Popular Occulture in Britain, 1875-1947
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Stirling
Department Name: English
Abstract
Often associated with secret forms of knowledge revealed only to carefully selected initiates, occultism might seem fundamentally opposed to the openness of popular culture. Nonetheless, during the massive "occult revival" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in which older forms of esoteric belief and practice-scrying, alchemy, astral travel, and ritual magic- were rehabilitated or invented anew, occult ideas and figures became the stuff of mass culture, featuring regularly in popular fiction, film, and theatre and permeating social movements and political debates. Our project seeks to explain how and why the occult became so central to the period's popular imagination. By focusing on the allure and reach of the occult in this period, our network aims to understand the relationship between popular culture, religious heterodoxy, and the public sphere more broadly.
The popular expressions of the occult revival can tell us much about the changing face of religious belief, literary taste, mass entertainment and public debate in the period of our study. Yet despite its crucial role as an index to changing religious, aesthetic, social attitudes, British popular occulture remains crucially understudied, often sidelined within humanities research to accounts of the reception of occultism within the avant garde cultures of modernism. Our network aims to redress this critical neglect by asking:
1) How and why did the occult ideas burst into the popular cultural mainstream during the period of our study?
2) What role did British popular occulture play in shaping ideas about social change, creativity, secularization, and the public sphere between 1875-1947?
3) What new perspectives on the stakes of popular occulture can be forged by bringing together scholars from across disciplines (history, literary, cultural, and periodical studies, theatre studies, religious studies) with librarians, curators, digital humanists, and non-academic holders of archives?
In asking these questions, we seek to break down the boundaries between esotericism and exotericism, between elite and the mass cultural forms, that have previously constrained studies of the occult revival.
To understand a subject as eclectic as popular occulture, it is necessary to take an interdisciplinary approach. The project brings together a range of scholars, curators, librarians, and non-academic holders of archives at three workshops, each focusing on a distinct interaction between occultism and British popular culture in the years between 1875-1947. The first will consider the encounter between the occult and popular fiction and entertainment; the second, the development of the occult public sphere through specialist periodicals and the reception of occultism in the mainstream press; the third, the contribution of occult ideas and proponents to popular social movements such as feminism, socialism, eugenics, and anti-imperialism. Academic participants will benefit from access to new disciplinary and methodological perspectives and the expertise of non-academic experts and stakeholders; curators, librarians, and archive holders will gain new angles on, and ways of contextualizing for the public, the rich popular legacy of the occult revival. All participants will benefit from the network's promotion and facilitation of international collaboration. The project will maintain a website and blog, enabling conversation to continue between workshops and extending the network beyond immediate participants; it will host visits to key occult archives and sites in Glasgow, Dublin, and London, thus encouraging knowledge exchange between scholars, curators, librarians, archive holders, and digital humanists; it will impact on exhibitions of occult archives and art; and it will produce an edited essay collection of selected workshop talks, constituting the first scholarly book to focus solely on the popular dimensions of the British occult revival.
The popular expressions of the occult revival can tell us much about the changing face of religious belief, literary taste, mass entertainment and public debate in the period of our study. Yet despite its crucial role as an index to changing religious, aesthetic, social attitudes, British popular occulture remains crucially understudied, often sidelined within humanities research to accounts of the reception of occultism within the avant garde cultures of modernism. Our network aims to redress this critical neglect by asking:
1) How and why did the occult ideas burst into the popular cultural mainstream during the period of our study?
2) What role did British popular occulture play in shaping ideas about social change, creativity, secularization, and the public sphere between 1875-1947?
3) What new perspectives on the stakes of popular occulture can be forged by bringing together scholars from across disciplines (history, literary, cultural, and periodical studies, theatre studies, religious studies) with librarians, curators, digital humanists, and non-academic holders of archives?
In asking these questions, we seek to break down the boundaries between esotericism and exotericism, between elite and the mass cultural forms, that have previously constrained studies of the occult revival.
