The Trial of Woman examines the impact of the nineteenth-century 'Occult Revival' on the Victorian Women's Movement, both in the lives of individual women and in the literature surrounding 'the Woman Question'. The book explores the Victorian Myth of Occult Womanhood and argues that the notion of female occult power was deeply influenced by the advent of Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Theosophy. This myth was itself a determining factor in women's struggle for legal and political rights.

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DIANA BASHAM

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Book Title: The Trial of Woman
Book Subtitle: Feminism and the Occult Sciences in Victorian Literature and Society
Authors: Diana Basham
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230374010
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 1992
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-333-48202-5Published: 14 January 1992
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-37401-0Published: 14 January 1992
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 253
Topics: Modern History, Religious Studies, general, History of Britain and Ireland, Social History, Gender Studies, Feminism

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The Trial of Woman

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

Front Matter

Frankenstein’s Monster: Lady Byron and Victorian Feminism

The Prophetic Element in Nineteenth-Century Women’s Discourse

The Demon Redeemed: Witchcraft, Mesmerism and Harriet Martineau’s Ear-Trumpet

Out of the Body: Spiritualism, Communications and the Law

Life after Spiritualism: Victorian Women’s Ghost Stories

Through the Looking Glass: Madame Blavatsky and the Occult Mother

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