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by Leigh Wilson (Author)
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.
Back Jacket
Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernist Culture This new series of monographs reflects the range of recent research in modernist studies, contributing to the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural expansion of the field. Series Editors: Tim Armstrong, Royal Holloway, University of London and Rebecca Beasley, Queen's College, University of Oxford '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.' Stephen Ross, University of Victoria. '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.' Helen Carr, Goldsmiths, University of London 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 an attempt to draw on a hidden history of ideas, Modernism and Magic argues that occult discourses have at their heart a magical practice which attempts to remake the relationship between world and representation. As Leigh Wilson demonstrates, the discourses 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. It is this magical mimesis that proved so attractive and productive for those early twentieth-century artists committed to remaking writing, the visual arts and film. Wilson explores the aesthetic and political implications of the relationship between magic and mimesis 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. Leigh Wilson is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Westminster. She publishes on modernism and contemporary British fiction. Cover image: cover of 'Transition' number 18 November 1929 (c) The British Library Board. Shelfmark: CUP.400.a.30. Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com
Author Biography
Leigh Wilson is Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Westminster. She publishes on modernism and contemporary British fiction.
