Cross-dressing, gender performance and photographs of ghosts
The mediumistic sessions of Linda Gazzera and Eva Carrière
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/8nsp-ft13Keywords:
history of photography, spiritism, medium, gender performanceAbstract
Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, scientific practices and phenomena linked to the paranormal world intermingled, influencing the cultural and artistic scenario of the time and showing different studies around spiritism and the role of mediums. In this context, the present contribution analyzes the work of two women, Linda Gazzera and Eva Carrière, and the use of photography within the sessions for the purpose of testifying to their mediumistic powers. The analysis of these two case studies, in which mechanisms of suggestion and illusionism meet, will make it possible to observe the original employment of a symbolic gender disguise aimed at conquering a new space of freedom and social emancipation.
References
Addabbo C., Casati S. (a cura di), 2022, L’occhio della scienza, Edizioni ETS, Pisa.
Alexandre-Bisson J., 1921, Les phénomène dits de matérialisation étude expérimentale, Librairie Felix Alcan, Paris.
Berton M., 2021, Le medium (au) cinema, Georg éditeur, Gèneve.
Berton M., 2023 (2021), “Dal medium (spiritico) ai media (tecnologici), in Dalmasso A.C., Grespi B. (a cura di), Mediarcheologia. I testi fondamentali, Raffaello Cortina, Milano: 229-272.
Braude A., 2001 (1989), Radical Spirits. Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, Indiana University Press, Bloomngton.
Butler J., 1988, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory”, Theatre Journal , 40, December, 4: 519-531.
Chéroux C., Fischer A. (eds.), 2004, Le Troisième Œil. La photographie et l’occulte (cat. de l’exposition, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris), Gallimard, Paris-New York.
Cigliana S., 2010 “Spiritismo e parapsicologia nell’età positivistica”, in Cazzaniga G. M. (s cura di) Storia d’Italia, Annali, 25, Esoterismo, Einaudi, Torino: 522-546.
Conan Doyle A. 2022 (1922), Fotografare gli spiriti, Marsilio, Venezia.
Cox R.S., 2003, Body and Soul: A Sympathetic History of American Spiritualism, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville.
Grespi B., Violi A. (a cura di), 2019, “Circondati dalle immagini. Fantasmagoria e archeologia dei media”, in Grespi B., Violi A. (a cura di), 2019, Apparizioni. Scritti sulla fantasmagoria, Aracne, Roma: 9-20.
Dijkstra B., 1988 (1986), Idoli di perversità̀. La donna nell’immaginario artistico filosofico letterario e scientifico tra Otto e Novecento, Garzanti, Milano.
De Ceglia F., Leporiere L., 2018, La pitonessa, il pirata e l’acuto osservatore. Spiritismo e scienza nell’Italia della belle époque, Editrice bibliografica, Milano.
Del Pilar Blanco M., Peeren E. (eds.), 2013, The spectralities reader. Ghosts and haunting in contemporary cultural theory, Bloomsbury, London.
Di Sambuy E., 1914, “L’evoluzione nella fotografia”, in Nuova Antologia di lettere, scienze ed arti, CLXXIV, 1029, 1 dicembre: 426-441.
Dottin-Orsini M., 1993, Cette femme qu’ils disent fatale. Textes et images de la misogynie fin-de-siècle, Bernard Grasset, Paris.
Elcott N.M., 2016, Artificial Darkness, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Fidotta G., Mariani A. (a cura di), 2018, Archeologia dei media. Temporalità, materia, tecnologia, Meltemi, Milano.
Galluzzi F., 2017, Fantasmi elettrici. Arte e spiritismo tra Simbolismo e Futurismo, Pacini, Pisa.
Garber M., 1994 (1992), Interessi truccati. Giochi di travestimento e angoscia culturale, Cortina, Milano.
Geimer P., 2018, Inadvertent Images. A history of photographic apparitions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago-London.
Geley G., 1921, De l’inconscient au coscient, Félix Alcan, Paris.