To understand a subject as eclectic as popular occulture, it is necessary to take an interdisciplinary approach. The project brings together a range of scholars, curators, librarians, and non-academic holders of archives at three workshops, each focusing on a distinct interaction between occultism and British popular culture in the years between 1875-1947. The first will consider the encounter between the occult and popular fiction and entertainment; the second, the development of the occult public sphere through specialist periodicals and the reception of occultism in the mainstream press; the third, the contribution of occult ideas and proponents to popular social movements such as feminism, socialism, eugenics, and anti-imperialism. Academic participants will benefit from access to new disciplinary and methodological perspectives and the expertise of non-academic experts and stakeholders; curators, librarians, and archive holders will gain new angles on, and ways of contextualizing for the public, the rich popular legacy of the occult revival. All participants will benefit from the network's promotion and facilitation of international collaboration. The project will maintain a website and blog, enabling conversation to continue between workshops and extending the network beyond immediate participants; it will host visits to key occult archives and sites in Glasgow, Dublin, and London, thus encouraging knowledge exchange between scholars, curators, librarians, archive holders, and digital humanists; it will impact on exhibitions of occult archives and art; and it will produce an edited essay collection of selected workshop talks, constituting the first scholarly book to focus solely on the popular dimensions of the British occult revival.
Planned Impact
Our project will benefit users within and beyond the academy, including the general public. It will have impact on the following groups:
Curators and Artists: Francis McKee, Curator of Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts, and Marco Pasi, Religious Studies scholar and co-curator of occult art exhibits in Paris and Melbourne, will sit on the advisory board and participate in workshops; artist and RCA tutor Catherine Anyango and curator Pádraic Moore, although not official network members due to team size constraints, will attend workshops. The impact on arts professionals will come through knowledge exchange with the scholars and practitioners involved in the network. Moore, Pasi, and McKee both have curatorial interests in occultism and the visual arts; the workshops will impact on their interpretive strategy and on the planning of a pending CCA exhibition of occult-themed contemporary art planned for late 2018, after the cessation of network activities. The network will ultimately have impact on the CCA's visitors (approximately 320,000 a year). Anyango is a multi-media artist currently planning a drawing exhibition inspired by spirit photography and the history of psychical research; the network will impact on her selection and contextualization of source images, and thus on future viewers of her work.
Archivists and Librarians: The impact on archivists will be in the form of knowledge exchange with scholars and occult practitioners. Christopher Jossife, Philip Young (both London-based),and Julie Gardham (Glasgow) will attend their locations' workshops,benefiting from the expertise of participants who will themselves gain improved knowledge of occult collections. Network participation will allow archivists and librarians to understand the reach and relevance of British popular occulture, and consider ways in which their collections might be used in outreach activity to scholars and the wider public.
Non-Academic Holders of Archives: This project will include non-academic holders of significant private occult archives who will benefit from exchanging knowledge with network scholars.Erica Georgiades and Kevin Tingay are members of the Friends of the Theosophical Archives project; R.A. Gilbert is a prolific occult historian and holder of archives related to various early twentieth-century British occult organizations; Leslie Price contributes to the editing of Britain's longest running spiritualist newspaper Light and acts as archivist for the College of Psychic Studies's Library; Malcolm McQueen manages the Glasgow Theosophical Society and its library. All four will gain new viewpoints which will impact on their resource users; academic participants will in turn benefit from their knowledge of private occult archives.
GU Special Collections Exhibition:To coincide with the Glasgow workshop, Special Collections at GU will host an exhibition of selected late nineteenth and early twentieth-century works from its landmark Ferguson Collection (comprised of over 7,500 works alchemical,occult,and related literature).This activity and its accompanying online Flickr display will create knowledge exchange between archivists and scholars and raise awareness of the University's collections among visitors.
Website/Blog:This will impact on the general public by delivering an accessible, non-specialist account of the network and its activities. By linking into social media, it will advertise the project well beyond the academy. The site will host synopses of the workshops and allow the public to register for workshops (where space allows)or view recordings of talks and participant interviews from wherever they may be in the world. Recorded talks and interviews will be uploaded to YouTube and thus rendered available to users who may not have navigated through the central project website. Given the global accessibility of these outlets to web users, their potential impact is enormous;the site will track visitors with a hit counter.
Curators and Artists: Francis McKee, Curator of Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts, and Marco Pasi, Religious Studies scholar and co-curator of occult art exhibits in Paris and Melbourne, will sit on the advisory board and participate in workshops; artist and RCA tutor Catherine Anyango and curator Pádraic Moore, although not official network members due to team size constraints, will attend workshops. The impact on arts professionals will come through knowledge exchange with the scholars and practitioners involved in the network. Moore, Pasi, and McKee both have curatorial interests in occultism and the visual arts; the workshops will impact on their interpretive strategy and on the planning of a pending CCA exhibition of occult-themed contemporary art planned for late 2018, after the cessation of network activities. The network will ultimately have impact on the CCA's visitors (approximately 320,000 a year). Anyango is a multi-media artist currently planning a drawing exhibition inspired by spirit photography and the history of psychical research; the network will impact on her selection and contextualization of source images, and thus on future viewers of her work.
