Ghost-Seers, Detectives, and Spiritualists

This is an original study of the narrative techniques that developed for two very popular forms of fiction in the nineteenth century - ghost stories and detective stories - and the surprising similarities between them in the context of contemporary theories of vision and sight. Srdjan Smajic argues that to understand how writers represented ghost-seers and detectives, the views of contemporary scientists, philosophers, and spiritualists with which these writers engage have to be taken into account: these views raise questions such as whether seeing really is believing, how much of what we 'see' is actually only inferred, and whether there may be other (intuitive or spiritual) ways of seeing that enable us to perceive objects and beings inaccessible to the bodily senses. This book will make a real contribution to the understanding of Victorian science in culture, and of the ways in which literature draws on all kinds of knowledge. 斯尔詹·斯马伊奇（Srdjan Smajić） 生于1974年，杜兰大学维多利亚文学博士，1998年至2010年先后在杜兰大学、新奥尔良大学和弗曼大学教授文学。多次在《英国文学史》《文本实践》和《小说：小说论坛》上发表学术论文。现为独立学者，另著有小说《我们渴望水》（2015）。 李菊 安徽师范大学外国语学院教师，北京大学英语系英语语言文学专业博士。主要研究方向：英国18、19世纪文学，英美戏剧等。