List of Figures
List of Additional Online Material
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Katharina Rein
Part I: The Epistemology and Aesthetics of Illusions
1. Optical Illusion and Standing Appearance in Kant and Johann Heinrich Lambert
Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky
2. From Magic to Illusions: The Power of the Virtual
Tom Gunning
3. Illusions, Magic and the Aesthetics of the Impossible
Thomas Fraps
Part II: Illusions in Entertainment
4. Magic and Illusion: From the Tarot to Playing Cards
Joyce Goggin
5. “The Vanishing Lady”, the Railway, and Illusions of Movement
Katharina Rein
6. Magic, Spiritualism and Cinema: Viewing Dispositives and Illusionist Spectacles in France in the Early Twentieth Century
Mireille Berton
7. Deceptive Strategies in the Miniature Illusions of Close-Up Magic
Wally Smith
Part III: Illusions of the Senses and the Mind
8. Perspective, Illusory Space, and Communication: The Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius by Andrea Pozzo
Matteo Flavio Mancini
9. Talking Rocks, Illusory Sounds, and Projections of the Otherworld: Acoustics of Sacred Sites as a Magic Media in Shamanic Cultures
Julia Shpinitskaya and Riitta Rainio
10. The Vortex Atoms: On Illusions in Science and the Role of Mathematical Vision
Gabriele Gramelsberger
Index
Biography
Katharina Rein currently works as Lecturer at the University of Potsdam (Germany). She holds a doctoral degree in Cultural History and Theory from the Humboldt-University of Berlin. Her award-winning dissertation examines the media and cultural history of stage magic in the late nineteenth century. Her academic work has been published in four languages.






