Enchantment and Enquiry in Modern(ish) Writing 1900-60

Level 6 (30 credits)

Subject Area:
Modernism and the Early Twentieth Century

Modernist literature has often been assumed to be thoroughly disenchanted in character. But as this overlooks the close relationship of magical, supernatural and spiritual discourses with scientific and rational enquiry in the first half of the twentieth century. This module explores writers who blur the boundaries between 'official' and 'heterodox' knowledges and disciplines and, in so doing, interrogate and contest liberal, technological, environmental, nationalist and colonialist narratives of progress. Ranging over diverse works and genres including ghost stories, modern-day fables and folk-tales, speculative fiction, experimental literature and autobiography, this module explores how and and why modern texts imagine the re-enchantment of the world.

Preparing for this Module and Approximate Costs

The preparatory reading is optional but you may wish to get a head start on some of the novels and short stories before the beginning of the second semester. For a general introduction to the topic of this module I recommend Roger Luckhurst's 'Religion, Psychical Research, Spiritualism and the Occult' listed in the secondary reading below.

Selected primary texts

Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes (1926). Novel available from Virago Modern Classics new or second hand.

E.M. Forster, 'The Story of A Panic', and 'The Celestial Omnibus' from The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories (1912). Short stories available online from Project Gutenberg.

M.R. James, 'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad' (1904). Short story included in many collections of James's stories and available online from Project Gutenberg Canada

Zora Neale Hurston, 'Spunk' (1926). Short story in Zora Neale Hurston: The Complete Short Stories available second hand or in Spunk: The Selected Short Stories of Zora Neal Hurston (Camden Press, 1987) in the QMUL library.

H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr Moreau

Selected secondary texts

Roger Luckhurst, 'Religion, Psychical Research, Spiritualism and the Occult' in The Oxford Handbook to Modernisms, ed. Gasiorek, Longworth and Thacker(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) pp. 429-444. Short introduction available in hardcopy or online as a pdf from Queen Mary library.

Alex Owen, The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern (Chicago University Press, 2004). I recommend the introduction to this book which is available in hard copy or as an ebook from QMUL library.

Sigmund Freud, 'The Future of an Illusion' (1927). Short book widely available online and published in a new translation in the Penguin Great Ideas series in 2008.

The majority of short primary texts on this module are digitised and available from QMUL library, Senate House Library or the QMplus page. The cost of novels especially if you buy them second hand should not exceed £25. There will be a module visit/walk which will be free to attend. A good source of second hand texts is abebooks

Why take
Enchantment and Enquiry in Modern(ish) Writing 1900-60
?

discover a range of modern texts engaging with magic, alternative religions, spirituality, the occult and/or scientific enquiry and argument
explore the interchange between 'official' and heterodox knowledges and ask what counts as legitimate scholarship
learn about diverse and competing narratives of secularization and histories of modernity

Learning Context	Long Seminar + Workshop (or equivalent)
Semester	Two
Assessment	Group presentation, 10% Written Assignment 1, 30% Written Assignment 2, 60%
Mode of reassessment	Standard
Contact	Suzanne Hobson

Content Notes

English Modules

Department of English UG Module Directory (2024)

ESH6096

Enchantment and Enquiry in Modern(ish) Writing 1900-60

Level 6 (30 credits)