Performing Magnetism

The Theatrics of Persuasion in the Long Nineteenth Century

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

AvEleonora Paklons,Kristof Smeyers,Kurt Vanhoutte,Hannah Welslau

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The cultural and scientific significance of animal magnetism as performance.The long nineteenth century bears the mark of Anton Mesmer. In a burgeoning media landscape, and in an emerging entertainment culture that fashioned growing numbers of people into audiences, the performative qualities of Mesmer’s magnetic healing techniques came to define magnetism’s cultural power. Shaped by many performers, magnetism flowed into other practices – mentalist, somnambulist, spiritist, hypnotist, mystical, magical and medical. Examining mesmerism as a socially and theatrically embedded phenomenon, Performing Magnetism shows that it was not merely a medical or pseudoscientific practice but a performative and culturally situated one. Drawing on new case studies from Europe, Asia and Northern Africa, the book offers a transnational perspective on nineteenth-century epistemologies and explores how magnetic practices intersected with science, art, popular entertainment, and engagement with the occult. Its interdisciplinary scope will engage readers interested in the cultural history of performance, media, and knowledge.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-05-06
Mått155 x 233 x 15 mm
Vikt454 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor250
FörlagLeuven University Press
ISBN9789462705166

Tillhör följande kategorier

Teater inom Kultur
Allmän historia och världshistoria inom Historia och arkeologi

Eleonora Paklons is a doctoral researcher working on magic lantern travelogues at the University of Antwerp. She is also co-editor of a volume on the history of the magic lantern and popular entertainment. Kristof Smeyers is a senior research fellow at KU Leuven. He has written books on the history of religion and the supernatural, fauna, flora and folklore. Kurt Vanhoutte is Full Professor and Chair of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Antwerp. His research explores the intersections of media technology, performative culture, and illusionism since the nineteenth century. Hannah Welslau is a doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp. Her work focuses on spiritism, performance, and popular entertainment in Belgium. Her research is funded by The Research Foundation Flanders.

Setting the stage Eleonora Paklons, Kristof Smeyers, Kurt Vanhoutte, and Hannah WelslauPART 1: POWER & PERSUASION1 Performing therapeutic magnetism in mid-nineteenth-century Brussels Kaat Wils2 Performances and trajectories of magnetism in nineteenth-century Budapest Kornélia Deres3 Performing magnetism in mid-nineteenth-century Italy: The 1856 challenge between Francesco Guidi and Antonio Zanardelli Gennaro Ambrosino4 Under the sway of performance: The somnambulist stage of Prudence Bernard and Auguste Lassaigne Kurt VanhouttePART 2: BELIEF & COSMOLOGY5 Magnetic musings: George Baldwin and the divine traveller in Egypt Robert Rix6 Mediums and magnetisers: The entanglement of spiritism and magnetism and its performative and religious effects in nineteenth-century Belgium Hannah Welslau7 Magnetism and spiritism in the Ottoman Empire (1850s–1870s) Özgür Türesay 8 Magnetism, mysticism, and the devil Kristof SmeyersPART 3: IDENTITY & AFFECT9 The embodied self: Automatism, power, and gendered autonomy Stéphanie Peel10 Entertaining, healing, and fighting death: Madame Plainchant’s magnetic diary, 1851–1854Thibaut Rioult 11 Performing magnetism in Charles de Villers’ Le magnétiseur amoureux (1787) Alessandra AloisiPART 4: MEDIA & THE SENSES12 Music and magnetism from Mesmer to the rise of hypnosis Olivier Verhaegen13 Under the lantern’s spell: The use of the magic lantern within magnetism Eleonora Paklons14 The magnetic performances of Jules de Rovère: Between automata, prestidigitation, and scientific popularisation Andrea CeciPART 5: THEATRICS & THE ARTS15 “I am going to unwrap the secret of secrets”: Performing the trial of mesmeric and spiritualist authorship in Jean Cocteau’s Orphée Zoë Ghyselinck16 Svengali’s resurrection: Mesmerism, myth, and performance Miranda Zent17 Choreographing magnetism: The performance of knowledge in the ethereal field of forces Julia OstwaldBibliography

Performing Magnetism is a groundbreaking volume that reimagines animal magnetism as a performative, transnational phenomenon. Rich in interdisciplinary insight and compelling case studies, it offers a fresh lens on the intersections of science, spectacle, and belief - essential reading for scholars of cultural history, performance, and the history of science. - Eleanor Dobson, University of Birmingham