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Hallucination was always the ghost story's elephant in the room. Even before the vogue for psychical research and spiritualism began to influence writers at the end of the nineteenth century, tales of horror and the supernatural, of ghosts and demons, had been haunted by the possibility of some grand deception by the senses. Edgar Allan Poe's stories were full of mad narrators, conscience-stricken criminals and sinners, and protagonists who doubted their very eyes and ears. Writers such as Dickens and Le Fanu continued this idea of the cheat of the senses. But what is certainly true is that, towards the end of the century, hallucination took on a new force and significance in ghostly and horror fiction. Now, its presence was not the dominion of a handful of experimental thinkers but the province of popular authors writing very different kinds of stories. The approaches had become many and diverse, from Arthur Machen's ambivalent interest in occultism to Vernon Lee's passion for art and antiquity. Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898) is the most famous text to pose a question that was, in fact, being asked by many writers of the time: reality or delusion? Other writers, too, were forcing their readers to assess whether the ghostly had its origins in some supernatural phenomenon from beyond the grave, or from some deception within our own minds. This thesis explores the many factors which contributed to this rise in the interest in hallucination and visionary experience, during the period 1880-1914. From the time when psychical research became hugely popular, up until the First World War often considered a watershed in the history of the ghost story and literature in general something happened to the ghost story and related fiction. Through a close analysis of stories and novels written by Robert Louis Stevenson, Vernon Lee, Henry James, Arthur Machen, and Oliver Onions, I attempt to find out what happened, and even more importantly why it happened at all.

In the mid-1890s the London based Society for Psychical Research dispatched researchers to the Scottish Highlands and Islands to investigate an extraordinary power of prophecy said to be peculiar to the residents of these remote regions. Described in Gaelic as the An-da-shealladh or ‘the two sights’, and given in English as ‘second sight’, the phenomenon was most commonly associated with the vision of future events: the death of neighbour, the arrival of strangers into the community, the success or failure of a fishing trip and so forth. The SPR were not the first to take an interest in this pre-visionary faculty, rather they joined a legion of scientists, travel writers, antiquarians, poets and artists who had made enquires into the topic from the end of the seventeenth century. This thesis examines the remarkably prominent position enjoyed by Scottish second sight in the Victorian popular imagination. In seeking to appreciate why a strange visionary ability was able to make claims upon the attention of the whole nation where other folk motifs were consigned to the realms of specialist interest only, this project charts its migration through a series of nineteenth-century cultural sites: mesmerism and phrenology, modern spiritualism and anthropology, romance literature and folklorism, and finally psychical research and Celtic mysticism. Binding these individual case studies together is a cast of shared actors - Walter Scott, Catherine Crowe, William Howitt, Marie Corelli, Andrew Lang and Ada Goodrich Freer - and a focus on their common investigative and creative cultures. My interest is with how the power of second sight, once defined as a supernatural occurrence tied to the geographically distant and mysterious Scottish Highlands, comes to be transformed by the close of the nineteenth century, into a supra-normal facet of the psyche, potentially accessible and exploitable by all.

In December of 1896 William James (1842-1910) penned the preface to The Will to Believe & Other Essays in Philosophy, announcing his novel philosophy of radical empiricism. Nearly one hundred and twenty years later, the metaphysical themes of his mature radical empiricist writings (e.g., his 1904-05 writings posthumously published as Essays in Radical Empiricism) continue to dominate the interpretations of the secondary literature. “William James’s Early Radical Empiricism: Psychical Research, Religion, and the ‘Spirit of Inner Tolerance’” offers a revisionist reading that prioritizes the epistemic, moral, and social elements of James’s early radical empiricism in light of his concerns expressed in the 1896 preface. By focusing on a close textual analysis that aims to historically and thematically re-situate James’s radical empiricism within the context of his major and minor work in the 1880s through the late 1890s, I argue for a supplemental interpretation that emphasizes James’s epistemic sensitivity to the plight of the perceived “irrational” other. This project demonstrates that not only is James’s early radical empiricism concerned with epistemological matters of fact and perspective, but also their social and moral implications. It suggests that an alternative narrative is uncovered if we attend to particular historical, philosophical, and religious themes that reveal themselves as focal points of James’s work in the 1890s, particularly in the year 1896. By historicizing his 1890s defense of the epistemic underdog I develop the narrative that James’s early radical empiricism embraces all experience and that this is illustrated by his genuine interest in the point of view of the believer, the marginalized, and the “irrational” other. / Religion

Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-05-23T14:40:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 camilasoarescarbogim.pdf: 845193 bytes, checksum: 3b21f91ae410d55adc788c73eced317c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-05-24T17:58:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 camilasoarescarbogim.pdf: 845193 bytes, checksum: 3b21f91ae410d55adc788c73eced317c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-24T17:58:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 camilasoarescarbogim.pdf: 845193 bytes, checksum: 3b21f91ae410d55adc788c73eced317c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-24 / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / Tema de interesse durante os séculos XVIII e XIX, assim como início do século XX, os chamados fenômenos psíquicos reuniram os esforços de boa parte da elite intelectual da época, principalmente no que diz respeito aos estudos da consciência. Figura importante que integrou esses debates foi William James, um dos fundadores da psicologia norte americana. Em um primeiro momento, ele recorre a Janet e à Escola Francesa tomando por base a ideia do automatismo psíquico e da dissociação da consciência. Seu interesse pelos fenômenos relativos ao self dos indivíduos levou-o, entretanto, aos estados alterados de consciência, nos quais a pessoa seria capaz de ultrapassar o poder de síntese da consciência que lhes é constitucional. Desse modo, James passa a recorrer a Myers e à sua teoria do self subliminar, que aponta para a possibilidade de um espectro psíquico transcendente. Abrir-se-iam, assim, possibilidades para o estudo dos fenômenos psíquicos, bem como das experiências religiosas e místicas, principalmente da mediunidade que, a partir da ideia do self subliminar, fugiria ao domínio do patológico. Tendo em vista o que foi apontado, o presente estudo busca compreender o self e suas alterações em James, através de uma análise conceitual, levando em consideração as publicações psicológicas do autor sobre o assunto. / The so-called psychic phenomena were a subject of interest during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as in the early 1900s, and drew the attention of a significant part of that period’s intelligentsia, specially those who were interested in the study of consciousness. William James, one of the founding fathers of North American psychology, was an important name that joined those debates. Initially, he turned to Pierre Janet and the French school taking into consideration the concepts of psychic automatism and dissociation of consciousness. However, his interest in phenomena related to the self in individuals led him to observe altered states of consciousness, in which a person would allegedly be able to go beyond his power of synthesis, a fundamental trait of the mind. Therefore, James resorted to Frederic Myers’ theory of the subliminal self, which considers the possibility of a trancendent psychic spectrum of experience. Considering that concept, new perspectives other than the pathological were thus made available to the research of psychic phenomena, as well as mystical and religious experiences, including mediumship. Taking all that into consideration, the present study aims at understanding James’ theory of self and its alterations through a conceptual analysis, considering his psychological writings on the subject.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-01-26T13:09:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelogulaopimentel.pdf: 4121758 bytes, checksum: 9fc871e04dce7183f9b0078fcceb7359 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-01-27T11:02:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelogulaopimentel.pdf: 4121758 bytes, checksum: 9fc871e04dce7183f9b0078fcceb7359 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-27T11:02:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 marcelogulaopimentel.pdf: 4121758 bytes, checksum: 9fc871e04dce7183f9b0078fcceb7359 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-25 / Contexto: Ao longo do século XIX, investigações sobre a natureza de fenômenos psíquicos/espirituais como transes e supostas aquisições de informações indisponíveis aos canais sensoriais normais geraram grande debate, mobilizando médicos, cientistas e intelectuais. O professor francês Allan Kardec (1804-1869) foi um dos primeiros pesquisadores a propor uma investigação científica dos fenômenos mediúnicos, tornando-se um influente intelectual na Europa durante a segunda metade daquele século e no Brasil a partir do século XX. Todavia, seu método de investigação é amplamente desconhecido ou mal interpretado. Objetivos: Identificar e analisar o método de investigação empregado por Allan Kardec em suas investigações das experiências mediúnicas. Método: A pesquisa se concentrou na leitura e na análise, no idioma original, de toda obra publicada por Kardec: seus livros e os doze volumes da Revue Spirite: Journal d'Études Psychologiques. Foram obtidos e analisados documentos originais inéditos de Kardec. Fontes secundárias foram utilizadas como ferramentas de interpretação e de contextualização do trabalho de Kardec. Resultados: Kardec levantou e testou diversas hipóteses para explicar os fenômenos mediúnicos: fraude, alucinação, forças físicas, sonambulismo, inconsciente, clarividênica, transferência de pensamentos (telepatia) e espíritos desencarnados. Concluiu que todas estas hipóteses eram necessárias para explicar a totalidade das experiências chamadas de mediúnicas. Todavia, por concentrar sua atenção naquelas experiências que ele considerava envolver a comunicação de personalidades desencarnadas (espíritos), buscou desenvolver um método para obter informações úteis e confiáveis sobre a dimensão espiritual do universo. O objetivo de Kardec era naturalizar o domínio espiritual, fazendo dele um objeto de investigação racional e empírica para identificar as leis naturais que regeriam as supostas relações entre espíritos desencarnados e a humanidade encarnada. Por meio do estudo dos processos de investigação e de elaboração das teorias de Allan Kardec para os casos específicos das chamadas sensações dos espíritos logo após o desencarne e para o caso da possessão, percebe-se a busca de uma ampla e diversificada base empírica, bem como a construção progressiva e a reformulação de teorias explicativas. Conclusão: As investigações sobre os fenômenos psíquicos e mediúnicos preenchem uma importante lacuna, ainda negligenciada, da história da ciência e da medicina. Allan Kardec foi um dos pioneiros desses estudos ao propor a naturalização da dimensão espiritual e sua subsequente investigação empírica e racional. Uma melhor compreensão de seus métodos pode expandir nosso conhecimento sobre as relações entre ciência e espiritualidade no século XIX, bem como oferecer contribuições para os estudos atuais sobre o tema. / Background: During the nineteenth century, investigations on the nature of psychic / spiritual phenomena such as trances and supposed acquisition of information not available through conventional sensory channels generated intense debates which mobilized physicians, scientists and intellectuals. French educator Allan Kardec (1804-1869) was one of the first researchers to propose a scientific investigation on psychic phenomena, thus becoming an influential scholar in Europe during the second half of that century and in Brazil in the twentieth century. However, his method of investigation is largely unknown or misunderstood. Objectives: To identify and analyze the method employed by Allan Kardec in his investigations on psychic experiences. Method: Our research focused on the reading and analysis of his complete works – books and twelve volumes of the Revue Spirite: Journal d'Études Psychologiques – all of them examined in the original language. We have also obtained and analyzed unpublished and original documents which belonged to Kardec. Secondary sources were used as tools for interpretation and contextualization of his works. Results: Kardec formulated and tested several hypotheses in order to explain mediumistic phenomena, among them, fraud, hallucinations, physical forces, somnambulism, unconscious clairvoyance, thought transfer (telepathy) and disembodied spirits. He concluded that all of them were necessary to explain the totality of experiences called mediumistic. However, by concentrating his attention on those experiences that he considered involving the communication of disembodied personalities (spirits), he sought to develop a method to obtain useful and reliable information about the spiritual dimension of the universe. Kardec’s goal was to naturalize the spirit realm, regarding it as an object of rational and empirical scrutiny in order to identify natural laws that would govern relations between alleged disembodied spirits and the embodied humanity. Through the examination of his research processes and the development of his theories such as on the sensations of the spirits soon after disembodiment as well as on possession, we have come to realize that his work was grounded on a broad and diverse empirical basis and that the formulation and reformulation of his explanatory theories were continuous and progressive. Conclusion: Investigations on psychic and mediumistic phenomena fill an important gap, still neglected, in the history of science and medicine. Kardec was one of the pioneers of these studies when he proposed the naturalization of a spiritual dimension and its subsequent empirical and rational inquiry. A better understanding of his methods may expand our knowledge about the relationship between science and spirituality in the nineteenth century as well as provide input to current studies on the subject.

