the female spiritualist in Broughton’s “Behold! It was a Dream” (1872) and Braddon’s “The Shadow in the Corner” (1879) illustrates her authority in the domestic sphere by portraying anxiety of the bedroom. This paper utilizes an intersectional theoretical framework of Michel Foucault’s docile bodies and Sandra Bartky’s feminine docile bodies to demonstrate how the societal, policing gaze compelled Victorian women to perform femininity even in the domestic sphere – a space where women assumed they had authority. I also examine how the intersections of gender and class affect the female spiritualist’s transgression of gendered space. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the influence of spiritualism on British women’s ghost stories, especially tales that illustrate the horrors of patriarchy.

摘要

十九世纪的英国女性超自然故事挑战了维多利亚时代女性气质和限制性性别角色（如妻子和家庭佣人）的理想。女性媒介通过她在降神会上与精神交流和建立权威的力量，也通过她在保姆和怀疑论者面前自由表达的行为超越了女性气质。我认为，现实生活中的女性媒介激发了罗达·布劳顿（Rhoda Broughton）和玛丽·E·布拉登（Mary E. Braddon）等维多利亚时代女作家的鬼故事。在本文中，我认为布劳顿的“看哪！这是一个梦想”（1872 年）和布拉登的“角落里的阴影”（1879 年）通过描绘卧室的焦虑来说明她在家庭领域的权威。本文利用 Michel Foucault 的温顺身体和 Sandra Bartky 的女性温顺身体的交叉理论框架来展示社会、警察的目光如何迫使维多利亚时代的女性即使在家庭领域也表现出女性气质——女性认为她们拥有权威的空间。我还研究了性别和阶级的交叉点如何影响女性招魂师对性别空间的越界。本文的目的是强调招魂术对英国女性鬼故事的影响，尤其是那些说明父权制恐怖的故事。我还研究了性别和阶级的交叉点如何影响女性招魂师对性别空间的越界。本文的目的是强调招魂术对英国女性鬼故事的影响，尤其是那些说明父权制恐怖的故事。我还研究了性别和阶级的交叉点如何影响女性招魂师对性别空间的越界。本文的目的是强调招魂术对英国女性鬼故事的影响，尤其是那些说明父权制恐怖的故事。