CALL FOR PAPERS: Decadence, Magic(k), and the Occult

Goldsmiths, University of London, 19-20 July 2018
Keynote speaker: Professor Patricia Pulham (University of Surrey)

Nineteenth-century Decadence coincided with a resurgence of esotericism, alternative religions, and a belief in magic as a rejection of secularism and science. Until now, this intersection has been most richly considered in relation to Catholicism. Most well-known is Huysmans’s tetralogy, which traces Durtal’s movement from the Black Mass to the monastery. However, Decadent literature has a much more complicated relationship with mystical, supernatural, and magical realms, one which extends beyond a simple rejection of Christian faith and has a legacy reaching beyond the long nineteenth century.

This two-day interdisciplinary conference is organized by the Decadence Research Unit at Goldsmiths. Our aim is to investigate the role of occultism and magic(k) in the Decadent literary and artistic tradition through a consideration of the relationship between Decadence and the esoteric revival of the fin de siècle, providing an opportunity to re-examine the Occult roots of Decadence and explore the wide range of artistic responses to the blurred boundaries between Decadence, mysticism, ritual, and the Dark Arts. Is the meeting of practical magic and literary esotericism indicative of a symbiotic relationship between Decadence and the Occult, or does it represent merely another aspect of the Decadent rejection of mainstream ideologies?

We welcome proposals on any aspect of Decadence from any era, in relation to magic(k) and the Occult. Papers (about 20 mins in length) might include discussion of, but are not limited to:

• Occult/Decadent poets: Charles Baudelaire, Remy de Gourmont, Arthur Rimbaud, Jean Lorrain
• Occult/Decadent artists: Henry de Groux, Jean Deville, Fernand Khnopff, Felicien Rops
• Great beasts: Aleister Crowley, Joséphin Péladan, W. B. Yeats
• Salons and sects: the Salon de la Rose+Croix, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Satanic and occult feminism: Berthe de Courrière, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Althea Gyles
• Big ‘Isms’: Spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, Neo-Paganism, Symbolism
• Freemasonry, Theosophy, and New Age Spirituality
• Aesthetic esotericism and Decadent occulture
• Geomancy and liminal spatiality
• Poetry and ritual magic(k)
• Occlusion and the ocular
• Music and mysticism
• Rituals and rivalries
• Incubi and succubi

Abstracts of 500 words plus brief biography should be sent to: dru@gold.ac.uk by 31st March 2018

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural

"Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural" an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal published biannually by Penn State Press, actively seeks submissions of articles and will consider proposals for special themed issues, subject to review.

"Preternature" provides an interdisciplinary, inclusive forum for the study of topics that stand in the liminal space between the known world and the inexplicable across cultures and historical periods. The journal embraces a broad and dynamic definition of the preternatural that encompasses the weird and uncanny-magic, witchcraft, spiritualism, occultism, esotericism, demonology, monstrophy, and more, recognizing that the areas of magic, religion, and science are fluid and that their intersections should continue to be explored, contextualized, and challenged.

Visit the journal website at:

https://www.editorialmanager.com/preternature/default.aspx

Or contact the editor, Debbie Felton (Classics, Univ. of Mass), felton@classics.umass.edu for further details.

Magic and Intellectual History

Thursday 5th March 2015 - CREMS, University of York

A day symposium – Keynote speaker: Dr Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck)

This symposium will explore the place of magic in the intellectual culture of early modern England and Europe. It will focus on how magic was perceived and understood in philosophical, religious and scientific thought, and the ambivalence that surrounded it as topics of scholarship.

Papers might attend to the following:

• How did early modern thought accommodate magic into its disciplines?
• Why was magic the object of so much ‘elite’ scientific and philosophical thought?
• Magic and the study of nature
• Magic and the ineffable
• Redefining the parameters of magic
• Magic and religion.
• The occult and hidden operations of nature
• Scepticism and magical thought
• Magic and language / magic and metaphor
• Literature and the portrayal of magic
• Magic and the devil
• Magicians and their day-jobs.

Call for Papers: Abstracts by 15th October (c. 250 words)

Contact: Kevin Killeen, kevin.killeen@york.ac.uk

This symposium is part of a diffuse and ongoing Thomas Browne Seminar that has digressed quite far: http://www.york.ac.uk/english/news-events/browne/


Overview

The Thomas Browne Seminar is a forum for exploring the intellectual history of the seventeenth century, the relations between its apparently incompatible disciplines and the social, scientific and political contexts in which they arose. It is not, by any means, restricted to Thomas Browne himself, but also examines more broadly the intellectual culture in the mid-seventeenth century.

Papers are invited on any aspect of mid-century culture, the history of science and scholarship, religious and antiquarian thought, natural history, politics and the history of trivia, in particular, but not restricted to, those related to Browne. As the seminar will involve an ongoing series of meetings, ideas for future seminars are also invited.

The TBS is run jointly by the Department of English and Related Literature and the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. Thomas Browne was a significant figure in the scholarly and scientific community of the seventeenth century, who nevertheless defies categorisation and whose blend of humanism, scholasticism and natural philosophy is testament to the intellectual flux of the period.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Magic and Intellectual History

Thursday 5th March 2015 - CREMS, University of York

A day symposium – Keynote speaker: Dr Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck)

This symposium will explore the place of magic in the intellectual culture of early modern England and Europe. It will focus on how magic was perceived and understood in philosophical, religious and scientific thought, and the ambivalence that surrounded it as topics of scholarship.

Papers might attend to the following:

• How did early modern thought accommodate magic into its disciplines?
• Why was magic the object of so much ‘elite’ scientific and philosophical thought?
• Magic and the study of nature
• Magic and the ineffable
• Redefining the parameters of magic
• Magic and religion.
• The occult and hidden operations of nature
• Scepticism and magical thought
• Magic and language / magic and metaphor
• Literature and the portrayal of magic
• Magic and the devil
• Magicians and their day-jobs.

Call for Papers: Abstracts by 15th October (c. 250 words)

Contact: Kevin Killeen, kevin.killeen@york.ac.uk

This symposium is part of a diffuse and ongoing Thomas Browne Seminar that has digressed quite far: http://www.york.ac.uk/english/news-events/browne/



Overview

The Thomas Browne Seminar is a forum for exploring the intellectual history of the seventeenth century, the relations between its apparently incompatible disciplines and the social, scientific and political contexts in which they arose. It is not, by any means, restricted to Thomas Browne himself, but also examines more broadly the intellectual culture in the mid-seventeenth century.

Papers are invited on any aspect of mid-century culture, the history of science and scholarship, religious and antiquarian thought, natural history, politics and the history of trivia, in particular, but not restricted to, those related to Browne. As the seminar will involve an ongoing series of meetings, ideas for future seminars are also invited.

The TBS is run jointly by the Department of English and Related Literature and the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. Thomas Browne was a significant figure in the scholarly and scientific community of the seventeenth century, who nevertheless defies categorisation and whose blend of humanism, scholasticism and natural philosophy is testament to the intellectual flux of the period.