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- Title
'Improper Grimoires': Evelyn Underhill's Representation of Ritual Magic in The Column of Dust.
- Authors
Pazdziora, J Patrick
- Abstract
Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) is generally regarded as a piously Anglican writer; her interest in the occult is either elided or dismissed as unserious dabbling. An examination of her writings on the subject, however, reveals a keen, intelligent curiosity about the theory and practice of ritual magic. Underhill studied the occult in real depth, eventually fictionalising a conjuration in her novel The Column of Dust (1909). Underhill saw the occult not merely as the preserve of cranks and charlatans, but as a coherent system of belief which provided a sense of power and independence for women constrained by middle-class social structures.
- Subjects
COLUMN of Dust, The (Book); UNDERHILL, Evelyn; OCCULTISM; 20TH century literature; WOMEN'S writings
- Publication
Literature & Theology, 2019, Vol 33, Issue 1, p25
- ISSN
0269-1205
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1093/litthe/fry030