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Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19188-3 - Ghost-Seers, Detectives, and Spiritualists: Theories of Vision in Victorian Literature and Science Srdjan Smajic Frontmatter More information

GHOSTSEER S, DETECTIV ES, AND SPIRITUALISTS

This is an original study of the narrative techniques that developed for two very popular forms of ﬁction in the nineteenth century – ghost stories and detective stories – and the surprising similarities between them in the context of contemporary theories of vision and sight. Srdjan Smajić argues that to understand how writers repre- sented ghost-seers and detectives, the views of contemporary scien- tists, philosophers, and spiritualists with which these writers engage have to be taken into account: these views raise questions such as whether seeing really is believing, how much of what we “see” is actually only inferred, and whether there may be other (intuitive or spiritual) ways of seeing that enable us to perceive objects and beings inaccessible to the bodily senses. This book will make a real contri- bution to the understanding of Victorian science in culture, and of the ways in which literature draws on all kinds of knowledge.

srdjan smaji is an independent scholar living in New Orleans.

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19188-3 - Ghost-Seers, Detectives, and Spiritualists: Theories of Vision in Victorian Literature and Science Srdjan Smajic Frontmatter More information

cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture

General editor Gillian Beer, University of Cambridge

Editorial board Isobel Armstrong, Birkbeck, University of London Kate Flint, Rutgers University Catherine Gallagher, University of California, Berkeley D. A. Miller, University of California, Berkeley J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine Daniel Pick, Birkbeck, University of London Mary Poovey, New York University Sally Shuttleworth, University of Oxford Herbert Tucker, University of Virginia

Nineteenth-century British literature and culture have been rich fields for interdisciplinary studies. Since the turn of the twentieth century, scholars and critics have tracked the intersections and tensions between Victorian literature and the visual arts, politics, social organization, economic life, technical innovations, sci- entific thought – in short, culture in its broadest sense. In recent years, theoretical challenges and historiographical shifts have unsettled the assumptions of previous scholarly synthesis and called into question the terms of older debates. Whereas the tendency in much past literary critical interpretation was to use the meta- phor of culture as “background,” feminist, Foucauldian, and other analyses have employed more dynamic models that raise questions of power and of circulation. Such developments have reanimated the field. This series aims to accommodate and promote the most interesting work being undertaken on the frontiers of the field of nineteenth-century literary studies: work which intersects fruitfully with other fields of study such as history, or literary theory, or the history of science. Comparative as well as interdisciplinary approaches are welcomed.

A complete list of titles published will be found at the end of the book.

GHOSTSEERS, DETECTIVES, AND SPIRITUALISTS Theories of Vision in Victorian Literature and Science

SRDJAN SMAJIĆ

cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

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This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2010

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Smajić, Srdjan, 1974– Ghost-seers, detectives, and spiritualists : theories of vision in Victorian literature and science / Srdjan Smajić. p. cm. – (Cambridge studies in nineteenth-century literature and culture ; 71) isbn 978-0-521-19188-3 (Hardback) 1. English literature–19th century–History and criticism. 2. Visual perception in literature. 3. Vision in literature. 4. Ghost stories, English–History and criticism. 5. Detective and mystery stories, English–History and criticism. 6. Literature and science. 7. Great Britain–History–Victoria, 1837–1901. I. Title. II. Series. pr468.v59s63 2010 8239.80937–dc22 2010002265

isbn 978-0-521-19188-3 Hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

In memory of my father, Emir Smajić

Contents

Acknowledgments page ix List of abbreviations x Introduction 1

part i outer vision, inner vision: ghost-seeing and ghost stories 9 1 Contextualizing the ghost story 11 2 The rise of optical apparitions 20 3 Inner vision and spiritual optics 34 4 “Betwixt ancient faith and modern incredulity” 45

part ii seeing is reading: vision, language, and detective fiction 65 5 Visual learning: sight and Victorian epistemology 67 6 Scopophilia and scopophobia: Poe’s readerly ﬂâneur 94 7 Stains, smears, and visual language in The Moonstone 108 8 Semiotics v. encyclopedism: the case of Sherlock Holmes 119

part iii into the invisible: science, spiritualism, and occult detection 129 9 Detective ﬁction’s uncanny 131 10 Light, ether, and the invisible world 137

vii

viii Contents 11 Inner vision and occult detection: Le Fanu’s Martin Hesselius 150 12 Other dimensions, other worlds 157 13 Psychic sleuths and soul doctors 181 Coda 200

Notes 204 Bibliography 238 Index 256

Acknowledgments

Many people have had a hand in the making of this book, some directly, others in more subtle but equally important ways. For their help, guidance, and friendship, I wish to thank Rima Abunasser; Darin Bradley; Jennifer Chapman; Victoria Chevalier; Richard and Leigh Collins; Stanley Crowe and my other colleagues at Furman; Chase and Jessan Hager; Geoffrey Harpham; Emil Kerenji; James Kilroy; Anne Kouri; David Lee; Shannon Reilly; Molly Rothenberg; Emir, Vera, and Maja Smajić; Roger Sneed; and Robb Turner. I am indebted to the infinitely resourceful librarians at Tulane University and Furman University. A Research and Professional Growth grant from Furman enabled me to have Odilon Redon’s “The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity” reproduced on the cover, by permission of The Museum of Modern Art. A different version of Chapters 1–4 appeared as “The Trouble with Ghost-Seeing: Vision, Ideology, and Genre in the Victorian Ghost Story” in English Literary History 70 (2003).

Abbreviations

“AS” Algernon Blackwood, “Ancient Sorceries” “CD” Algernon Blackwood, “The Camp of the Dog” “CI” Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Case of Identity” “F” Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, “The Familiar” “FO” Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Five Orange Pips” “GM” William Hope Hodgson, “The Gateway of the Monster” “GT” Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, “Green Tea” HB Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles “HI” William Hope Hodgson, “The Horse of the Invisible” “HL” William Hope Hodgson, “The House Among the Laurels” “JH” Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, “Mr Justice Harbottle” LDW Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft M Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone “MC” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Man of the Crowd” “MR” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Mystery of Marie Roget” “NF” Algernon Blackwood, “The Nemesis of Fire” NN Catherine Crowe, The Night-Side of Nature “OM” Hermann von Helmholtz, “The Origin and Meaning of Geometrical Axioms” “PI” Algernon Blackwood, “A Psychical Invasion” PIS William Whewell, The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences “PL” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Purloined Letter” PLM George Henry Lewes, Problems of Life and Mind “RL” Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red-headed League” “RM” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” “SB” Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal in Bohemia”

List of abbreviations xi “SE” William Hope Hodgson, “The Searcher of the End House” SF Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four SL John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic “SMI” Victoria Welby, “Sense, Meaning and Interpretation” SR Thomas Carlyle,Sartor Resartus SS Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet “SV” Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” “TC” Walter Scott, “The Tapestried Chamber” “TI” William Hope Hodgson, “The Thing Invisible” “VHS” Algernon Blackwood, “A Victim of Higher Space” “WR” William Hope Hodgson, “The Whistling Room”