Magician as Conjuror

A Frame Analysis of Victorian Mediums

Bibliographic Data

ID12896014
AuthorsPeter Lamont (University of Edinburgh, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume4
Issue1
Pages21-33
Publication date2006-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEarly Popular Visual Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1746-0654 • E-ISSN: 1746-0662
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17460650600590326
OpenAlexW2103549195
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This article uses frame analysis to examine the performances of the Victorian mediums, Charles Foster, Henry Slade and the Davenport brothers. Frame analysis is concerned with how individuals define and organize their experience, and describes how actions are recognized as, for example, ‘serious’ or ‘play’. It is particularly relevant to the performance of magic and other deception‐related interactions such as psychic fraud. Foster, Slade and the Davenports presented themselves both privately and publicly as genuine mediums, and their performances as manifestations of departed spirits. Nevertheless, all of them were denounced as tricksters by most of the public. While each of them pioneered a new kind of conjuring effect, all of these effects were copied by stage conjurors and later became staple tricks of stage magicians. Furthermore, all of these mediums were caught cheating during performances. In spite of this, spiritualists continued to claim that they were genuine mediums. It would be easy to dismiss spiritualists as gullible fools, as many Victorians did, but a frame analysis of their performances shows that there was a great deal more to how these performances were made to seem real, rather than trickery

Aesthetics · Art · Cheating · Content analysis · Deception · Frame (networking · Frame analysis · MAGIC (telescope · Psychic · Social science · Sociology · Telecommunications · Visual arts · Computer Science · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Psychology · Social Psychology

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