Grossi G., 2017, Le regole della convulsione. Archeologia del corpo cinematografico, Meltemi, Milano.
Gunning T., 2007, “To Scan a Ghost. The Ontology of Mediated Vision”, Grey Room, 26: 94-127.
Huthamo E., Parikka J. (eds.), 2011, Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and Implications, University of California Press, Berkeley-London.
Janet P., 1889, L’automatisme psychologique. Essai de psychologie expérimentale sur les formes inférieures de l’activité humaine, Félix Alcan, Paris
Imoda, E., 1912, Fotografie di fantasmi, Fratelli Bocca, Torino.
Lachapelle S., 2011, From Spiritism & Occultism to Phychical Research & Metapsychics in France, 1853-1931, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Lombroso C., 1892, “I fatti spiritici e la loro spiegazione psichiatrica”, in Vita Moderna. Giornale d’arte, scienza e letteratura, I, 6 7 febbraio: 1-43.
Lowry E. 2012, “Gendered Haunts. The Retorical and Material Culture of the Late Nineteenth-Century Spirit Cabinet”, Aries. Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 12: 221-235.
Massicotte C., 2017, Trance Speakers. Femininity and Authorship in Spiritual Séances, 1850-1930, McGuill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston, London-Chicago.
Morselli E., 1908, Psicologia e “spiritismo”. Impressioni e note critiche sui fenomeni medianici di Eusapia Palladino, Fratelli Bocca, Torino.
Morton L., 2022 (2020), Evocare gli spiriti. Storia delle sedute spiritche, Odoya, Bologna.
Muscariello M., 2003, “Donne e pseudonimia tra Otto e Novecento” in Guidi L., Lamarra A., Travestimenti e metamorfosi. Percorsi dell’identità di genere tra epoche e culture, Filema, Napoli: 225-234.
Natale S., 2016, Supernatural entertainments. Victorian spiritualism and the rise of modern media culture, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park.
Pappalardo A., 1898, Spiritismo, Hoepli, Milano.
Parikka J. 2019, Archeologia dei media. Nuove prospettive per la storia e la teoria della comunicazione, Carocci, Roma.
Plaitano G., 2019, “La cronofotografia dell’événement tra pedagogia clinica e artistica”, Fata Morgana, 38, Evento XIII: 161-170.
Pollock G., 2000, “Modernità e spazi del femminile” in Trasforini M.A., Arte a parte. Donne artiste fra margini e centro, FrancoAngeli, Milano: 17-48.
Richet C., s.d., Souvernirs, volume dattiloscritto, fondo Richet, Académie Nationale de Médecine, Parigi.
Richet C., 1912, “Préface” in Imoda, E., Fotografie di fantasmi, Fratelli Bocca, Torino: 1-17.
Scala D. (a cura di), 2018, Fotografia e scienze della mente tra storia, rappresentazione e terapia, Aracne, Roma.
Scharf 1974 (1968), Art and Photography, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
Schettini L., 2011, Il gioco delle parti. Travestimenti e paure sociali tra Otto e Novecento, Le Monnier, Firenze.
Sconce J., 2000, Haunted Media. Electronic Presence from Telegraphy to Television, Duke University Press, Durham-London.
Von Schrenck-Notzing A., 1923, Phenomena of materialisation. A contribution to the investigation of mediumistic teleplastics, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & co, London.
Warner M., 2006, Phantasmagoria, Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Warner M., 2019, “L’immateriale materializzato” in Grespi B., Violi A. (a cura di), 2019, Apparizioni. Scritti sulla fantasmagoria, Aracne, Roma: 77-98.
Zielinski S., 2006, Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Greta Plaitano
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Whatever is an open access journal, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. Our articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Licence 4.0 by-nc, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.
Authors hold copyright without restrictions. Also, authors retain publishing rights on their articles; however, it is recommended to keep track of the CC-BY-NC license and to quote original publication.
