Modernism and Magic
Experiments with Spiritualism, Theosophy and the Occult
Published on 1. October 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-7486-2770-7 (ISBN)
Description
Explores the interplay between modernist experiment and occult discourses in the early twentieth century
While modernism's engagement with the occult has been approached by critics as the result of a loss of faith in representation, an attempt to draw on science as the primary discourse of modernity, or as a hidden history of ideas, Leigh Wilson argues that these discourses have at their heart a magical practice which remakes the relationship between world and representation. As Wilson demonstrates, the courses of the occult are based on a magical mimesis which transforms the nature of the copy, from inert to vital, from dead to alive, from static to animated, from powerless to powerful.
Wilson explores the aesthetic and political implications of this relationship in the work of those writers, artists and filmmakers who were most self-consciously experimental, including James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Dziga Vertov and Sergei M. Eisenstein.
While modernism's engagement with the occult has been approached by critics as the result of a loss of faith in representation, an attempt to draw on science as the primary discourse of modernity, or as a hidden history of ideas, Leigh Wilson argues that these discourses have at their heart a magical practice which remakes the relationship between world and representation. As Wilson demonstrates, the courses of the occult are based on a magical mimesis which transforms the nature of the copy, from inert to vital, from dead to alive, from static to animated, from powerless to powerful.
Wilson explores the aesthetic and political implications of this relationship in the work of those writers, artists and filmmakers who were most self-consciously experimental, including James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Dziga Vertov and Sergei M. Eisenstein.
Reviews / Votes
[A] valuable contribution towards a deeper understanding of the interrelatedness of occult discourses and those of modernist art. -- Tessel M. Bauduin * Cultural History * [A] valuable contribution towards a deeper understanding of the interrelatedness of occult discourses and those of modernist art. The connection she establishes between modernism's problem of mimesis and its recourse to the magical as a solution is convincingly argued. -- Tessel M. Bauduin, University of Amsterdam * Cultural History, Volume 4, no 2 * "In this provocative and engaging book, Leigh Wilson finds magic at the heart of modernism. Looking afresh at its fascination with the occult, she suggests that modernist writers and filmmakers drew on magical thinking in their experimental art to create works that radically transformed the world they knew."Professor Helen Carr, Goldsmiths, University of London "This is a major contribution not only to our understanding of modernism's fascination with the supernatural, but of modernism's fundamental investment in modern magic. It breaks new ground by considering magic's importance for filmmakers and artists, novelists and poets. It is the most important book on the topic in over a decade."Dr Stephen Ross, University of Victoria * Dr Stephen Ross, University of Victoria and Professor Helen Carr, Goldsmiths, University of London * I learned a great deal in reading Modernism and Magic and recommend it unreservedly to anyone interested in modernism and the occult. -- LEE GARVER, Butler University * ELT 57 : 4 * Wilson's text provides an excellent rereading of modernism in the context of magic. It offers the reader wonderful background on a number of modernist authors and filmmakers. -- Erin Hollis, California State University * James Joyce Quarterly, 50.4 * The greatest achievement of this book lies in its opening up an area of intellectual activity that hitherto has been underestimated, under-respected, and even viewed as dubious, despite the fact that it is of crucial importance for the development of the arts and thought of the twentieth century (continuing to this day). -- Thomas Steinfeld * Modernism/modernity, Volume 21, Number 1 *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-2770-7 (9780748627707)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Leigh Wilson is Reader in Modern Literature in the Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster. Her research focuses on modernism, on the place of supernatural and occult beliefs and practices in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and on the contemporary British novel. She is the author of Modernism and Magic: Experiments with Spiritualism, Theosophy and the Occult (EUP, 2013).
Content
Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter 1: 'But the facts of life persist': Magic, Experiment and the Problem of Representing the World Otherwise; Chapter 2: 'And what has all this to do with experimental writing?': Words and Ghosts; Chapter 3: A 'subtle metamorphosis': Sound, Mimesis and Transformation; Chapter 4: 'Here is where the magic is': Telepathy and Experiment in Film; Chapter 5: 'Disney against the metaphysicals': Eisenstein, Pound, Ectoplasm and the Politics of Animation; Bibliography; Index.