Archivists and Librarians: The impact on archivists will be in the form of knowledge exchange with scholars and occult practitioners. Christopher Jossife, Philip Young (both London-based),and Julie Gardham (Glasgow) will attend their locations' workshops,benefiting from the expertise of participants who will themselves gain improved knowledge of occult collections. Network participation will allow archivists and librarians to understand the reach and relevance of British popular occulture, and consider ways in which their collections might be used in outreach activity to scholars and the wider public.
Non-Academic Holders of Archives: This project will include non-academic holders of significant private occult archives who will benefit from exchanging knowledge with network scholars.Erica Georgiades and Kevin Tingay are members of the Friends of the Theosophical Archives project; R.A. Gilbert is a prolific occult historian and holder of archives related to various early twentieth-century British occult organizations; Leslie Price contributes to the editing of Britain's longest running spiritualist newspaper Light and acts as archivist for the College of Psychic Studies's Library; Malcolm McQueen manages the Glasgow Theosophical Society and its library. All four will gain new viewpoints which will impact on their resource users; academic participants will in turn benefit from their knowledge of private occult archives.
GU Special Collections Exhibition:To coincide with the Glasgow workshop, Special Collections at GU will host an exhibition of selected late nineteenth and early twentieth-century works from its landmark Ferguson Collection (comprised of over 7,500 works alchemical,occult,and related literature).This activity and its accompanying online Flickr display will create knowledge exchange between archivists and scholars and raise awareness of the University's collections among visitors.
Website/Blog:This will impact on the general public by delivering an accessible, non-specialist account of the network and its activities. By linking into social media, it will advertise the project well beyond the academy. The site will host synopses of the workshops and allow the public to register for workshops (where space allows)or view recordings of talks and participant interviews from wherever they may be in the world. Recorded talks and interviews will be uploaded to YouTube and thus rendered available to users who may not have navigated through the central project website. Given the global accessibility of these outlets to web users, their potential impact is enormous;the site will track visitors with a hit counter.
Organisations
| Description | The project has hosted all of its three planned workshops. The first, on "The Occult in Popular Fiction and Entertainments," was held at University College Dublin on November 25, 2016. Its most significant achievements include the hosting of talks by Professor Wouter Hanegraaff, Professor Richard Hand, Professor Nicholas Daly, Padraic Moore, Dr Patricia Pulham, Professor Darryl Jones, and Dr Steven Sutcliffe. It also featured a tour and reception of Dublin's Masonic Hall. The second, on Periodical Occulture and the Occult Public Sphere, was hosted at Birkbeck, University of London, on July 13, 2017. It featured talks by Professor Roger Luckhurst, Dr Robert Gilbert, Catherine Anyango, Professor Egil Asprem, Dr Nick Freeman, Dr Michael Shaw, and Marc Demarest. This event also included a participant tour of the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature at Senate House, and a walking tour of Occult Bloomsbury, led by Scott Wood of the Fortean Society. The final workshop, on the Occult and Popular Social Movements, was held at the University of Glasgow on June 29, 2018. It featured talks by Professor Henrik Bogdan, Professor Leigh Wilson, Dr Per Faxneld, Dr Simone Natale, Professor Dennis Denisoff, and Professor Owen Davies, and concluded with a public reading and reception with author Lorna Gibbing at the Glasgow Theosophical Society. All talks, along with speaker interviews, were uploaded to our project website. Some talks from the workshop were expanded into chapters in the project's main published output, the co-edited essay collection The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947, which appeared with Routledge in January of 2018. All award objectives for this part of the grant have been met. |
| Exploitation Route | Our findings might be put to use by archives and institutions related to the history of occultism in Britain, such as the Harry Price Library and the Theosophical Society in London; they might also be used to fuel new research networks and initiatives on British occult movements and their social impact, including the "The Science of Ghosts" and "The Cosmic Movement: Sources, Contexts, and Influences" projects in which the PI has been invited to participate. They will help to fuel the formation of new networks related to the literary reception and dissemination of occultism through the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, of which the PI is now an executive board member. Finally, they might be taken forward by radio and television broadcasters who present programmes on the British spiritualism and occultism for the general public. The PI is currently in discussion with the Science Museum Group and Senate House Library about a new Follow On Funding bid that will share our research with a wider public. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www.stir.ac.uk/popular-occulture-in-britain/ |
