Performing Magnetism

The Theatrics of Persuasion in the Long Nineteenth Century
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-94-6270-516-6
Verlag: Leuven University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 389 g

The cultural and scientific significance of animal magnetism as performance.

The long nineteenth century bears the mark of Anton Mesmer. In a burgeoning media landscape, and in an emerging entertainment culture that fashioned growing numbers of people into audiences, the performative qualities of Mesmer’s magnetic healing techniques came to define magnetism’s cultural power. Shaped by many performers, magnetism flowed into other practices – mentalist, somnambulist, spiritist, hypnotist, mystical, magical and medical. Examining mesmerism as a socially and theatrically embedded phenomenon, Performing Magnetism shows that it was not merely a medical or pseudoscientific practice but a performative and culturally situated one. Drawing on new case studies from Europe, Asia and Northern Africa, the book offers a transnational perspective on nineteenth-century epistemologies and explores how magnetic practices intersected with science, art, popular entertainment, and engagement with the occult. Its interdisciplinary scope will engage readers interested in the cultural history of performance, media, and knowledge.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Paklons, Eleonora

Smeyers, Kristof

Vanhoutte, Kurt

Welslau, Hannah

Weitere Mitwirkende

Wils, Kaat

Deres, Kornélia

Ambrosino, Gennaro

Rioult, Thibaut

Rix, Robert William

Türesay, Özgür

Peel, Stephanie

Aloisi, Alessandra

Verhaegen, Olivier

Ceci, Andrea

Ghyselinck, Zoë

Zent, Miranda

Ostwald, Julia

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Setting the stage

Eleonora Paklons, Kristof Smeyers, Kurt Vanhoutte, and Hannah Welslau

PART 1: POWER & PERSUASION

1 Performing therapeutic magnetism in mid-nineteenth-century Brussels

Kaat Wils
2 Performances and trajectories of magnetism in nineteenth-century Budapest

Kornélia Deres
3 Performing magnetism in mid-nineteenth-century Italy: The 1856 challenge between Francesco Guidi and Antonio Zanardelli

Gennaro Ambrosino
4 Under the sway of performance: The somnambulist stage of Prudence Bernard and Auguste Lassaigne

Kurt Vanhoutte

PART 2: BELIEF & COSMOLOGY

5 Magnetic musings: George Baldwin and the divine traveller in Egypt

Robert Rix
6 Mediums and magnetisers: The entanglement of spiritism and magnetism and its performative and religious effects in nineteenth-century Belgium

Hannah Welslau
7 Magnetism and spiritism in the Ottoman Empire (1850s–1870s)

Özgür Türesay

8 Magnetism, mysticism, and the devil

Kristof Smeyers

PART 3: IDENTITY & AFFECT

9 The embodied self: Automatism, power, and gendered autonomy

Stéphanie Peel
10 Entertaining, healing, and fighting death: Madame Plainchant’s magnetic diary, 1851–1854
Thibaut Rioult

11 Performing magnetism in Charles de Villers’ Le magnétiseur amoureux (1787)

Alessandra Aloisi

PART 4: MEDIA & THE SENSES

12 Music and magnetism from Mesmer to the rise of hypnosis

Olivier Verhaegen
13 Under the lantern’s spell: The use of the magic lantern within magnetism

Eleonora Paklons
14 The magnetic performances of Jules de Rovère: Between automata, prestidigitation, and scientific popularisation

Andrea Ceci

PART 5: THEATRICS & THE ARTS

15 “I am going to unwrap the secret of secrets”: Performing the trial of mesmeric and spiritualist authorship in Jean Cocteau’s Orphée

Zoë Ghyselinck
16 Svengali’s resurrection: Mesmerism, myth, and performance

Miranda Zent
17 Choreographing magnetism: The performance of knowledge in the ethereal field of forces

Julia Ostwald

Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Welslau, Hannah
Hannah Welslau is a doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp. Her work focuses on spiritism, performance, and popular entertainment in Belgium. Her research is funded by The Research Foundation Flanders.

Smeyers, Kristof
Kristof Smeyers is a senior research fellow at KU Leuven. He has written books on the history of religion and the supernatural, fauna, flora and folklore.

Paklons, Eleonora
Eleonora Paklons is a doctoral researcher working on magic lantern travelogues at the University of Antwerp. She is also co-editor of a volume on the history of the magic lantern and popular entertainment.

Wils, Kaat
Kaat Wils is gewoon hoogleraar aan de onderzoeksgroep Cultuurgeschiedenis vanaf 1750 en voorzitter van de Onderzoekseenheid Geschiedenis van de KU Leuven.

Kaat Wils is professor of European cultural history since 1750 at KU Leuven.

Vanhoutte, Kurt
Kurt Vanhoutte is Full Professor and Chair of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Antwerp. His research explores the intersections of media technology, performative culture, and illusionism since the nineteenth century.

Eleonora Paklons is a doctoral researcher working on magic lantern travelogues at the University of Antwerp. She is also co-editor of a volume on the history of the magic lantern and popular entertainment.

Kristof Smeyers is a senior research fellow at KU Leuven. He has written books on the history of religion and the supernatural, fauna, flora and folklore.

Kurt Vanhoutte is Full Professor and Chair of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Antwerp. His research explores the intersections of media technology, performative culture, and illusionism since the nineteenth century.

Hannah Welslau is a doctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp. Her work focuses on spiritism, performance, and popular entertainment in Belgium. Her research is funded by The Research Foundation Flanders.