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The Threat of Mesmerism


Metadata FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.advisorCarroll, Alicia
dc.contributor.advisorWyss, Hilary
dc.contributor.advisorRyan, James
dc.contributor.authorAldridge, Todd
dc.date.accessioned2010-04-07T20:20:16Z
dc.date.available2010-04-07T20:20:16Z
dc.date.issued2010-04-07T20:20:16Z
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10415/2082
dc.description.abstractThis thesis examines how mesmerism and its practitioners invoke social anxieties about gender roles in nineteenth century America in view of two texts. Confessions of a Magnetiser, anonymously published in 1845, and “A Pair of Eyes; or Modern Magic,” written by Louisa May Alcott in 1863, share common similarities about how mesmerism complicates power relations between men and women. Confessions, however, reinforces masculine control over women whereas Alcott’s treatment of mesmerism grants the main female character, Agatha, control over her husband with doomed results. Along with the discussion of gender relations, the language surrounding mesmerism reflects language used at the time to discuss alcohol addiction.en
dc.rightsEMBARGO_NOT_AUBURNen
dc.subjectEnglishen
dc.titleThe Threat of Mesmerismen
dc.typethesisen
dc.embargo.lengthNO_RESTRICTIONen_US
dc.embargo.statusNOT_EMBARGOEDen_US

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