Nieswoim głosem. Widmo spirytyzmu krąży nad feminizmem
With a Strange Voice: The Spectre of Spiritism is Haunting Feminism

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses nineteenth-century spiritism and its role in forming ideas about women, their bodies, social functions and place in culture. Czeczot begins by demonstrating that to a certain extent, representations of mediumistic women perpetuated the iconographic tradition that had begun with images of magnetic séances, which, by highlighting the power of the magnetizer, helped strengthen notions of women’s bodies as a passive matter. In the context of these conventional beliefs, women stand out who claim to be in communication with the spirits and who, beginning in the 1850s, appear publicly to deliver speeches in a trance. Czeczot explores their significance for the women’s emancipation movement that was emerging at the time, and positions them as a point of departure to problematize the concept of one’s own voice.

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