10.01.2022

“Build Your Inner Strength: Through the Chinese Philosophy of Wang Yangming’s School of Mind” by Jueren Wang

Magick Matters

"Normality today is to be enslaved by the material world to the point where individual happiness has not kept pace with increasing material prosperity. Have we lost our original nature in the pursuit of the external material world? Wang Yangming's School of Mind of nearly 500 years ago teaches us how to overcome external circumstances and seek the source of the great strength that lies in our innermost being. Wang Yangming's School of Mind is a gathering together of the achievements of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. It is one of the most representative and influential strands of Chinese philosophical thought and proposes that "conscience" is a cosmic prime principle innate in man that transcends all...>>

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09.01.2022

“The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction” edited by Jerrold E. Hogle

Magick Matters

"Gothic as a form of fiction-making has played a major role in Western culture since the late eighteenth century. In this volume, fourteen world-class experts on the Gothic provide thorough and revealing accounts of this haunting-to-horrifying type of fiction from the 1760s (the decade of The Castle of Otranto, the first so-called 'Gothic story') to the end of the twentieth century (an era haunted by filmed and computerized Gothic simulations). Along the way, these essays explore the connections of Gothic fictions to political and industrial revolutions, the realistic novel, the theatre, Romantic and post-Romantic poetry, nationalism and racism from Europe to America, colonized and post-colonial populations, the rise of film and other visual technologies,...>>

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09.01.2022

“Gothic Machine: Textualities, Pre-cinematic Media and Film in Popular Visual Culture 1670-1910” edited by David J. Jones

Magick Matters

"Gothic Machine is a ground-breaking exploration of relations between Gothic literature, pre-cinematic media such as magic lanterns, phantasmagoria and dioramas and the first films 1670-1910. Starting with the earliest projections of horror images, continuing through the development of Gothic fiction and drama and closing with the first Frankenstein film, this study is a fascinating and pioneering evaluation of relations between these different media. As early as 1800, the Marquis de Sade identified Gothic novels such as The Monk and The Mysteries of Udolpho as ‘phantasmagoria’. This work explores the reasons why and, amongst the other mysteries broached en route is the reason that our first view of Dracula on English soil is described by...>>

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09.01.2022

“Demons of the Body and Mind: Essays on Disability in Gothic Literature” edited by Ruth Bienstock Anolik

Magick Matters

"The Gothic mode, typically preoccupied by questions of difference and otherness, consistently imagines the Other as a source of grotesque horror. The sixteen critical essays in this collection examine the ways in which those suffering from mental and physical ailments are refigured as Other, and how they are imagined to be monstrous. Together, the essays highlight the Gothic inclination to represent all ailments as visibly monstrous, even those, such as mental illness, which were invisible. Paradoxically, the Other also becomes a pitiful figure, often evoking empathy. This exploration of illness and disability represents a strong addition to Gothic studies."...>>

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09.01.2022

“The Suburban Gothic in American Popular Culture” by Bernice M. Murphy

Magick Matters

"From the beginning of the post-war era, suburbia has frequently served as a setting for narratives of fear, repression and horror. Why has this been the case? And what actually is the Suburban Gothic? Beginning with a discussion of Shirley Jackson's novel The Road Through the Wall (1948) and ending with Desperate Housewives (2004- ), this book discusses representative texts from each decade up to the present day. Each chapter provides a contextualising examination of the era and the cultural and historical contexts of its setting, thus providing a unique insight into the changing face of the suburbs and, by extension, of American society."...>>

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