The
place of enchantment
British occultism and the culture of the modern
Owen, Alex
1948-
creator
text
bibliography
Electronic books.
ilu
Chicago, Ill
University of Chicago Press
c2004
2004
monographic
eng
1 online resource (xiv, 355 p.) : ill.
"By the end of the nineteenth century, Victorians were seeking rational explanations for the world in which they lived. The radical ideas of Charles Darwin had shaken traditional religious beliefs. Sigmund Freud was developing his innovative models of the conscious and unconscious mind. And anthropologist James George Frazer was subjecting magic, myth, and ritual to systematic inquiry. Why, then, in this quintessentially modern moment, did late-Victorian and Edwardian men and women become absorbed by metaphysical quests, heterodox spiritual encounters, and occult experimentation?" "In answering this question for the first time, The Place of Enchantment breaks new ground in its consideration of the role of occultism in British culture prior to World War I. Rescuing occultism from its status as an "irrational indulgence" and situating it at the center of British intellectual life, Owen argues that an involvement with the occult was a leitmotif of the intellectual avant-garde. Carefully placing a serious engagement with esotericism squarely alongside revolutionary understandings of rationality and consciousness, Owen demonstrates how a newly psychologized magic operated in conjunction with the developing patterns of modern life. She details such fascinating examples of occult practice as the sex magic of Aleister Crowley, the pharmacological experimentation of W.B. Yeats, and complex forms of astral clairvoyance as taught in secret and hierarchical magical societies like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn."--Jacket.
Culture and the occult at the fin de siècle -- Magicians of the new dawn -- Sexual politics -- Modern enchantment and the consciousness of the self -- Occult reality and the fictionalizing mind -- Aleister Crowley in the desert -- After Armageddon -- Occultism and the ambiguities of the modern.
Alex Owen.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-334) and index.
e-uk---
Occultism
Great Britain
History
19th century
19th century
Great Britain
History
Occultism
Philosophy
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT
Parapsychology
General
Occultisme
Cultuur
BF1429 .O94 2004eb
133/.0941/09034
Place of enchantment
Owen, Alex, 1948-
Chicago, Ill. : University of Chicago Press, c2004
(DLC) 2003006764
(OCoLC)51983432
9780226642031 (electronic bk.)
0226642038 (electronic bk.)
9780226642017 (alk. paper)
0226642011 (alk. paper)
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=312207
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=312207
N$T
100402
20150315092258.0
ocn593274241
eng