Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond : Grappling with Ghosts

This book traces how iconic writers - including Arthur Conan Doyle, J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf, Wilfred Owen, and Aldous Huxley - shaped their response to the loss of loved ones in the First World War through their embrace of mysticism. How did people respond to the overwhelming loss of loved ones during the First World War? Many took their lead from iconic early twentieth-century writers, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf, Wilfred Owen, and Aldous Huxley, among others, who embraced some form of mysticism as a means of coping. These figures had experienced profound losses and even trauma in their early lives, sensitizing them to losses of loved ones during the war and making these writers receptive to the possibility of communicating with spirits. Most of these writers had become fascinated with the work of Frederic Myers and other key psychical researchers regarding potential extensions of personality, including telepathy, clairvoyance, and automatic writing, phenomena which supported the possibility that personality survived death. Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond skilfully weaves psychology, history, psychobiography and literary analysis to show that these writers' engagement with mysticism and spiritualism in particular was not deluded, but at least in some situations constituted a more ethical, creative and therapeutic form of mourning than drawing solace from state-sanctioned representations of mourning such as war memorials "Johnson uses attachment theory and object relations theory sensitively to explore the ways in which early responses to separation and loss influence writers' visions of art. The use of contemporary psychoanalytic theory is particularly valuable when exploring the literary and cultural implications of bereavement following World War One. To my knowledge, Johnson's book may well be the first to take this approach ... Johnson writes clearly and gracefully ..."--Jeffrey Berman, Professor of English, University at Albany, SUNY, USA "In Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond, George M. Johnson brings the literature of trauma and loss vividly to life. Johnson deftly reveals the illuminating ways in which a host of British writers drew upon their fascination with mysticism and spiritualism in order to fuel a literary corpus for the ages."--Kenneth Womack, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Penn State Altoona, USA "By resisting commonly held assumptions, Johnson demonstrates the value that mysticism held for literature and life in a post-World War I England experiencing a state of national mourning. In doing so, Johnson makes a revelatory contribution to our understanding of Edwardian and modernist literature."--Andrew J. Kunka, Professor of English, University of South Carolina Sumter, USA "How did people respond to the overwhelming loss of loved ones during the First World War? Many took their lead from iconic early twentieth-century writers, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, J.M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Woolf, Wilfred Owen, and Aldous Huxley, among others, who embraced some form of mysticism as a means of coping. These figures had experienced profound losses and even trauma in their early lives, sensitizing them to losses of loved ones during the war and making these writers receptive to the possibility of communicating with spirits. Most of these writers had become fascinated with the work of Frederic Myers and other key psychical researchers regarding potential extensions of personality, including telepathy, clairvoyance, and automatic writing, phenomena which supported the possibility that personality survived death. Mourning and Mysticism in First World War Literature and Beyond skilfully weaves psychology, history, psychobiography and literary analysis to show that these writers' engagement with mysticism and spiritualism in particular was not deluded, but at least in some situations constituted a more ethical, creative and therapeutic form of mourning than drawing solace from state-sanctioned representations of mourning such as war memorials"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction: Attachment, Mourning, and Mysticism....Pages 1-27 F. W. H. Myers: Loss and the Obsessive Study of Survival....Pages 28-59 Spirit Soldiers: Oliver Lodge’s Raymond and Christopher....Pages 60-85 From Parodist to Proselytizer: Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Vital Message”....Pages 86-123 “Well-Remembered Voices”: Mourning and Spirit Communication in Barrie’s and Kipling’s First World War Narratives....Pages 124-152 Mourning, the War, and the “New Mysticism” in May Sinclair and Virginia Woolf....Pages 153-186 Purgatorial Passions: “The Ghost” (aka Wilfred Owen) in Owen’s Poetry....Pages 187-200 “Misty-schism”: The Psychological Roots of Aldous Huxley’s Mystical Modernism....Pages 201-226 After-life/After-word: The Culture of Mourning and Mysticism....Pages 227-233 Back Matter....Pages 234-256