| Description | My research was featured on the Channel Four programme "Britain's Ancient Tracks with Tony Robinson," where it impacted public awareness of the impact of heterodox religious belief on the popular fiction of late Victorian Britain. In my appearance on the "Spirits in the Ether: Oliver Lodge and the Physics of the Spirit World," my research was used to change public understanding of the role of occultism in the history of modern physics. In an interview segment for BBC Radio 3's Freethinking, broadcast in May of 2018, the research was used to contextualised the recent manifestation of occult beliefs in populist political movements. Finally, as registered in our feedback questionnaires, the project's Birkbeck workshop on "Periodical Occulture and the Occult Public Sphere" changed audience member's understanding of the relationship between seemingly 'fringe' new religious beliefs and practices on the mainstream public sphere in Britain during the years of our studies. |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Cosmic Movement Network-- Ben Gurion University |
| Organisation | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev |
| Country | Israel |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | As a result of my research on popular literary occulture, I was invited to join a research network on the Cosmic Movement, based out of Ben Gurion University in Israel. I was invited to present at the networks' symposium in Beersheba last year and to submit a chapter to an edited volume on the movement. |
| Collaborator Contribution | This network is organised by Professor Boaz Huss, Dr Julie Chajes, and Asher Binyamin, all based at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. They organised the symposium at the Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought, which ran from March 20-22, 2017 and was sponsored by the Israel Science Foundation. Huss and Chajes are now co-editing an edited essay collection dedicated to movement in which I, and all of they, have a chapter. |
| Impact | Publication: Essay Collection The Cosmic Movement: Sources, Contexts, Impacts. Ed. Boaz Huss and Julie Chajes. Beersheba: Ben Gurion University Press, Forthcoming 2018. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Executive Board Membership |
| Organisation | European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism |
| Country | Sweden |
| Sector | Learned Society |
| PI Contribution | As a result of my activities in the Popular Occulture in Britain, 1875-1947 network, I was nominated to the Executive Board of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, as cross-European network of esotericism studies researchers who hold bi-annual conferences, run training events for postgraduate students, sponsor regional and thematic networks, and fund awards and bursaries for researchers in the field.As a board member, I participate in the governance of ESSWE, contribute to postgraduate training seminars, vet funding applications, and help to establish and promote new networks. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESWE) is a learned society established in 2005 to advance the academic study of the various manifestations of Western esotericism from late antiquity to the present and to secure the future development of the field. The ESSWE is an affiliated society of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) and a related scholarly organization of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). Among the activities of the ESSWE are: Organising an international conference every two years and an MA workshop in years in which there is no international conference; Promoting further contact and exchange among scholars by organizing regional and thematic networks; Promoting scholarly publications, notably the journal Aries and the Aries Book Series; Stimulating research and education through prizes and bursaries; Promoting academic debate, interdisciplinary and critical approaches, and the application of a variety of scholarly methods; Co-operating with other scholarly associations in and beyond Europe; Encouraging the appreciation of the historical, cultural and intellectual significance of Western esotericism by research institutions, scholarly policy makers, and the general public. |
| Impact | This organisation in indeed multidisciplinary, involving scholars from the fields of religious studies, sociology, literary studies, history, classics, music, and others. Its goal is to advance the academic study of the various manifestations of Western esotericism from late antiquity to the present and to secure the future development of the field. ESSWE pursues this outcome through a biannual international conference, a biannual thesis workshop for postgraduate students, through its journal (Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism) and newsletter, and through its travel bursaries and research awards. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement Bid Co-Development |
| Organisation | Science Museum Group |
| Department | The Science Museum |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Following the completion of this award in early 2019, I have co-developed an application to the AHRC Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement scheme, in collaboration with the Science Museum Group (Dr Efram Sera-Shriar as Co-I) and Senate House Library. I have designed the bid as PI and will lead the project. The application was submitted to the AHRC in January. 2020. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The SMG and Senate House Library have contributed staff time to the co-development of this bid, assisting with costings and event design, participating in in-person and phone interviews, and providing feedback and internal review of the application draft. |
| Impact | The main output at present is simply the grant application itself. If funded, this bid will will support the co-creation of a year-long events programme, the training of a PDRA, and the creation of new curatorial materials and impact data for both partners. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement Bid Co-Development |
| Organisation | University of London |
