Phantasmagoria by Marina Warner
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 are 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 also 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 the many eminent men and women -- scientists and philosophers -- who in the Society of Psychical Research applied their considerable energies to the question of other worlds and other states of mind: they staged trance seances in which mediums produced spirit phenomena, including ectoplasm. The book shows how this often embarrassing story connects with some of the important scientific discoveries of a fertile age, in psychology and physics. Over a sequence of twenty-eight chapters, with over thirty illustrations in colour and black and white, Phantasmagoria thus tells an unexpected and often uncomfortable story about shifts in thought about consciousness and the individual person, from the first public waxworks portraits at the end of the eighteenth century to stories of hauntings, possession, and loss of self as in the case of the zombie, a popular figure of soulessness, in modern times.
Warner's writing has a touch of Jorge Luis Borges's mischievousnessRichard Mabey, Guardian Books of the Year Her dazzling deconstructions of myths and folk tales [are] always touched with a few spells of her own. Richard Mabey, Guardian Books of the Year ...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 Splendidly vivid pictorial evocations...it is a bold, imaginative and provocative study, with a range few other writers would dare.
Marina Warner is a novelist, critic, and cultural historian. Indigo and The Lost Father (winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize) are two of her novels, as well as Mermaids in the Basement, a collection of short tales. Alone of All Her Sex, Monuments and Maidens, Joan of Arc, From the Beast to the Blonde, No Go The Bogeyman, and Managing Monsters (1994 Reith Lectures) are among her notable nonfiction works.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780199299942 |
| ISBN 10 | 0199299943 |
| Title | Phantasmagoria |
| Author | Marina Warner |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 2006-10-12 |
| Number of pages | 496 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |