The Invention of Telepathy, 1870-1901

Portada
Oxford University Press, 2002 - 324 páginas
The Invention of Telepathy explores one of the enduring concepts to emerge from the late nineteenth century. Telepathy was coined by Frederic Myers in 1882. He defined it as 'the communication of any kind from one mind to another, independently of the recognised channels of sense'. By 1901 it had become a disputed phenomenon amongst physical scientists yet was the 'royal road' to the unconscious mind. Telepathy was discussed by eminent men and women of the day, including Sigmund Freud, Thomas Huxley, Henry and William James, Mary Kingsley, Andrew Lang, Vernon Lee, W.T. Stead, and Oscar Wilde. Did telepathy signal evolutionary advance or possible decline? Could it be a means of binding the Empire closer together, or was it used by natives to subvert imperial communications? Were women more sensitive than men, and if so why? Roger Luckhurst investigates these questions in a study that mixes history of science with cultural history and literary analysis.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

TERRAINS OF EMERGENCE 18701882
9
CONCEPT
60
W T STEADS
117
The Phantasmal Empire
154
Psychofolklorist
160
Mary Kingsley and the Capacity to Think in Black
167
Rudyard Kiplings GossipTales
173
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND
181
NERVES
214
Entanglements with Mediums
227
William Henry and Alice James
234
Henry Jamess Romances of Occult Relation
241
AFTERLIVES 19011934
253
Bibliography
279
Derechos de autor

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (2002)

Roger Luckhurst is Lecturer in English, Birkbeck College, University of London, and co-editor of Roger of The Fin-de-Siècle (OUP, 2000).

Información bibliográfica