''The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England'' is a historical study into the role played by women in the Spiritualist religious movement in England during the latter part of the 19th century. It was written by the British historian Alex Owen and first published in 1989 by Virago, before being republished in 2004 by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

. A work of feminist history which arose from Owen's PhD thesis undertaken at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, ''The Darkened Room'' looks at the role of women in the Spiritualist movement of the period, counterbalancing what Owen perceived as a former focus on the role of men.

Background

Owen and her research

The basis to ''The Darkened Room'' came from Owen's PhD thesis, undertaken at the

. Exploring "the idea of

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

as a social construct", she initially planned to focus her thesis on the manner in which Victorian medical science played in reinforcing "a feminine norm", but in doing so came upon the case of Louisa Lowe, a woman who appeared in front of the Parliamentary Select Committee in 1887, claiming that she had been wrongly incarcerated in a mental asylum by her husband because she was a Spiritualist. Fascinated by the relationship between this Spiritualist movement and women in Late Victorian England, she decided to refocus her doctorate on this topic instead. Highlighting that the majority of scholarly work on the subject of Spiritualism had focused on male members of the religion, she decided to take a feminist approach to the subject by focusing on the women. Deciding to explore "issues of power and subversion", she adopted the definition of "

power Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...

" provided by the famous French philosopher

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

(1926–1984). Owen took as her primary source material the published tracts, personal accounts and newsletters of the Late Victorian Spiritualist movement, noting that W.H. Harrison's ''Spiritualist'' and James Burns' ''Human Nature'' and ''Medium Daybreak'' proved to be "the most useful, enlightening and engaging." A non-Spiritualist, Owen admitted that she could not explain many of the accounts of spirits which appeared in the accounts of Spiritualist séances. Following the completion of her thesis, Owen moved to the United States, taking up a Research Fellowship at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

from 1983 until 1986 and then a position as a Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer in the Women's Program in Religion at the

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...

from 1986 until 1987, funded by the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

. It was while working in these positions that she wrote up her thesis as ''The Darkened Room''.

Reception

Press reviews

''The Darkened Room'' was reviewed by Dinah Birch for the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published bimonthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of Book ...

''. Birch noted that by the 1980s, Spiritualism had been "bundled out of sight, like a batty old aunt at a family gathering", ignoring the importance that it had held in Victorian society. Describing Owen's work as "solid and compelling", she highlighted a number of its arguments. Birch 1989.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Darkened Room 1989 non-fiction books 20th-century history books Academic studies of ritual and magic Books about women Feminism and history History books about religion History of mental health in the United Kingdom Books about Spiritualism History of women in the United Kingdom English-language non-fiction books Virago Press books