Title

Ghosts and Angels in the House: Cecilia de Noel and the Search for Faith in the Late Nineteenth Century

Authors

Christine Sutphin, Central Washington UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

English

Publication Date

Spring 2016

Abstract

The nineteenth century, so often thought of as the age of scientific theory, technological change, and realism in fiction, abounds with supernatural phenomena. While some readers and observers of culture could define practices and texts related to the supernatural as pernicious because irreligious or unscientific, others could appreciate ghost stories at least as imaginative entertainment resulting in pleasurable fear but not otherwise significant. However, these stories can be read as serious and profound explorations of the unknown and the moral, philosophical, and spiritual questions with which we continue to struggle.

Of all the ghost stories published during the period, perhaps none enters the debate about faith, doubt, and doctrine so compellingly as Cecilia de Noel (1892) by Lanoe Falconer (Mary Elizabeth Hawker). Cecilia is particularly helpful in understanding the epistemological and spiritual conflicts of the time since it employs ghost story conventions to question prominent Christian doctrines and religiously inflected gender conventions.

Comments

This article was originally published in Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Recommended Citation

Sutphin, Christine. "Ghosts and Angels in the House: Cecilia de Noel and the Search for Faith in the Late Nineteenth Century." Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2016. https://www.ncgsjournal.com/issue121/sutphin.html

Journal

Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies

Rights

© Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies