762David Woollatt Phd Thesis Nov 2015
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UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER FACULTY OF ARTS The Re-Enchantment of British Culture and the Transformation of Spiritualism from Theological Discourse to Media Spectacle David Lloyd Woollatt Doctor of Philosophy November 2015 This thesis has been completed as a requirement for a higher degree of the University of Winchester THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT FOR THESIS The Enchantment of British Culture and the Transformation of Spiritualism from Theological Discourse to Media Spectacle David Lloyd Woollatt FACULTY OF ARTS Doctor of Philosophy October 2015 This research constitutes the analysis of a previously unstudied area, the transformation of Spiritualism from a theological belief system to a media spectacle in contemporary British culture. Exploring modern Spiritualism’s theological framework, pointing to its communal belief structure, practices and Seven-Principle doctrine this research articulates its position within society today, exploring notions of re-enchantment where the contemporary individual has become disconnected from formal religious institutions but still possesses a yearning for spiritual nourishment. During early forms of Spiriualism a first-person genuine experience was fundamental to the way in which the spectators framed meaning around what they were viewing. The loss of first person aspect provides a fundamental stance from which to interrogate the shifts that have occurred to Spiritualism as a result of its contemporary representations. Critically the study examines the representation of Spiritualism within the media, particularly on television, where mass audiences experience Spiritualism through the ghost hunting programme. Using existing postmodernist theoretical approaches, most significantly Baudrillard and the theory of Simulacrum (1994), alongside theories of media spectacle led by Kellner (2003) Darley (2000) and King (2005), this study adopts a qualitative approach to examine this contemporary Spiritualist media phenomenon, using textual analysis to review primary media texts, current literature in the field, magazines and newspapers, and a textual analysis approach to explore the key media representations of Spiritualism within Most Haunted as a primary text. It is argued that through the technologisation and media coding of Spiritualism, it has become framed by existing forms of media production, and now only exists, and can only be understood as a hyperreal text that prioritises spectacle. The traditional Spiritualist theological belief system has been reduced to an empty set of orchestrated on-screen motifs, severed from their authentic meaning that take only the aesthetic form of Spiritualism but offer none of the authentic communal experiences that pervade both traditional and contemporary first person experiences. The textual analysis of Most Haunted confirms the media simulation of Spiritualism but simultaneously reveals the programme’s construction of the conventions for all future representations of ‘media spiritualism’. The séance, communion with spirit and notions of mediumship are reduced to stylishly edited scenes that play on filmic conventions. Most significantly the thesis establishes that the ghost hunting programme has become a space for ghostly ‘visitations’ of Victorian devices of Spiritualism. Practices that were once located in the darkened nineteenth century parlour have been ‘repatriated’ into the darkened locations of media investigations that operate as moments of retrospective hallucination, thus the removal of the theological is complete, the on-screen entertainment and spectacle, devoid of understandings of the communion with spirit has displaced the Spiritualist doctrine. 2 LIST OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Contents .............................................................................................................................. 3 List of Figures and Tables ............................................................................................................... 7 Declaration and Copyright Statement ............................................................................................ 9 Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................................10 British Spiritualism – An Introduction ...........................................................................................11 The Dynamic of the Early Spiritualist Spectacular ..................................................................... 16 British Spiritualism Today.......................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 1 - Combined Literature Review and Methodological Processes within this Study............20 The Rise of Alternative Spiritual Practices in Contemporary Britain ......................................... 20 Constructing an understanding of Contemporary Re-Enchantment......................................... 22 Simulating Alternative Spiritualities and Spiritualism in Contemporary Media ....................... 24 A Taxonomy of the Spiritualist Media Text ............................................................................... 33 Theorising Spiritualism as a Media Spectacle............................................................................ 40 The Staging of the Spectacle of Spiritualism ............................................................................. 45 The Performance of Gender in the Spiritualist Spectacle.......................................................... 48 The Methodology of the Textual Analysis of Most Haunted ..................................................... 50 Researching Spiritualism ........................................................................................................... 54 Reflexive Positioning within the Research of Spiritualism......................................................... 55 3 Chapter 2 - Theorising Spiritualism as a Technological Simulation – The New Spiritual Space Dynamic? ......................................................................................................................................56 The Contemporary Landscape of Media and Consumption ................................................... 56 Spiritualism and Broadcast Technology.................................................................................. 59 Encoding and Decoding Meanings created by Digital Television............................................ 62 Spiritualist Consumption - Mediation of Meanings from the Victorian Darkened Room to 'On the Box'................................................................................................................................... 63 Personal Mediation of Contemporary Spiritualist Experiences.............................................. 69 The Contemporary Ghost Show.............................................................................................. 71 Chapter 3 - Contemporary Enchantment within British Society and the Nature of Contemporary Spiritualism...................................................................................................................................77 Theorising Enchantment......................................................................................................... 78 Enchantment of British Culture in Crisis ................................................................................. 79 Locating Spiritualism in relation to a Yearning for Enchantment in Contemporary British Society .................................................................................................................................... 83 Reshaping the enchanted Experience - The Rise of Re-enchantment in Contemporary Britain?.................................................................................................................................... 86 A Very Contemporary 'Enchantment'..................................................................................... 94 Aesthetic escapism and 'Enchanted' Spaces......................................................................... 104 Ghostly Media - Contemporary Media’s Fascination with Spiritualism and the Paranormal106 Media Spiritualism – Genuine Re-enchantment or a Simulated Form ................................. 108 4 Chapter 4 - Developing An Understanding of the Nature of the Male Spiritualist Medium in the Media .........................................................................................................................................112 Early Spiritualist Mediums, Culture and the Gender Dynamics............................................ 115 The Female Medium in Twentieth-Century British Society .................................................. 121 The Rise of the Contemporary Male Media Spiritualist Medium and the Emergence of the On-screen Male Spiritualist Medium ................................................................................... 126 Contemporary Media and the Materialisation of the On-screen Male Spiritualist Medium 129 The Prioritisation of Masculinities on Television .................................................................. 137 The Augmentation of Male Mediumship on Commercial Television ................................... 139 Chapter 5 - Theorising the Spectacle of Media Spiritualism - A Textual Analysis of Most Haunted146