Description: An exploration of the interrelations between occult mediumship, modern media and technology in Europe and the United States from the nineteenth-century through the present. The aim of the course is to explore how the Enlightenment and its offspring, modern technology, in their seemingly stark material and rational promises of progress, have never rid themselves fully of the paranormal and irrational. To explore the multiple relations between ghosts and the machines, topics for the course include: ghostly visions and magic lantern phantasmagoria; American spiritualism and the telegraph; phrenology and the rise of the archive; psychical research and stage magic; radio’s disembodied voices; and spirit photography and therapeutic light therapies; psychic television; magic on film.
HSA Writing Intensive: Yes
Prerequisite(s): Please check course schedule for requirements.
For up-to-date information on current course offerings and details, please refer to the Pitzer class schedule on MyCampus2 Portal.
