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Literary Illusions

Performance Magic and Victorian Literature

Christopher Pittard author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Edinburgh University Press

Publishing:31st Jan '25

£100.00

This title is due to be published on 31st January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Literary Illusions cover

Literary Illusions explores the dialogue between Victorian literature and one of the nineteenth century's most popular modes of performance: conjuring. It explores the ways in which Victorian literature frequently deployed the figure of the magician to explore performance magic as a metaphor for writing itself, and the ways in which conjurors themselves were authors (of highly fictionalised biographies), while authors explored the narrative opportunities offered by magic (most notably Charles Dickens). The book theorises magic as a manifestation of Victorian concerns with authorship and the intellectual property debate, with the magician often deployed as a privileged and occasionally parodied figure in debates on textuality. Literary Illusions offers a reconceptualisation of the relationship between popular culture and literature in the nineteenth century, bringing canonical figures such as Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell into dialogue with lesser known Victorian bestsellers such as Henry Cockton and Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, and innovatively blends performance history with literary criticism.

ISBN: 9781474460330

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

272 pages