R. F. Foster
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264249
- eISBN:
- 9780191734045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264249.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This lecture traces W. B. Yeats' preoccupation with the changing forms of death throughout his life, from his fin-de-siécle love-poetry to his poems of death. These poems of death were linked to his ...
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This lecture traces W. B. Yeats' preoccupation with the changing forms of death throughout his life, from his fin-de-siécle love-poetry to his poems of death. These poems of death were linked to his interest in Celtic legend, Irish intellectual influences and conjunctions, and magical ritual and psychic research. The lecture considers Yeats' approach to death in his later work, concluding with his creation of a structured canon of work in the light of his own death and the work that he wrote on his deathbed.Less
This lecture traces W. B. Yeats' preoccupation with the changing forms of death throughout his life, from his fin-de-siécle love-poetry to his poems of death. These poems of death were linked to his interest in Celtic legend, Irish intellectual influences and conjunctions, and magical ritual and psychic research. The lecture considers Yeats' approach to death in his later work, concluding with his creation of a structured canon of work in the light of his own death and the work that he wrote on his deathbed.
Pamela E. Klassen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226552569
- eISBN:
- 9780226552873
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226552873.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on how radio waves served as the central medium for Frederick Du Vernet’s late style spiritual politics. Combining the innovations of radio technology with what psychology was ...
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This chapter focuses on how radio waves served as the central medium for Frederick Du Vernet’s late style spiritual politics. Combining the innovations of radio technology with what psychology was newly revealing about the complexity of human consciousness, Du Vernet saw radio mind as opening up a new spiritual frequency for all. Based in part on the copious marginalia he left in his library of books focused on psychology, theology, and psychic research, including books by William James and Henri Bergson, the chapter tells the story of how he came to be convinced by the powers of telepathy as he grappled with debilitating illness. In a contrapuntal reading, the chapter parallels his “telepathic testimonies,” published in church and secular newspapers, with his letters to church and government officials in which he criticized the evils of residential schools for Indigenous children. Quoting the voices of Indigenous parents in his appeals to his Anglican colleagues in Toronto, Du Vernet highlighted the devastation wrought on parents and children when they were torn apart through the residential schooling system. At the same time that he wrote about the power of thoughts to travel across distance, he insisted on the importance of families in proximity.Less
This chapter focuses on how radio waves served as the central medium for Frederick Du Vernet’s late style spiritual politics. Combining the innovations of radio technology with what psychology was newly revealing about the complexity of human consciousness, Du Vernet saw radio mind as opening up a new spiritual frequency for all. Based in part on the copious marginalia he left in his library of books focused on psychology, theology, and psychic research, including books by William James and Henri Bergson, the chapter tells the story of how he came to be convinced by the powers of telepathy as he grappled with debilitating illness. In a contrapuntal reading, the chapter parallels his “telepathic testimonies,” published in church and secular newspapers, with his letters to church and government officials in which he criticized the evils of residential schools for Indigenous children. Quoting the voices of Indigenous parents in his appeals to his Anglican colleagues in Toronto, Du Vernet highlighted the devastation wrought on parents and children when they were torn apart through the residential schooling system. At the same time that he wrote about the power of thoughts to travel across distance, he insisted on the importance of families in proximity.
Pamela E. Klassen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226552569
- eISBN:
- 9780226552873
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226552873.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
Following the journey of an Anglican missionary across Indigenous land, this book examines how contests over the mediation of stories—via photography, maps, printing presses, and radio—lucidly reveal ...
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Following the journey of an Anglican missionary across Indigenous land, this book examines how contests over the mediation of stories—via photography, maps, printing presses, and radio—lucidly reveal the spiritual politics of colonial settlement. A city builder who bargained away Indigenous land to make way for the railroad, Archbishop Frederick Du Vernet (1860-1924) knew that he lived on the territory of Ts’msyen, Nisga’a, and Haida nations who had never ceded their land to the onrush of Canadian settlers. He condemned the devastating effects on Indigenous families of the residential schools run by his church while still serving that church in part through attending to settlers through “White Work.” At the same time, Du Vernet came to a “late style” embrace of psychic research—with a special focus on telepathy—as the path to understand the soul and to bring about social and political harmony. Testifying to the power of what he called radio mind, with evidence from the apostle Paul and the philosopher Henri Bergson, Du Vernet found a way to explain the world that he, his church, and his country made. Through Du Vernet’s imaginative experiment, we see how agents of colonialism built metaphysical traditions on land they claimed to have conquered. Expanding approaches to religion and media studies to ask how sovereignty is made through stories, this book shows how the spiritual invention of colonial nations takes place at the same time that Indigenous peoples—including Indigenous Christians—resist colonial dispossession through stories and spirits of their own.Less
Following the journey of an Anglican missionary across Indigenous land, this book examines how contests over the mediation of stories—via photography, maps, printing presses, and radio—lucidly reveal the spiritual politics of colonial settlement. A city builder who bargained away Indigenous land to make way for the railroad, Archbishop Frederick Du Vernet (1860-1924) knew that he lived on the territory of Ts’msyen, Nisga’a, and Haida nations who had never ceded their land to the onrush of Canadian settlers. He condemned the devastating effects on Indigenous families of the residential schools run by his church while still serving that church in part through attending to settlers through “White Work.” At the same time, Du Vernet came to a “late style” embrace of psychic research—with a special focus on telepathy—as the path to understand the soul and to bring about social and political harmony. Testifying to the power of what he called radio mind, with evidence from the apostle Paul and the philosopher Henri Bergson, Du Vernet found a way to explain the world that he, his church, and his country made. Through Du Vernet’s imaginative experiment, we see how agents of colonialism built metaphysical traditions on land they claimed to have conquered. Expanding approaches to religion and media studies to ask how sovereignty is made through stories, this book shows how the spiritual invention of colonial nations takes place at the same time that Indigenous peoples—including Indigenous Christians—resist colonial dispossession through stories and spirits of their own.
Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226403229
- eISBN:
- 9780226403533
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226403533.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
Chapter 9 explores the connections between the Vienna Circle of positivism and the esoteric milieu. It shows how the founders of logical positivism, such as Otto Neurath, presented their philosophy ...
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Chapter 9 explores the connections between the Vienna Circle of positivism and the esoteric milieu. It shows how the founders of logical positivism, such as Otto Neurath, presented their philosophy as a kind of magical revival. It also demonstrates that other positivists—such as Rudolf Carnap, Hans Hahn, and Kurt Gödel—had a pro-found preoccupation with ghosts and the paranormal. Taken as a whole, the book demonstrates how magic, like metaphysics, also haunts the beginnings of analytic philosophy. It also undoes notions of a dry and apolitical positivism, by describing positivist anti-metaphysics in terms of ideological critique.Less
Chapter 9 explores the connections between the Vienna Circle of positivism and the esoteric milieu. It shows how the founders of logical positivism, such as Otto Neurath, presented their philosophy as a kind of magical revival. It also demonstrates that other positivists—such as Rudolf Carnap, Hans Hahn, and Kurt Gödel—had a pro-found preoccupation with ghosts and the paranormal. Taken as a whole, the book demonstrates how magic, like metaphysics, also haunts the beginnings of analytic philosophy. It also undoes notions of a dry and apolitical positivism, by describing positivist anti-metaphysics in terms of ideological critique.
