Wooffitt2008

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Wooffitt2008
BibType ARTICLE
Key Wooffitt2008
Author(s) Robin Wooffitt, Hannah Gilbert
Title Discourse, Rhetoric, and the Accomplishment of Mediumship in Stage Demonstrations
Editor(s)
Tag(s) stage mediumship, spirit communication, rhetoric
Publisher
Year 2008
Language
City
Month
Journal Mortality
Volume 13
Number 3
Pages 222–240
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/13576270802181616
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This paper examines the use of language in stage demonstrations of mediumship in secular contexts, such as in civic halls or hotel conference/function rooms. Focusing on demonstrations by one of the UK's leading mediums, we examine how the organization of the introduction to the demonstration works to establish a set of inferential preconditions in the audience: tacit expectations and norms which shape the audience's interpretation of subsequent events and participation in such a way as to enhance the sense that spirit communication is occurring and which, therefore, favourably dispose the audience to the reality of the medium's purported mediumship powers. In this, our study explores some properties of the discursive, rhetorical, and performative underpinnings of demonstration of mediumship and interaction with the spirits.

Notes