Wilson Leigh. Modernism and Magic: Experiments with Spiritualism, Theosophy and the Occult

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013. — viii, 187 p. — (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernist Culture). — ISBN 978-0-7486-2769-1.Across Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the "unseen" returned in very particular ways: in a resurgence of interest in mysticism of all kinds, in the pursuit of occult knowledge and practices, and in the investigation of psychic phenomenon. While a number of scholars have described links between modernism and aspects of spiritualism, the occult, and mysticism, their discussions have left unanswered the question of what place the unseen world as a whole occupies. By looking at the occult, spiritualism and mysticism in one frame, this book argues that the unseen figures modernism's yearning for that which is beyond the materiality of the text, whether that "text" be printed words on a page, paint on canvas, or the effects of light fixed on a screen.Series Editors’ Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
‘But the facts of life persist’: Magic, Experiment and the Problem of Representing the World Otherwise.
‘And what has all this to do with experimental writing?’: Words and Ghosts.
A ‘subtle metamorphosis’: Sound, Mimesis and Transformation.
‘Here is where the magic is’: Telepathy and Experiment in Film.
‘Disney against the metaphysicals’: Eisenstein, Pound, Ectoplasm and the Politics of Animation.
Bibliography.
Index.