This thesis will show that, in its original form, “The Turn of the Screw” acted as a monument to the intellectual unity shared between Henry James and his brother William. Through evaluating James’ biography, memoirs, and letters with William, this thesis will illustrate the subtle collaborative inspirations that initially helped James write the first twelve-part serial edition of “The Turn of the Screw” for Collier’s Weekly, which ran from January 27, 1898 until April 16, 1898. I will also demonstrate the effect of William’s philosophy and his death on the revisions James’ made to his story as published in the twelfth volume of his New York Edition (NYE).

My research on Victor Brauner’s work in the first two decades of his affiliation with the Surrealist group in Paris re-establishes the role played by the Romanian Jewish artist in the definition of automatic Surrealist procedures of painting and mixed-technique objects that relied upon a new and unconventional understanding of the occult. In the three chapters of this study of Victor Brauner’s work in the 1930s and early 1940s, I analyse key notions, such as the fantastic, animal magnetism, and the occult practices of art making in a Surrealist context. The fantastic is discussed in the first chapter of the thesis from a literary perspective with political connotations in Surrealism, which resulted from a debate engaged in nineteenth-century French literature on the issue of the marvellous versus the fantastic. Due to the Surrealists’ interest in the fantastic a new category emerged, the fantastic art, which is examined in this first chapter in connection with Brauner’s artworks in the 1930s. The incursion into the fantastic, with focus on the premonition of the painter’s left eye loss in his artworks of the 1930s is completed with an approach to spiritualism that had a revival at the time. The second chapter of the thesis investigates the doctrine of animal magnetism and the state of magnetic somnambulism in eighteenth-century scholarship and shows how this experimentation had influenced the development of a new branch of the science, metapsychics or psychical research at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth one. I take into account and demonstrate that these outdated and modern domains of enquiry into the unknown and beyond reality were appealing to Surrealists, in particular to Brauner, due to their research into unconscious processes of the mind. I argue that through the attainment of a condition similar to the one of the somnambulist in sessions of magnetic sleep, the Surrealists aimed to generate automatic procedures of painting and object making. In the third chapter of the thesis I discuss Victor Brauner’s technique of drawing with a candle, or le cirage, as an automatic procedure of art developed in connection with the occult. This final part of the thesis makes also manifest the association of Brauner’s artworks in the early 1940s with practices of the occult in the near and centuries before past.