| "Metetherial Intimacy: The Ghostly as Power in American Realism and Naturalism," explores the paradoxical phenomenon of the extreme popularity of the ghost story genre in a time of Darwinian scientific positivism. While this study concentrates on the ghost stories of Edith Wharton, Henry James, Ambrose Bierce, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, and Elizabeth Spofford, the work also relays the history of the ghost tale, and of the supernatural, in the canon of American literature. While numerous critics (Bendixen, Carpenter & Kolmar, Crowley & Crow, Fisher, Robillard) have traced the literary and cultural phenomena of the ghostly through various time periods and texts, few, if any, have centered on the fascinating phenomena of the proliferation of ghost tales in American literary Realism and Naturalism. By presenting ghosts as "true to life" or with photographic accuracy, Realist authors appropriated a tool from the positivistic world of nature in order to regain a sense of personal and spiritual power. By treating the supernatural as real, or even perhaps by believing in these realms, these writers found ways to connect with other readers, writers, and spiritual domains in intimate and powerful ways.; The supernatural genre, combined with the positivistic, scientific objectivity of Realism, satisfied four basic types of intimacy for both authors and readers---the intimacy of caretakers and invalids, of alternative forms of sexuality, of reader-author connection, and of place and community. |
