Playing the ghost : Ghost hoaxing and supernaturalism in late Ninteenth-Century Victoria

- Waldron, David

Title
Playing the ghost : Ghost hoaxing and supernaturalism in late Ninteenth-Century Victoria
Creator
Waldron, David
Date
2014
Type
Text; Journal article
Identifier
http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/102360
Identifier
vital:10795
Identifier
ISSN:1832-2522
Abstract
On the night of Wednesday 29 May 1895, two young ladies were approached by a spectral figure clad in black robes, with arms and face covered in phosphorescent paint. This individual frequently patrolled the area around Sturt Street and Dana Street in Ballarat attempting to harass young women. A search of newspaper articles from this period indicates a wide-spread proliferation of ghost hoaxing, referred to as ‘playing the ghost’, between the 1870s and World War I, with a particular focus on the Ballarat region in central Victoria. This extraordinary behaviour occurred in the context of the rising popularity of spiritualism, which challenged traditional notions of the role of the dead, as well as a similar proliferation of ghost and monster hoaxing in Britain, perhaps best exemplified by the character of Spring Heeled Jack. This paper examines the phenomenon of ghost hoaxing in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Victoria through its reportage in the print media of the era, with a focus on the causes and legacies of the phenomenon in the broader cultural context of central Victoria and the Goldfields region.
Publisher
Public Record Office Victoria
Relation
Provenance: The Journal of Public Record Office Victoria Vol. , no. 13 (2014), p.
Rights
Copyright © 2016 David Waldron
Rights
Open Access
Rights
This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
Subject
Ghost hoaxing; Supernaturalism; Nineteenth-century; Victoria
Full Text
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