Spiritual Practitioners, Storytelling Markets, and the Economics of Consolation in Wharton's Postwar Fiction

Abstract:In this article, I look at how a particular type of fictional character that I refer to as a spiritual practitioner—a woman who presents herself as medium, clairvoyant, or spiritual guide and earns a living through that role—makes its way into Edith Wharton's postwar writing. In the first section of the article, I examine two works that suggest that issues of faith and power, both gendered and economic, are central to Wharton's postwar fiction: A Son at the Front and "The Looking Glass." Here I interrogate what I call the economics of consolation in these narratives, analyzing the arrangements—both emotional and financial—that spring up between Wharton's spiritual practitioners and the clients who seek comfort from them. In the second section, I show that Wharton is attuned to the dangers of occult economics, a claim I build through a reading of Hudson River Bracketed. Wharton uses the spiritual practitioner Grandma Scrimser to offer a meta-commentary on the spiritually bankrupt postwar publishing industry. Wharton parallels Grandma's career as an artist of sorts with that of Vance Weston, the more obvious author in the novel. As such, she invites us to read spiritual work as an allegory for modern authorship and readership.