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The Victorian Ghost Story and Theology

From Le Fanu to James

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Zoe Lehmann Imfeld

    1. Bern, Switzerland

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  • Repositions theology as central to the understanding of the Victorian ghost story, which has traditionally been read in the context of Victorian agnosticism

  • Examines the work of four of the best known exponents of the Victorian ghost story

  • Uses a wide variety of theological ideas from St Augustine through to modern theologians

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction: Rethinking the Victorian Ghost Story

    • Zoë Lehmann Imfeld
    Pages 1-12

  3. Haunted by the Ghost of God—Reading Theologically

    • Zoë Lehmann Imfeld
    Pages 13-38

  4. ‘Strangely mistaking death for life’: Arthur Machen

    • Zoë Lehmann Imfeld
    Pages 39-78

  5. ‘What is this that I have done?’: M. R. James

    • Zoë Lehmann Imfeld
    Pages 79-105

  6. ‘These devils have made quite a saint of you’: Sheridan Le Fanu

    • Zoë Lehmann Imfeld
    Pages 107-139

  7. ‘He’s there from the moment he knows somebody else is’: Haunted by Paralysis in the Stories of Henry James

    • Zoë Lehmann Imfeld
    Pages 141-158

  8. Conclusion: ‘This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good’

    • Zoë Lehmann Imfeld
    Pages 159-168

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 169-188
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Keywords

About this book

This book argues that theology is central to an understanding of the literary ghost story. Victorian ghost stories have traditionally been read in the context of agnosticism – as stories which reveal a society struggling with Christian orthodoxy in a new ‘Enlightened’ world. This book, however, uses theological ideas from St Augustine through to modern theologians to identify a theological journey taken by the protagonists of such stories, and charts each stage of this journey through the short stories it examines. It also proposes a theory of reader participation which creates an imaginary space in which modern epistemology is suspended. The book studies the work of four major authors of the supernatural tale: Arthur Machen, M.R. James, Sheridan Le Fanu and Henry James.

Reviews

“This book is a most welcome intervention in Gothic Studies. The dominant reading of ghost stories has, until recently, been materialist or psychoanalytical in orientation, but thinking theologically about ghosts makes a great deal of sense. This very original, innovative study which not only takes theology seriously, but proposes a theologically sophisticated understanding of the Victorian obsession with ghosts, could open up new directions in research.” (Jarlath Killeen, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Bern, Switzerland

    Zoe Lehmann Imfeld

About the author

Zoë Lehmann Imfeld is Lecturer in Modern English Literature at the University of Bern, Switzerland. She is co-editor of the volume Theology and Literature after Postmodernity.

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