{"product_id":"seeing-things-amanda-shubert-9781501783678","title":"Seeing Things: Virtual Aesthetics in Victorian Culture","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA cultural history of nineteenth-century media imaginaries, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSeeing Things\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e tells the story of how Victorians experienced the virtual images created by modern optical technologies--magic lanterns, stereoscopes, phenakistoscopes, museum displays, and illusionistic stage magic. \u003c\/b\u003eAmanda Shubert argues that interactions with these devices gave rise to a new virtual aesthetics--an understanding of visual and perceptual encounters with things that are not really there. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe popularization of Victorian optical media redefined visuality as a rational mode of spectatorship that taught audiences to distinguish illusion from reality. As an aesthetic expression of a civilizational ideal that defined the capacity to see but not believe, to be entertained without being deceived, it became a sign of western supremacy. By tracing the development of virtual aesthetics through nineteenth-century writings, from the novels of George Eliot and Charles Dickens to popular science writing and imperial travelogues, \u003ci\u003eSeeing Things\u003c\/i\u003e recovers a formative period of technological and literary innovation to explain how optical media not only anticipated cinema but became a paradigmatic media aesthetic of western modernity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Amanda Shubert\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 150178367X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501783678\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cornell University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/15\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 252\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Amanda Shubert","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47243932860671,"sku":"9781501783678","price":130.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_13afa67d-ae2a-4c9e-af4a-03671fff631e.jpg?v=1758134522","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/seeing-things-amanda-shubert-9781501783678","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}