Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Performing Magnetism: The Theatrics of Persuasion in the Long Nineteenth Century

Performing Magnetism: The Theatrics of Persuasion in the Long Nineteenth Century

Paklons, Eleonora
Vanhoutte, Kurt

Paperback

General World HistoryTheater HistoryPerformance Art

ISBN10: 946270516X
ISBN13: 9789462705166
Publisher: Leuven University Press
Published: Jun 15 2026
Pages: 250
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.58 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

The cultural and scientific significance of animal magnetism as performance.

The long nineteenth century bears the mark of Anton Mesmer. In a burgeoning media landscape, and in an emerging entertainment culture that fashioned growing numbers of people into audiences, the performative qualities of Mesmer's magnetic healing techniques came to define magnetism's cultural power. Shaped by many performers, magnetism flowed into the practices of other practitioners - mentalist, somnambulist, spiritist, hypnotist, mystical, magical and medical. Examining mesmerism as a socially and theatrically embedded phenomenon, Performing Magnetism shows that it was not merely a medical or pseudoscientific practice but a performative and culturally situated one. Drawing on new case studies from Europe, Asia and Northern Africa, the book offers a transnational perspective on nineteenth-century epistemologies and explores how magnetic practices intersected with science, art, popular entertainment, and engagement with the occult. Its interdisciplinary scope will engage readers interested in the cultural history of performance, media, and knowledge.

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