Edited Book

The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947

Details

Citation

Ferguson C & Radford A (eds.) (2018) The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947. Among the Victorians and Modernists, 6. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Occult-Imagination-in-Britain-1875-1947/Ferguson-Radford/p/book/9781472486981

Abstract
Between 1875 and 1947, a period bookended, respectively, by the founding of the Theosophical Society and the death of notorious occultist celebrity Aleister Crowley, Britain experienced an unparalleled efflorescence of engagement with unusual occult schema and supernatural phenomena such as astral travel, ritual magic, and reincarnationism. Reflecting the signal array of responses by authors, artists, actors, impresarios and popular entertainers to questions of esoteric spirituality and belief, this interdisciplinary collection demonstrates the enormous interest in the occult during a time typically associated with the rise of secularization and scientific innovation. The contributors describe how the occult realm functions as a turbulent conceptual and affective space, shifting between poles of faith and doubt, the sacrosanct and the profane, the endemic and the exotic, the forensic and the fetishistic. Here, occultism emerges as a practice and epistemology that decisively shapes the literary enterprises of writers such as Dion Fortune and Arthur Machen, artists such as Pamela Colman Smith, and revivalists such as Rolf Gardiner

Notes
For University of Stirling researchers, this book is available via the library catalogue at: https://discoverlibrary.stir.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rb4249968

StatusPublished
EditorProfessor Christine Ferguson
Title of seriesAmong the Victorians and Modernists
Number in series6
Publication date31/03/2018
PublisherRoutledge
Publisher URLhttps://www.routledge.com/…ok/9781472486981
Place of publicationLondon
ISBN9781472486981
eISBN9781351168328

People (1)

People

Professor Christine Ferguson

Professor Christine Ferguson

Professor in English, English Studies