| Department | Senate House Library |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Following the completion of this award in early 2019, I have co-developed an application to the AHRC Follow-On Funding for Impact and Engagement scheme, in collaboration with the Science Museum Group (Dr Efram Sera-Shriar as Co-I) and Senate House Library. I have designed the bid as PI and will lead the project. The application was submitted to the AHRC in January. 2020. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The SMG and Senate House Library have contributed staff time to the co-development of this bid, assisting with costings and event design, participating in in-person and phone interviews, and providing feedback and internal review of the application draft. |
| Impact | The main output at present is simply the grant application itself. If funded, this bid will will support the co-creation of a year-long events programme, the training of a PDRA, and the creation of new curatorial materials and impact data for both partners. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Science of Ghosts Research Network |
| Organisation | Leeds Trinity University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I was invited to join "The Science of Ghosts" network, headed by Dr Efram Sera-Shriar. The aim of this group is to produce new research and forge collaborations that will lead to the submission of a large grant application on the subject of the scientific investigation of supernatural phenomena from 1800 to present. I gave a paper at the group's opening workshop in September of 2017 and participated in the subsequent workshop session dedicated to planning our first tranche of activities and funding strategy; I will also present a keynote lecture and the network's conference in the summer of 2019. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The network is headed by Dr Efram Sera-Shriar and includes partners such the Royal Institution and the Society for Psychical Research. Contributors include Professor Roger Luckhurst, Dr Richard Noakes, Professor Owen Davies, Dr Peter Lamont, and Professor Bernard Lightman.Planned activities include a series of three workshops, some essay collections, a public lecture, and a documentary. An initial team of Luckhurst, Morus, Lamont, and myself will contribute to a Focus section of Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, currently in preparation for submission. |
| Impact | This networks brings together scholars from history, English literature, philosophy, psychology, and film and media studies. A first workshop, entitled "The Science of Ghosts, 1800-Present" was held at Leeds Trinity University of September 15 2017. Published outcomes are still in the planning phase. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Interview for Television Programme (Britain's Ancient Tracks with Tony Robinson) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I appeared in Channel Four programme "Britain's Ancient Tracks with Tony Robinson," in which I was interviewed by Robinson about the influence of Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritualist faith on his literary practice, and about the presence of occult belief in late Victorian popular culture more broadly. The episode was aired on September 23 to an estimated audience of 2 million viewers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.channel4.com/programmes/britains-ancient-tracks-with-tony-robinson/on-demand/65993-001 |
| Description | Popular Occulture in Britain Workshop 2: Periodical Occulture and the Occult Public Sphere |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | "Periodical Occulture and the Occult Public Sphere," the second of our three project workshops, was held at Birkbeck, University of London on July 13, 2017. It featured 7 speakers from within and beyond the academy, including Professor Roger Luckhurst (Birkeck), multi-media artist Catherine Anyango (Konstfack, Stockholm), Marc Demarest (Founder of the International Association for the Preservation of Occult and Spiritualist Periodicals, U.S.A.), Dr Nick Freeman (Loughborough University), Dr Egil Asprem (Stockholm University), Dr Michael Shaw (University of Kent), and Dr Robert Gilbert (independent scholar). We reached our maximum audience capacity of 55, with attendees including postgraduate students, academics, journalists, representatives from funding bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, and members of local esoteric institutions such as the College of Psychic Studies and the London Theosophical Society. Some of the papers were expanded into chapters in our main project publication, The Occult Imagination in Britain, 1875-1947 (London: Routledge, 2018). Audience members noted on our response cards that the workshop had changed and improved their understanding of the topic. Speaker research interviews and talks were recorded and uploaded to the project website. The event also featured a tour of the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature in Senate House and walking tour of Occult Bloomsbury, conducted for workshop speakers by Scott Wood of the London Fortean Society. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.stir.ac.uk/popular-occulture-in-britain/workshops/periodical-occulture/ |
| Description | Speaker. Spirits in the Ether: Oliver Lodge and the Physics of the Spirit World. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was one of four speakers on a panel discussion entitled "Spirits in the Ether: Oliver Lodge and the Physics of the Spirit World," chaired by BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed and held at the Royal Institution on February 1, 2017.Oliver Lodge was a pioneering physicist of the 20th Century, who made key breakthroughs in the development of radio. However,in an age obsessed with communing with the dead sons of the First World War, Lodge, like his friend Arthur Conan Doyle, was also a committed spiritualist at the forefront of a scientific hunt for a spirit world. Our presentations were followed by a lively audience and sometimes heated discussion about the role of occult and heterodox spiritual belief in the history of science. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.rigb.org/whats-on/events-2017/february/public-spirits-in-the-ether |