A Long History
Rise of Spiritualism
Industrial Revolution
Industrialism and Ghosts
Post-bellum America
Supernatural and Hope
Supernatural Restores Faith
Ghosts Build Communities
Comfort to Bereaved
Why the Supernatural was Entertaining
Transcending the Real
Ghosts and Mystery
Ghosts and Thrills
Entertainers Cash In
Laughing at Ghosts
Anthony Hopper
Why Were Americans Interested in the Supernatural?
Ghosts: Transcending the Real
Stories about ghosts and other
supernatural ocurrences were fashionable with post-bellum Americans. Magazines
and newspapers published numerous articles as well as works of fiction
which dealt with haunted houses and the like. Americans could find a plethora
of books dealing with the theme. The otherworldly was a favorite subject
of dime novelists, whose inexpensive works of fiction “flourished
from the middle to the close of the 19th century” (1).
Authors had any number of goals in mind when dealing with supernatural themes, such as informing the public about the ghosts and using the spirits realm as a way of promulgating a certain moral coda. However, the chief value for much of this literature lay in its ability to entertain. Ghost stories allowed readers to transcend the boundaries imposed by the material world. Living vicariously as spirits, they could do things such as fly through walls, hover above the ground, or become invisible when the need hit them.
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ghost, supernatural, Spiritualism, antebellum,
medium, materialization,
apparition, gothic, post-bellum, phantom, paranormal, 1800s, 1900s,
Anthony Hopper, literature, growth,
industrialism, needs, psychical, psychic, afterlife, non-material, spirit,
American, United States