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Also Recommended
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The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis
Michael Ward
£22.50
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Phantasmagoria
Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century
Marina Warner
496 pages
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8pp color plates, numerous halftones
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234x156mm
978-0-19-923923-8
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Paperback
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13 March 2008
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- A fascinating study of psychic phenomena and the power of the imagination, interweaving theology, metaphysics, art, literature, and film
- Ranges from the Enlightenment, through Victorian séances and the Society of Psychical Research, to modern science and science fictions
- Offers a context for thinking about the influence of the mass media on ideas about existence and reality
- Provides a background to the current crazes for Harry Potter, Tolkien, and Narnia
- Richly illustrated in colour and black and white with highly original material, featuring apparitions, illusions, and other strange and wondrous experiences
Phantasmagoria explores ideas of spirit and soul since the Enlightenment; it traces metaphors that have traditionally conveyed the presence of immaterial forces, and reveals how such pagan and Christian imagery about ethereal beings is embedded in a logic of the imagination, clothing spirits in the languages of air, clouds, light and shadow, glass, and ether itself.
Moving from Wax to Film, the book discusses key questions of imagination and cognition, and probes the perceived distinctions between fantasy and deception; it uncovers a host of spirit forms — angels, ghosts, fairies, revenants, and zombies — that are still actively present in contemporary culture. It reveals how their transformations over time illuminate changing
idea about the self. Phantasmagoria also tells the accompanying story about the means used to communicate such ideas, and relates how the new technologies of the Victorian era were applied to figuring the invisible and the impalpable, and how magic lanterns (the phantasmagoria shows themselves), radio, photography and then moving pictures spread ideas about spirit forces.
As the story unfolds, the book features many eminent scientists and philosophers who applied their considerable energies to the question of other worlds and other states of mind: they staged trance séances in which mediums produced spirit phenomena, including ectoplasm. Phantasmagoria shows how this often surprising story connects with some of the important scientific discoveries of a fertile age,
in psychology and physics, and continues to influence contemporary experience.
Readership: Scholars, students, writers, artists, and general readers interested in art, literature, and the supernatural.
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Marina Warner, Writer and Critic; Professor of Literature, University of Essex
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"Rigorous research, dazzling cross-disciplinary leaps ... her passion seeps right through to the last page." - Observer Review.
"The sprawl of Warner's thesis is slightly overwhelming but her passion seeps right through to the last page." - Observer.
Review(s) from previous edition
"...often manages splendidly vivid pictorial evocations ... a bold, imaginative and provocative study, with a range few other writers would dare. - Carolyne Larrington, Times Literary Supplement
"The general effect is rather like that of reading through a first-class encyclopedia." - Nigel Barley, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Frighteningly literate and well-informed" - Roz Kaveney, Time Out
"Marina Warner is particularly well-equipped to conduct this investigation" - Steven Connor, The Independent
"She is exquisitely alive not just to ideas and arguments, but also to the jag and whiff and tang of things" - Steven Connor, The Independent
"Phantasmagoria is a cabinet of familiar wonders: a jetting, generous, humane spree of thought, richly quickened by the life it finds within us and adroad, in our media and machineries of mind." - Steven Connor, The Independent
"As always Warner's scholarship, eclecticism and inventiveness dazzle." - Bel Mooney, The Times
"It is a book of wonders." - Hilary Mantel,The Guardian
"Phantasmagoria is a fascinating history of spirited bodies and haunted machines, but a reminder too of why the metaphors still get under our skin" - Brian Dillon, Daily Telegraph
"This book's enquiries are wide-ranging, pertinent and up-to- date. All Marina Warner's material is freshly and enticingly presented." - The Guardian, Hilary Mantel
"This book is a powerful statement." - Hilary Mantel,The Guardian
"Marina Warner is particularly well-equipped to conduct this investigation." - Stephen Connor, The Independent
"A densely layered book" - Mike Dash, Sunday Telegraph
"She is exquisitely alive not just to ideas and arguments, but also to the jag and whiff and tang of things." - Stephen Connor, The Independent
"Phantasmagoria is a cabinet of familiar wonders: a jetting, generous, humane spree of thought, richly quickened by the life it finds within us and abroad, in our media and machineries of mind." - Stephen Connor, The Independent
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Prologue
Introduction: The Logic of the Imaginary
I. Wax
1: Living Likenesses, Death Masks
2: Anatomies and Heroes: Madame Tussaud's
3: On the Threshold: Sleeping Beauties
II. Air
4: The Breath of Life
5: Winged Spirits and Sweet Airs
III. Clouds
6: Clouds of Glory
7: Fata Morgana
8: Very Like a Whale . . .
IV. Light
9: The Eye of the Imagination
10: Fancy's Images; Insubstantial Pageants
V. Shadow
11: Phantasmagoria or, Darkness Visible
12: The Origin of Painting or, the Corinthian Maid
VI. Mirror
13: The Danger in the Mirror: Narcissus
14: Double Vision
15: The Camera Steals the Soul
VII. Ghost
16: 'Stay This Moment': Julia Margaret Cameron and Charles Dodgson
17: Spectral Rappers, Psychic Photographers
18: Phantoms to the Test: The Society for Psychical Research
VIII. Ether
19: Soul Vibrations or, The Fluidic Invisible
20: Time Travel and Other Selves
21: Exotic Visitors, Multiple Lives
22: Touching the Unknown
IX. Ectoplasm
23: Materializing Mediums: The Quest for Ectoplasm
24: The Rorschach Test, or Dirty Pictures
X. Film
25: Nice Life, an Extra's
26: Disembodied Eyes: The Culture of Apocalypse
27: Our Zombies, Our Selves
Conclusion
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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