The Haunted Mind: The Supernatural in Victorian Literature

The Haunted Mind, a collection of original essays by prominent scholars from diverse disciplines, is the first comprehensive, critical treatment of the influence of the supernatural on the literature of the Victorian period. Addressing standard classics of the canon as well as lesser known works and "penny dreadfuls," the essayists respond to the Victorian supernatural legacy from Marxist, poststructuralist, feminist, and cultural studies perspectives. The Haunted Mind contemplates the shifting use of the supernatural from an exterior force, acting upon characters, during the first half of the nineteenth century to an interior force, expressed through characters, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Contributors also treat a range of topics at issue in cultural studies: the performance of gender; the inscribed body; the heritage of fairy tales; the translation of oral culture into text; the changing representation of gender, race, and class; the engendered images of science, nature, technology, family, and business. Essayists include Elaine Showalter, Katti Filmer-Davies, Harry Stone, Nancy Tyson, Roger Schlobin, Robert Haas, Tammis Thomas, and Esther and Elton Smith. The compilation of voices in The Haunted Mind creates a persuasive cultural critique of the fantastic in Victorian ideology in one volume of scholarship.