{"product_id":"invisible-hosts-elizabeth-schleber-lowry-9781438466002","title":"Invisible Hosts: Performing the Nineteenth-Century Spirit Medium's Autobiography","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eProvides a rhetorical analysis of female spirit medium's autobiographies in the historical and social contexts of Victorian era America.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the 2017 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eForeword\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Religion category \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eInvisible Hosts\u003c\/i\u003e explores how the central tenets of Spiritualism influenced ways in which women conceived of their bodies and their civic responsibilities, arguing that Spiritualist ideologies helped to lay the foundation for the social and political advances made by women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As public figures, female spirit mediums of the Victorian era were often accused of unfeminine (and therefore transgressive) behavior. A rhetorical analysis of nineteenth-century spirit mediums' autobiographies reveals how these women convinced readers of their authenticity both as respectable women and as psychics. The author argues that these women's autobiographies reflect an attempt to emulate feminine virtues even as their interpretation and performance of these virtues helped to transform prevailing gender stereotypes. She demonstrates that the social performance central to the production of women's autobiography is uniquely complicated by Spiritualist ideology. Such complications reveal new information about how women represented themselves, gained agency, and renegotiated nineteenth-century gender roles.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Elizabeth Schleber Lowry\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1438466005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781438466002\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e State University of New York Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/02\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 186\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d","brand":"Elizabeth Schleber Lowry","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48088257134847,"sku":"9781438466002","price":33.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_3c684210-db10-434a-b230-f3b87cd6d591.jpg?v=1769103907","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/invisible-hosts-elizabeth-schleber-lowry-9781438466002","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}