Dumbstruck : A Cultural History of Ventriloquism

A history of ventriloquism & the disembodied voice. Connor tracks his subject from its first recorded beginnings in ancient Israel & Greece, through the fulminations of early Christian writers against the unholy practices of pagan divination, the aberrations of the voice in mysticism, witchcraft & possession, & the strange obsession with the vagrant figure of the ventriloquist, conceived as male rather than female. He retrieves the stories of some of the most popular & versatile ventriloquists & polyphonists of the 19th century, & investigates the survival of ventriloquial delusions & desires & spiritualism & the modern-day technologies of the telephone, radio, film, & the Internet. Illus.Connor, Steven is the author of 'Dumbstruck : A Cultural History of Ventriloquism', published 2002 under ISBN 9780756756871 and ISBN 0756756871.